Cross-device notifications

• US 10,097,619 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2015
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Koss, Michael Campbell, DeWitt, Justin, Messerly, Katie Jane, Titov, Dmitry
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Jonathan A
• Application Number:
  US14/658,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20150373089A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,306 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices

Abstract

Techniques for cross-device notifications are provided. An example method includes receiving a first indication of an event detected at a first device associated with a user account, determining one or more characteristics of the event based on the first indication of the event, detecting whether the determined characteristics match at least one selection criterion, automatically identifying a second device from one or more devices associated with the user account, and providing, if the determined characteristics match the at least one selection criterion, the first indication of the event to the second device associated with the user account, where the provided first indication of the event is displayed at the second device to allow management of the event at the first device from the second device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a first indication of an event detected at a first client device associated with a user account;

determining one or more characteristics of the event based on the first indication of the event;

detecting whether the determined characteristics match at least one selection criterion;

identifying a second client device from one or more client devices associated with the user account;

providing, when the determined characteristics match the at least one selection criterion, the first indication of the event to the second client device associated with the user account, wherein the provided first indication of the event includes a reference to an image, the second client device retrieves the image from a remote cache based on the reference, the provided first indication of the event is displayed as a notification including the image at the second client device to allow management of the event at the first client device from the second client device, and the displayed notification including the image provides a visual indication of a second user account associated with the event, the second user account being different than the user account and associated with a different device than the first client device and the second client device;

receiving a second indication including an action that is to be performed with respect to the event detected at the first client device, the second indication generated upon an interaction with the displayed notification including the image at the second client device; and

transmitting the action to the first client device, wherein the event is managed at the first client device based on the action.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the action dismisses the notification with respect to the event received at the first client device, broadcasting the action to the first client device and one or more other devices associated with the user account, wherein the notification is dismissed at the first client device and the one or more other devices.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving first content associated with the first indication of the event; and

providing the received first content to the second client device associated with the user account for display with the first indication of the event.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second client device retrieves the image for display from the remote cache based on the reference when the image is not available at the second client device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving second content responsive to the displayed notification including the image at the second client device; and

providing the received second content to the first client device for display.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication of the event is displayed at a web browser of the second client device, wherein the first client device is a mobile computing device and the second client device is a desktop computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indication of the event detected at the first client device comprises a particular notification indicating a battery level of the first client device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the event detected at the first client device comprises the battery level of the first client device being below a threshold value, and the second indication comprises an input indicating that the first client device is to be powered down and the action comprises powering off the first client device.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

detecting an event at a first client device associated with a user account;

providing a first indication of the event to a server, wherein when characteristics of the detected event match at least one selection criterion, the server provides the first indication of the event to a second client device associated with the user account, wherein the first indication of the event includes a reference to an image, and the second client device retrieves the image from a remote cache based on the reference and displays a notification including the image, the displayed notification including the image provides a visual indication of a second user account associated with the event, the second user account being different than the user account and associated with a different device than the first client device and the second client device;

receiving a second indication including an action that is to be performed with respect to the event detected at the first client device, the second indication generated upon an interaction with the displayed notification including the image at the second client device; and

managing the event at the first client device based on the action.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving first content associated with the first indication of the event; and

providing the received first content to the server, wherein the server provides the received first content to the second client device associated with the user account for display with the first indication of the event.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

determining that the event is initiated from a different user account;

determining that the image is associated with the different user account and is available at the first client device;

when the image is available at the first client device, generating the reference to the image;

based on the generated reference, determining whether the image is available at the remote cache;

when the image is not available at the remote cache, uploading the image to the remote cache; and

wherein when the image is determined to be available at the remote cache, the generated reference is included in the first indication of the event provided to the server.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the second client device retrieves the image from the remote cache based on the reference when the image is not available at the second client device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

encrypting each cached image with a unique key generated on the first client device, prior to transmission to the second client device with the first indication of the event.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

encrypting each cached image with a content-based key, the content-based key generated on the first client device and transmitted to the second client device.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

including a time-to-live (TTL) value with the first indication of the event, wherein the TTL value indicates an expiration time of the first indication.

16. A system comprising:

a memory comprising instructions; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to;

receive a first indication of an event detected at a first client device associated with a user account;

determine one or more characteristics of the event based on the first indication of the event;

detect whether the determined characteristics match at least one selection criterion;

identify one or more client devices associated with the user account;

broadcast the first indication of the event, when the determined characteristics match the at least one selection criterion, to the one or more client devices associated with the user account,

wherein the first indication of the event includes a reference to an image, and at least one client device from the one or more client devices retrieves the image from a remote cache based on the reference and displays a notification including the image, the displayed notification including the image provides a visual indication of a second user account associated with the event, the second user account being different than the user account and associated with a different device than the first client device and the at least one client device, and

wherein the broadcasted first indication of the event is simultaneously displayed, in real time, at the one or more client devices to allow management of the event at the first client device from any of the one or more client devices;

receive a second indication including an action that is to be performed with respect to the event detected at the first client device, the second indication generated upon an interaction with the displayed notification including the image at any of the one or more client devices; and

transmit the action to the first client device, wherein the event is managed at the first client device based on the action.

17. The system of claim 16, the processor further configured to execute the instructions to:

when the action dismisses the notification with respect to the event received at the first client device, broadcast the action to the first client device and the one or more client devices associated with the user account, wherein the notification is dismissed at the first client device and the one or more client devices.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the first client device is at a first geographic location and a particular second client device is at a second geographic location.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one selection criterion is matched when the determined characteristics include a receipt of a messaging service message from a particular user contact associated with the user account.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one selection criterion is matched when the determined characteristics include a missed call from a user contact associated with the user account.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the first indication of the event, based on the determined characteristics, is not broadcasted for display to a particular second client device associated with the user account if the determined characteristics do not match the at least one selection criterion.

22. The system of claim 16, the processor further configured to execute the instructions to:

determine whether the first indication of the event detected at the first client device associated with the user account is duplicative to one or more previously received indications;

when it is determined that the first indication of the event is not duplicative to the one or more previously received indications, broadcast the first indication of the event, to a particular second client device and the one or more client devices associated with the user account; and

when it is determined that the first indication of the event is duplicative to the one or more previously received indications, proscribe the broadcast of the first indication of the event to the particular second client device and the one or more client devices associated with the user account.