System and method for determining and communicating presence information

• US 10,212,275 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2018
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeff, Cooke, Evan, Simutis, Robert J., Malatack, Patrick, Conroy, Kyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Dean, Jr., Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/911,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20180198912A1
• Time in Patent Office: 351 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

A system and method for communicating presence information that can include at a first server of a communication platform, receiving an authorization token of a first client application; verifying at least one permission associated with the authorization token; registering a presence status of the first client application upon verifying the at least one permission of the authorization token; at a second server of the communication platform, accepting an incoming communication request; retrieving communication instructions according to the incoming communication request; identifying an instruction to communicate with a communication destination of the first client application; accessing the presence status resource of the first client application; establishing communication with the first client application according to the accessed presence status resource.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a client system, a connection application protocol interface (API) request for a communication platform system to initiate a communication session between the client system and a communication destination of a first client application executing on the client system;

in response to receiving the connection API request, accessing, by the communication platform system, a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application, the communication platform system being external to the client system;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first device of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application is available to engage in the communication session with the client system; and

in response to determining that the first device is available to engage in the communication session with the client system, routing incoming communication transmitted from the client system as part of the communication session to the first device, the communication session executed in relation to the first client application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting, to a presence server, a request for the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request for the presence status resource is a presence API call.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination transmit status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective different device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the connection API request, that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application executing on the client system, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client system prior to being transmitted to the communication platform system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication session is one of a voice call, a video call, and a text message.

8. A communication platform system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

one or more computer-readable mediums storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the communication platform system to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a client system, a connection application protocol interface (API) request for the communication platform system to initiate a communication session between the client system and a communication destination of a first client application executing on the client system;

in response to receiving the connection API request, accessing a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application, the communication platform system being external to the client system;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first device of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application is available to engage in the communication session with the client system; and

in response to determining that the first device is available to engage in the communication session with the client system, routing incoming communication transmitted from the client system as part of the communication session to the first device, the communication session executed in relation to the first client application.

9. The communication platform system of claim 8, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting, to a presence server, a request for the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application.

10. The communication platform system of claim 9, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request for the presence status resource is a presence API call.

11. The communication platform system of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination transmit status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective different device.

12. The communication platform system of claim 8, the operations further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the connection API request, that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application.

13. The communication platform system of claim 12, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application executing on the client system, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client system prior to being transmitted to the communication platform system.

14. The communication platform system of claim 8, wherein the communication session is one of a voice call, a video call, and a text message.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors of a communication platform system, cause the communication platform system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a client system, a connection application protocol interface (API) request for the communication platform system to initiate a communication session between the client system and a communication destination of a first client application executing on the client system;

in response to receiving the connection API request, accessing a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application, the communication platform system being external to the client system;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first device of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application is available to engage in the communication session with the client system; and

in response to determining that the first device is available to engage in the communication session with the client system, routing incoming communication transmitted from the client system as part of the communication session to the first device, the communication session executed in relation to the first client application.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting, to a presence server, a request for the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of different devices of the communication destination of the first client application.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request for the presence status resource is a presence API call.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of different devices of the communication destination transmit status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective different device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the connection API request, that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client system is authorized to engage in the communication session with the communication destination of the first client application comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application executing on the client system, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client system prior to being transmitted to the communication platform system.