Communicating notifications from a third party system to online system users via the online system

• US 10,333,933 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2018
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vishwanath, Tirunelveli R., Raji, Vijaye Ganesh, Yu, James J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Meng
• Application Number:
  US15/884,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20180152449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

To allow a third party system to more particularly identify sets of users for distributing content, an online system receives data from a third party system identifying users of the online system who have authorized communication with the third party system and stores information authorizing communication between the third party system and the users in user profiles associated with the user. The online system receives a request from the third party system to transmit a notification to online system users satisfying criteria specified by the request. User profiles including information authorizing communication between the third party system and online system users are identified by the online system, which selects a set of the identified user profiles associated with information satisfying the criteria specified by the request. The online system transmits the notification to client devices associated with users associated with the set of the identified user profiles.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by an online system from a third party system, a device identifier associated with an authorization that allows communication from the third party system to a client device of a user of the online system, the client device being identified by the device identifier and the authorization being generated by the third party system in response to a request from the client device that authorized communication from the third party system to the client device;

storing, by the online system in a user profile associated with the user of the online system, the authorization allowing communication from the third party system to the client device identified by the device identifier;

receiving, at the online system, a request from the third party system to communicate a notification to the user of the online system;

determining that the online system is authorized to communicate the notification to the user of the online system on behalf of the third party system based on the stored authorization allowing communication from the third party system to the client device; and

subsequent to determining that the online system is authorized, transmitting the notification to the client device associated with the user of the online system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the authorization comprises storing the authorization with a user profile belonging to the user of the online system and wherein determining that the online system is authorized to communicate the notification to the user of the online system comprises accessing the stored authorization in the user profile.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the notification is transmitted to the client device via a communication channel specified by the user profile belonging to the user of the online system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization that allows communication from the third party system to a client device is a token, wherein the token is generated by the third party system based at least in part on the device identifier.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to storing the authorization allowing communication from the third party system to the client device, identifying the user profile associated with the user of the online system based on a device identifier stored in the user profile.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the third party system includes a plurality of criteria each specifying a characteristic of a user of the online system that is eligible to be presented with the notification.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining that the user of the online system satisfies a threshold number of the plurality of criteria by accessing information in the user profile belonging to the user of the online system.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the characteristic of the user of the online system that is eligible to be presented with the notification is one of demographic information, actions performed by the user, connections between the user and additional users of the online system, and any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the authorization is further associated with an application-specific identifier, wherein the authorization that allows communication from the third party system to the client device further comprises an authorization allowing communication from the third party system to an application installed on the client device and identified by the application-specific identifier.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to transmitting the notification to the client device, communicating, by the online system, a confirmation to the third party system, the confirmation indicating the transmission of the notification to the client device.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive, by an online system from a third party system, a device identifier associated with an authorization that allows communication from the third party system to a client device of a user of the online system, the client device being identified by the device identifier and the authorization being generated by the third party system in response to a request from the client device that authorized communication from the third party system to the client device;

store, by the online system in a user profile associated with the user of the online system, the authorization allowing communication from the third party system to the client device identified by the device identifier;

receive, at the online system, a request from the third party system to communicate a notification to the user of the online system;

determine that the online system is authorized to communicate the notification to the user of the online system on behalf of the third party system based on the stored authorization allowing communication from the third party system to the client device; and

subsequent to the determination that the online system is authorized, transmit the notification to the client device associated with the user of the online system.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to store the authorization further comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to store the authorization with a user profile belonging to the user of the online system and wherein the instructions that cause the processor to determine that the online system is authorized to communicate the notification to the user of the online system further comprises instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to access the stored authorization in the user profile.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the notification is transmitted to the client device via a communication channel specified by the user profile belonging to the user of the online system.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the authorization that allows communication from the third party system to a client device is a token, wherein the token is generated by the third party system based at least in part on the device identifier.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

prior to store the authorization that allows communication from the third party system to the client device, identify the user profile associated with the user of the online system based on a device identifier stored in the user profile.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the request from the third party system includes a plurality of criteria each specifying a characteristic of a user of the online system that is eligible to be presented with the notification.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine that the user of the online system satisfies a threshold number of the plurality of criteria by accessing information in the user profile belonging to the user of the online system.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the characteristic of the user of the online system that is eligible to be presented with the notification is one of demographic information, actions performed by the user, connections between the user and additional users of the online system, and any combination thereof.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the authorization is further associated with an application-specific identifier, wherein the authorization that allows communication from the third party system to the client device further comprises an authorization allowing communication from the third party system to an application installed on the client device and identified by the application-specific identifier.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

subsequent to the transmission of the notification to the client device, communicate, by the online system, a confirmation to the third party system, the confirmation indicating the transmission of the notification to the client device.