Synchronous communication using voice and text

Abstract

A computing device is described that accepts, a telephone call, from another device, initiated by a caller. Prior to establishing a telephone user interface that receives spoken input from the user and outputs spoken audio from the caller, the computing device executes a call screening service that outputs an audio user interface, to the other device and as part of the telephone call. The audio user interface interrogates the caller for additional information including a purpose of the telephone call, which allows the user to have more context of the telephone call before deciding whether to accept the call or hang up. The computing device outputs a graphical user interface associated with telephone call. The graphical user interface includes an indication of the additional information obtained via the audio user interface that interrogates the caller.

Description

Background technique [0001] Some spam and nuisance callers use sophisticated techniques to avoid spam detection systems. As a result, users may receive unwanted phone calls originating from unknown or unfamiliar phone numbers. Even when an incoming phone call originates from a familiar phone number, the purpose of the phone call may not always be clear. That is, a user may lack sufficient information to decide whether to answer, ignore or reject an incoming call. As such, many users simply do not answer phone calls, especially from unknown numbers, as a matter of course. Contents of the invention [0002] In general, the techniques of this disclosure enable a form of synchronous communication that uses a combination of voice and text. Example Call Screening Service (CSS) Screens incoming phone calls by asking callers about the purpose of their call before or instead of enabling direct voice communication between caller and user call. The example CSS can generally be exe...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

That is, users may lack sufficient information to decide whether to answer, ignore, or reject an incoming call

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