3GSM: Glenayre exploring active messaging

Glenayre has developed an active messaging solution that allows users to interact with voice and video messages. Glenayre plans to roll out the new platform, called Versera Active Messaging, at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, later this month.

Glenayre officials said most multimedia messaging solutions are static, meaning a user accesses a message, listens to it or watches it, and when the message is concluded takes some action, such as forwarding it to a friend, downloading associated content or purchasing some service. Glenayre’s new system now claims to embed those capabilities into the message itself, eliminating the need for extra follow-through.

“Imagine a subscriber who has signed up for a ringtone service,” Glenayre Messaging Vice President of Product Management Mark Yaphe said in a statement. “Not only can that subscriber opt-in to receive and listen to a weekly top-ten ringtone in their mailbox, but now with Active Messaging they can order it, order the artist’s CD, preview and purchase a video clip of the song, listen to other ringtones by the artist, or send the ringtone to friends. All while reviewing the ringtone delivered to their mailbox.”

Yaphe said that voice and messaging mailboxes are one of the most accessed features on any customer’s mobile subscription and hence is one the most familiar touch points between an operator and its subscribers. Yet it’s a relationship that has been far underutilized, he said. While other features on the phone have been inextricably linked to one another, the typical voicemail box sits apart as an isolated application that can’t be linked back to other data features of the phone or network.

The system doesn’t require a handset upgrade, Yaphe said. The platform embeds application logic directly into the message, which customers can then manipulate with a standard keypad interface.