System and method for queuing a communication session

• US 10,320,983 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2015
• Issued: 06/11/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Fahlgren, Christer, Wolthuis, John, Shafton, Peter, Schiavone, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pope, Kharye
• Application Number:
  US14/966,987
• Publication Number:
  US 20160100060A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,278 Days
• Field of Search: 37926601, 37926602, 37926603, 37926604, 37926605, 37926606, 37921001, 370352, 370353, 370354, 370355, 370356, 370357
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/407 Call center operated for multiple customers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5141 Details of processing calls and other types of contacts in an unified manner unified messaging in packet-switching networks H04L51/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A system and method including receiving a request to enqueue a communication session; adding the communication session to the queue of a plurality of communication sessions; upon adding the communication to the queue, transferring control logic to the configured wait-state application; receiving a dequeue request initiated by a second entity; in response to the dequeue request, managing the procession of communication sessions in the queue; and dequeuing a communication session from the queue.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a first application server system providing a first create queue REST (Representational State Transfer) API (application programming interface) call to a multi-tenant communication platform system that is external to the first application server system, wherein the first application server system is associated with a first platform account of the multi-tenant communication platform system;

responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system receiving the first create queue REST API call, the multi-tenant communication platform system;

creating a first voice call queue for the first platform account of the multi-tenant communication platform system,

generating a queue identifier to identify the first voice call queue, and

providing the queue identifier to the first application server system;

responsive to a call router of the multi-tenant communication platform system establishing an active first voice call of the first platform account, the first application server system providing a first enqueue instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the first enqueue instruction including the queue identifier for the first voice call queue;

responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system receiving the first enqueue instruction, the multi-tenant communication platform system;

identifying the first voice call queue based on the queue identifier included in the first enqueue instruction, and

adding the first voice call to the first voice call queue, the first enqueue instruction specifying a first wait-state application; and

responsive to a first request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the first wait-state application, the first application server system providing at least one first wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system, the at least one first wait-state application instruction being an instruction for controlling the multi-tenant communication platform system to perform a wait-state action for the first voice call enqueued in the first voice call queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the first wait-state application is an HTTP request, and wherein the first application server system provides the at least one first wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via an HTTP response.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first enqueue instruction specifies a first action-state application, the method further comprising:

responsive to a first action-state request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the first action-state application, the first application server system providing at least one first action-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system, wherein the multi-tenant communication platform system provides the first action-state request responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system dequeueing the first voice call from the first voice call queue, and wherein the at least one first action-state application instruction is an instruction for controlling the multi-tenant communication platform system to perform an action-state action for the dequeued first voice call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a call tree system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a conference call system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a customer service call system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is an automated phone message service system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a voicemail system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a notification system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application server system is a messaging system.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising, the first application server system managing the first voice call queue via a REST API of the platform system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein managing the first voice call queue includes at least one of:

removing a voice call from the first voice call queue, modifying ordering of voice calls in the first voice call queue, modifying behavior of the first voice call queue, and deleting the first voice call queue.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising, the first application server system querying information of the first voice call queue via a REST API of the multi-tenant communication platform system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein querying information of the first voice call queue includes at least one of:

accessing analytics of the first voice call queue, and accessing status of the first voice call.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a second application server system providing a second create queue REST API call to the multi-tenant communication platform system, wherein the second application server system is associated with a second platform account of the multi-tenant communication platform system;

responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system receiving the second create queue REST API call, the multi-tenant communication platform system;

creating a second voice call queue for the second platform account of the multi-tenant communication platform system,

generating a second queue identifier to identify the second voice call queue, and

providing the second queue identifier to the second application server system;

responsive to the call router establishing an active second voice call of the second platform account, the second application server system providing a second enqueue instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the second enqueuer instruction including the second queue identifier for the second voice call queue;

responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system receiving the second enqueue instruction, the multi-tenant communication platform system;

identifying the second voice call based on the second queue identifier included in the second enqueuer instruction, and

adding the second voice call to the second voice call queue, the second enqueue instruction specifying a second wait-state application; and

responsive to a second request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the second wait-state application, the second application server system providing at least one second wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system, the at least one second wait-state application instruction being an instruction for controlling the multi-tenant communication platform system to perform a wait-state action for the second voice call enqueued in the second voice call queue, wherein the second application server system is different from the first application server system.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-tenant communication platform system receives the first create queue REST API call and the first enqueue instruction via the Internet.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the multi-tenant communication platform system receives the first create queue REST API call, the first enqueue instruction, the second create queue REST API call, and the second enqueue instruction via the Internet.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the first request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the first wait-state application is an HTTP request, and wherein the first application server system provides the at least one first wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via an HTTP response.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the first wait-state application is an HTTP request, wherein the first application server system provides the at least one first wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via an HTTP response, wherein the second request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the second wait-state application is an HTTP request, and wherein the second application server system provides the at least one second wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via an HTTP response.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

responsive to the call router of the multi-tenant communication platform system establishing an active third voice call of the first platform account, the first application server system providing a third enqueue instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system via HTTP;

responsive to the multi-tenant communication platform system receiving the third enqueue instruction, the multi-tenant communication platform system adding the third voice call to the first voice call queue, the third enqueue instruction specifying a third wait-state application; and

responsive to a third request from the multi-tenant communication platform system to access the third wait-state application, the first application server system providing at least one third wait-state application instruction to the multi-tenant communication platform system, the at least one third wait-state application instruction being an instruction for controlling the multi-tenant communication platform system to perform a wait-state action for the enqueued third voice call.