bMighty SMB TechEncyclopedia

The real-time redirection of a voice, text or e-mail message to the device closest to the intended recipient at any given time. For example, voice calls to desk phones could be routed to the user's cellphone when required. E-mail intended for a desktop mailbox could be sent to the user's PDA or turned into speech for a phone message.

     Although the term is used synonymously with "unified messaging," unified communications implies real-time delivery, whereas "unified messaging" can queue up messages from several sources for retrieval later. See unified messaging and text-to-speech.