Methods and systems for recipient management with electronic messages

• US 10,341,284 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2015
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pecan Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Pecan Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Volach, Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Duyen M
• Application Number:
  US14/738,972
• Publication Number:
  US 20150372964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• Field of Search: 709206, 709203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

There is provided a method of recipient management with electronic messages having time defined actions, comprising: defining for an electronic message to a recipient, according to data inputted by a user at a user client terminal, one or more actions for the recipient to perform and a time frame for performance of the one or more actions; sending the electronic message to a recipient client terminal of a recipient to trigger a monitoring of performance of the one or more actions by the recipient at the client terminal during the time frame; receiving an indication of the performance of the one or more actions based on the monitoring from the recipient client terminal; and presenting on the user client terminal a notification in response to the indication.

Claims

1. A method of recipient management with electronic messages having time defined actions comprising:

using a processor of a message server for;

receiving data inputted by a user, and an electronic address of the recipient at a user client terminal;

creating an electronic message and defining for the electronic message at least one non-message action for the recipient associated with the electronic address inputted by the user, to perform at a location within a defined time frame, said at least one non-message action and said time frame are defined in a metadata included in said electronic message;

sending the electronic message to the electronic address of the recipient for access by a recipient client terminal of the recipient;

triggering an external data source to monitor performance of the at least one non-message action by the recipient associated with the electronic address inputted by the user during the defined time frame according to said metadata, said monitoring detects the recipient being at the location at the defined time frame and performing the at least one non-message action at the location and at the defined time frame;

wherein the external data source is in electrical communication with said message server and is independent of actions performed on the electronic message by the recipient client terminal;

receiving via a network an indication of the performance of the at least one non-message action based on the monitoring from the external data source; and

sending instructions to present on the user client terminal a notification in response to the indication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one non-message action is the recipient being in a location within a certain time frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein defining comprises defining a chain of the at least one non-message actions that defines the order of performance of the at least one non-message actions by the recipient.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the chain is hierarchal and/or sequential.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein defining comprises defining rule dependent actions that detect performance of the rule dependent actions when at least one rule terms are held.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an update to the at least one non-message action, and sending a message to the recipient client terminal indicative of the updated action, to monitor performance of the updated non-message action.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving an indication comprises receiving an electronic message automatically generated by the client terminal indicative of the performance.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending or locally presenting at least one alert to the recipient to perform the at least one non-message action for the electronic message within the time frame.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending or locally presenting a plurality of alerts over time to one or both of the recipient and the user based on the amount of time left until the end of the time frame.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the time frame comprises a deadline time and/or a date for performing the at least one non-message action.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the time frame comprises number of minutes left until expiration of the electronic message.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic message is selected from the group:

email, instant message, short message service (SMS) message.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically adjusting the time frame in response to the monitoring of performance of the at least one non-message action, at least one of before and after the time frame has elapsed.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the adjusting comprises automatically snoozing the electronic message after the time frame has elapsed so that a deadline time and/or date is delayed by a predefined amount.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein defining comprises receiving a manual definition from the user of the electronic message.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically deleting the electronic message after the time frame has lapsed.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring for performance of actions other than the at least one non-message action at least one of before and after the time frame.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing the monitoring of actions other than the at least one non-message action for presentation on the user client terminal.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein each action of a plurality of at least one actions has a different time frame.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising alerting one or both of the recipient and the user with different alerts based on the different time frames.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising alerting one or both of the recipient and the user that the electronic message will be expiring based on the amount of time left until the end of the time frame.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein sending comprises sending the electronic message to a plurality of recipients;

and detecting comprises detecting the performance of the at least one non-message action by at least one of the plurality of recipients.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising diverting the electronic message and related at least one non-message action, from the recipient to a different recipient.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one non-message action is performed outside the scope of the electronic message.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein monitoring comprises monitoring for partial completion of the at least one non-message action.

40. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a reminder to the electronic address of the recipient when the recipient is detected as not being at the location at the defined time and not having completed the at least one action.

26. A system for electronic message communications having time defined actions, comprising:

a hardware processor of a message server;

a non-transitory memory having stored thereon program modules for instruction execution by the hardware processor, comprising;

code instructions for receiving data inputted by a user, and an electronic address of the recipient at a user client terminal;

code instructions for creating an electronic message and defining for the electronic message at least one non-message action for the recipient associated with the electronic address inputted by the user, to perform at a location within a defined time frame, said at least one non-message action and said time frame are defined in a metadata included in said electronic message;

code instructions for sending the electronic message to the electronic address of the recipient for access by a recipient client terminal of the recipient;

code instructions for triggering an external data source to monitor performance of the at least one non-message action by the recipient associated with the electronic address inputted by the user during the defined time frame according to said metadata, said monitoring detects the recipient being at the location at the defined time frame and performing the at least one non-message action at the location and at the defined time frame, wherein the external data source is in electrical communication with said message server and is independent of actions performed on the electronic message by the user client terminal;

code instructions for receiving an indication of the performance of the at least one non-message action from the external data source;

code instructions for sending instructions to present on the user client terminal a notification in response to the indication.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said non-transitory memory having code instructions for updating the at least one non-message action.

28. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

a user interface for manually receiving the at least one non-message action from the user of the electronic message.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein said non-transitory memory having code instructions for deleting the electronic message from an email account of the one or both of the user and the recipient based on the detection.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the non-transitory memory resides on a remote server, at least one of the user and a recipient are registered users on the remote server, the remote server having access data for accessing email accounts of the at least one of the user and the recipient.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein said non-transitory memory having code instructions for generating a link to a server storing contents of the electronic message, wherein the link is sent to the recipient;

wherein the monitoring automatically detects the performance of actions based on the link.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein the system resides on a processor remotely located from the recipient and sender, the system acting as one or both of a client and a server with respect to one or both of the recipient and sender.

33. The system of claim 26, wherein the sent message contains metadata defining the action and time frame.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein said external source comprises a second hardware processor and a second non-transitory memory.

35. The system of claim 26, wherein the system resides on a server remotely located from the recipient and user, the system further comprising a network interface for allowing one or both of the recipient and user to remotely access the system.

36. The system of claim 26, wherein said non- transitory memory having code instructions for triggering said monitoring to operate in an offline mode without a network connection.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein said non- transitory memory having code instructions for generating alerts to the recipient for performance of the at least one non-message action based on the time frame;

wherein said non-transitory memory having code instructions for generating alerts based on a local time module when in offline mode and generating alerts based on synchronization with a time server when in online mode.

38. The system of claim 26, further comprising an external action interface for monitoring actions of the recipient for performance of the at least one non-message action, wherein the at least one non-message action is outside the scope of the electronic message.

39. The system of claim 38, further comprising one or more elements for monitoring actions of the recipient, comprising:

a location based server for detecting the position of the recipient, a call module for monitoring phone calls of the recipient, a short message service (SMS) module for monitoring SMS sent by the recipient, a download module for monitoring application downloads by the recipient, and a purchase module for monitoring online purchases by the recipient.