Identifying communication participants to a recipient of a message

• US 10,367,771 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2014
• Issued: 07/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Dabney, Todd, Beausoleil, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Bengzon, Greg C
• Application Number:
  US14/504,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20160099903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,763 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Participant identifiers, or display names, for participants in an electronic communication can be selected such that each participant'"'"'s display name is unique relative within a defined set of “relevant” participants, such as all participants in an electronic communication exchange or all contacts in a contacts list maintained for a specific user. Selection of display names can be optimized to provide a unique display name for each participant using a reduced or minimized number of characters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a management server, a first message to a first conversation among a first set of relevant participants, from an electronic messaging service, to be delivered to a client device of a client user, the message including identifying information of a sender;

receiving, at the management server, a second message to a second conversation among a second set of relevant participants, from the electronic messaging service, to be delivered to the client device of the client user, the message including the identifying information of the sender, wherein the second conversation and the first conversation are at least partially contemporaneous;

generating, by the management server, a first graphical user interface (GUI) comprising the first message and a first default display name of the sender for the first conversation, based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

extracting the identifying information of the sender;

generating a first initial default display name for the sender, based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the first initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

generating one or more first candidate alternative display names based on corresponding one or more rules by appending one or more additional characters to the first initial default display name that uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

identifying first candidate alternative display name that is a shortest among the one or more first candidate alternative display names;

assigning, as the first default display name, the shortest first candidate alternative display name; and

populating the first default display name in a first sender display name field of the first message on the first GUI; and

generating, by the management server, a second GUI comprising the second message and a second default display name of the sender for the second conversation, based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

generating a second initial default display name for the sender, based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the second initial default display name uniquely identifies the sender within the second set of relevant participants to the second conversation;

assigning, as the second default display name, the second initial default display name, wherein the second initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation; and

populating the second default display name in a second sender display name field of the second message on the second GUI; and

transmitting, by the management server, the first GUI comprising the first message and the first default display name field, and the second GUI comprising the second message and the second default display name, to the client device of the client user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first default display name corresponds to a given name of the participant and wherein generating the first candidate alternative display name includes adding a number of initial characters of a surname of the participant to the first initial default display name, wherein the number of initial characters is a minimum number such that the first candidate alternative display name uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first default display name corresponds to a username extracted from the identifying information of the sender and wherein generating the first candidate alternative display name includes adding at least a portion of a domain name extracted from the identifying information of the sender to the first initial default display name.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first candidate alternative display name includes augmenting the first initial default display name with an additional item of information pertaining to the sender.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional item of information includes one or more of:

a domain name associated with the identifying information of the sender;

a company name associated with the identifying information of the sender;

or

a geographical location associated with the identifying information of the sender.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first candidate alternative display name includes:

applying a plurality of disambiguation rules to generate the one or more first candidate alternative display names; and

selecting the first default display name from among the one or more first candidate alternative display names based on a ranking among the plurality of disambiguation rules.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second sets of relevant participants includes a set of all contacts in a contacts list of the client user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second sets of relevant participants includes a set of all participants in an electronic communication exchange of which the message is a part.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program code instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to execute a method comprising:

receiving a first message to a first conversation among a first set of relevant participants, from an electronic messaging service, to be delivered to a client device of a client user, the message including identifying information of a sender of the first message;

receiving a second message to a second conversation among a second set of relevant participants, from the electronic messaging service, to be delivered to the client device of the client user, the second message including the identifying information of the sender;

generating a first graphical user interface (GUI) comprising the first message and a first default display name of the sender for the first conversation based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

extracting the identifying information of the sender from the message;

generating a first initial default display name for the sender based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the first initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

generating one or more first candidate alternative display names based on corresponding one or more rules by appending one or more additional characters to the first initial default display name that uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

identifying the first candidate alternative display name that is a shortest among the one or more first candidate alternative display names; and

assigning, as the default display name, the shortest candidate alternative display name; and

populating the first default display name in a first sender display name field of the first message on the first GUI;

generating a second GUI comprising the second message and a second default display name of the sender for the second conversation, based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

generating a second initial default display name for the sender, based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the second initial default display name uniquely identifies the sender within the second set of relevant participants to the second conversation; and

assigning, as the second default display name, the second initial default display name, wherein the second default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation; and

populating the second default display name in a second sender display name field of the second GUI comprising the second message; and

transmitting the first GUI comprising the first message and the first default display name field, and the second GUI comprising the second message and the second default display name, to the client device of the client user.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein generating the first candidate alternative display name includes:

applying a plurality of disambiguation rules to generate the one or more first candidate display names;

selecting the first default display name from among the one or more first candidate alternative display names based on a ranking among the plurality of disambiguation rules.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the disambiguation rules include:

a first rule to generate a single first candidate alternative display name by adding a first number of initial characters of a surname of the sender to a given name of the sender, wherein the first number of initial characters is a minimum number such that the single first candidate alternative display name uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants; and

a second rule to generate a further first candidate alternative display name by adding a second number of initial characters of a given name of the sender to a surname of the sender, wherein the second number of initial characters is a minimum number such that the further first candidate alternative display name uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the disambiguation rules include a rule to generate the one or more first candidate alternative display names by augmenting the first initial display name with an additional item of information pertaining to the sender.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the additional item of information includes at least one of:

a character of a given name associated with the sender identifier;

a character of a surname associated with the sender identifier;

a portion of a domain name associated with the sender identifier;

a company name associated with the sender identifier;

or

a geographical location associated with the sender identifier.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein identifying the first candidate alternative display name includes selecting, from among the one or more first candidate alternative display names generated using the disambiguation rules, the shortest first candidate alternative display name that uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants.

15. A computer system comprising:

a communication interface to receive a first inbound message to a first conversation, among a first set of relevant participants, from an electronic messaging service to be delivered to a client device of a client user, the first inbound message including a participant identifier of a sender of the first inbound message;

the communication interface to receive a second inbound message to a second conversation, among a second set of relevant participants, from the electronic messaging service to be delivered to the client device, the second inbound message including the participant identifier of the sender of the second inbound message; and

a processor coupled to the communication interface; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, performs an operation comprising to;

generating, by the management server, a first graphical user interface (GUI) comprising the first message and a first default display name of the sender for the first conversation, based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

extracting the identifying information of the sender;

generating a first initial default display name for the sender, based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the first initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

generating one or more first candidate alternative display names based on corresponding one or more rules by appending one or more additional characters to the first initial default display name that uniquely identifies the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation;

identifying first candidate alternative display name that is a shortest among the one or more first candidate alternative display names;

assigning, as the first default display name, the shortest first candidate alternative display name; and

populating the first default display name in a first sender display name field of the first message on the first GUI;

generating, by the management server, a second GUI comprising the second message and a second default display name of the sender for the second conversation, based at least in part on the identifying information of the sender, by;

generating a second initial default display name for the sender, based on the extracted identifying information of the sender;

determining that the second initial default display name uniquely identifies the sender within the second set of relevant participants to the second conversation;

assigning, as the second default display name, the second initial default display name, wherein the second initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the first set of relevant participants to the first conversation; and

populating the second default display name in a second sender display name field of the second message on the second GUI; and

transmitting, by the management server, the first GUI comprising the first message and the first default display name field, and the second GUI comprising the second message and the second default display name, to the client device of the client user.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

a second communication interface to deliver the second inbound message, including the populated participant second display name field, to a client device of the client user.

17. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

a user interface,

wherein the processor is further configured to present, at the user interface, a representation of the first inbound message that includes the first default display name.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured such that determining the second default display name includes:

generating a second initial default display name based at least in part on the participant identifier;

determining that the second initial default display name does not uniquely identify the sender within the second set of relevant participants;

generating a second candidate alternative display name, wherein the second candidate alternative display name uniquely identifies the sender within the second set of relevant participants;

assigning, as the second default display name, the second candidate alternative display name; and

populating the second sender display name field of the second message with the second default display name.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured such that generating the alternative display name includes:

applying a plurality of disambiguation rules to generate a plurality of second candidate alternative display names;

selecting the second candidate alternative display name from among the plurality of second candidate alternative display names based on a ranking among the plurality of disambiguation rules.

20. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

a storage medium to store a contacts list of the client user,

wherein the processor is further configured to define the first and second sets of relevant participants based on the contacts list of the client user.