Abstract: The invention concerns a method (200) and system (100) for controlling communication replies. The method can include the steps of selecting (210) one or more recipients of a call at an originating communication unit (110), placing (212) the call to the selected recipients and sending (214) along with the placed call a no reply indicator to the recipients of the call that will automatically block a reply call from the recipients. This block may prevent the recipients from having an opportunity to place the reply call. The method may also include the step of receiving (216) an acknowledgement from one or more of the recipients that indicates that the recipients received the placed call. As an example, the call can be a dispatch call, and the recipients can be members of a predetermined dispatch group.

Abstract: A method (40) and system (10, 20 or 30) of message handling can include tagging a message with an expiration period that is designated for delivery to a recipient (108) via a server (106), deleting (58) the message from the server after the expiration period if no third party recipient is designated or if the message is a lower priority message, and delivering (52) the message after the expiration period to a third party if a third party recipient (110) is designated. The method can further include sending (46) a notification to a sender that the expiration period has been reached if the message has not been sent and optionally offering an option to the sender to either delete the message from the server or to resend it with a new or no expiration period. Note, the message can be a text message, voice mail or calendar event message.