Data and call routing and forwarding

摘要

A system and method for determining an order in which to communicate with a list of numbers and/or addresses for a particular contact is disclosed. Each caller that communicates with the contact may specify a different order for the contact's various phone numbers and other addresses. A communication management system may then automatically dial the numbers or use messaging addresses to initiate data communications in the specified order when the initiating party attempts to communicate with the contact. The order may specify simultaneous and/or sequential use of numbers or addresses. Alternatively or additionally, the communication management system may dynamically and/or automatically determine the communication order or a portion thereof. The automatic determination of the order may be based on a communication history or communication receiving of the initiating party. In some arrangements, the order may be partially manually defined and partially automatically defined.

主权项

1. A method, implemented by one or more computing devices, comprising:
receiving a request from a first user to initiate a communication session between the first user and a contact, wherein the contact is associated with a plurality of communication addresses; identifying, in a communication history of the first user, a plurality of instances when the first user initiated communication with the contact by using at least a first communication address; selecting a first instance, of the plurality of instances, when the first user initiated communication with the contact, wherein the selecting is based at least in part on a first characteristic, and wherein the first characteristic comprises a similarity between a time of day associated with the first instance and a time of day of the requested communication session; determining a first portion of the communication history, wherein the first portion of the communication history is defined by a first predefined time period before a time corresponding to the selected first instance and a second predefined time period after the time corresponding to the selected first instance; determining one or more additional instances, within the first portion of the communication history, when the first user initiated communication with the contact; using the first portion of the communication history to determine an order in which the plurality of communication addresses associated with the contact should be used to initiate the requested communication session; and attempting to initiate the requested communication session by using one or more of the plurality of communication addresses in the determined order.