Virtual contact cards

• US 10,389,544 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhao, Lucy Ma
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, Ondrej C
• Application Number:
  US15/076,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20160205058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,247 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A service provider receives from a user who has an account with it contact card information and recipient information picture information, therefrom determines a virtual contact card and contact channels through which the virtual contact card is sent to the recipients designated by the user, and sends the virtual contact card to the designated recipients through the contact channels. The virtual contact card and contact channels may be selected from what have been previously registered, either by the user or a third person, with the service provider and stored in the user'"'"'s account, or just newly created, updated, and sent from the user at the time of transmission request to the designated recipients. The virtual contact card, when updated by the user, may be automatically sent by the service provider to the same recipients that previously received a pre-updated version.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

determining a virtual contact card stored on a first user device has been modified, wherein the virtual contact card includes first content that is displayed when the virtual contact card is accessed, wherein the first content comprises a first link associated with second content, wherein the second content is displayed when the first link is selected, wherein the first content and the second content are associated with an entity, and wherein the determining comprises determining that the second content included in the virtual contact card has been modified based at least in part on receiving modified content for the second content through a network;

determining a set of recipients and transmission restrictions corresponding to the set of recipients, wherein the transmission restrictions indicate, for each recipient in the set of recipients, a corresponding time for sending the virtual contact card to the recipient; and

sending the virtual contact card updated with the modified content to a set of user devices associated with the set of recipients according to the corresponding times indicated in the transmission restrictions via a corresponding set of contact channels in order to cause a client application at each of the set of user devices to automatically update the second content in a locally stored instance of the virtual contact card with the modified content.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a share request identifying the virtual contact card to be sent and the set of recipients to which the virtual contact card is to be sent.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise in response to receiving the modified content, updating the second content in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the entity is a merchant and wherein the first content and the second content comprise merchant information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the entity is a user and wherein the first content and the second content comprise user information.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a second user device included in the set of user devices, a request to share the virtual contact card with a third user device; and

in response to receiving the request, transmitting the virtual contact card having the updated second content to the third user device through the network.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first content of the virtual contact card further comprises programming code that is executable on a local device when the first content is accessed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of contact channels comprises at least one of an email channel, a phone channel, or a social network channel.

9. A method, comprising:

determining, by one or more hardware processors, a virtual contact card stored on a first user device has been modified, wherein the virtual contact card includes first content that is displayed when a first sub-menu is selected and second content that is displayed when a second sub-menu is selected, wherein the first content and the second content are associated with an entity, and wherein the determining comprises determining, by the one or more hardware processors, that the second content included in the virtual contact card has been modified based at least in part on receiving modified content for the second content;

determining, by the one or more hardware processors, a set of recipients and transmission restrictions corresponding to the set of recipients, wherein the transmission restrictions indicate, for each recipient in the set of recipients, a corresponding time for sending the virtual contact card to the recipient; and

sending, by the one or more hardware processors, the virtual contact card updated with the modified content to a set of user devices associated with the set of recipients according to the corresponding times indicated in the transmission restrictions via a set of contact channels in order to cause a client application at each of the set of user devices to automatically update the second content in a locally stored instance of the virtual contact card with the modified content.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving, by the one or more hardware processors, a share request identifying the virtual contact card to be sent and the set of recipients to which the virtual contact card is to be sent.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising in response to receiving the modified content, updating, by the one or more hardware processors, the second content in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the entity is a merchant and wherein the first content and the second content comprise merchant information.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the entity is a user and wherein the first content and the second content comprise user information.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first content of the virtual contact card further comprises programming code that is executable on a local device when the first content is accessed.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the set of contact channels comprises at least one of an email channel, a phone channel, or a social network channel.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a share request identifying a virtual contact card to be sent and a plurality of user devices to which the virtual contact card is to be sent, wherein the virtual contact card includes first content that is displayed when the virtual contact card is accessed, wherein the first content comprises a first link associated with second content, wherein the second content is displayed when the first link is selected, and wherein the first content and the second content are associated with an entity;

sending the virtual contact card through a network for local storage on each of the plurality of user devices;

determining that the first content included in the virtual contact card has been modified based at least in part on receiving modified content through the network;

determining transmission restrictions corresponding to the plurality of user devices, wherein the transmission restrictions indicate, for each user device in the plurality of user devices, a corresponding time for sending the virtual contact card to the user device; and

sending the virtual contact card updated with the modified content to the plurality of user devices via a set of contact channels according to the corresponding times indicated in the transmission restrictions in order to cause a client application at each of the plurality of user devices to automatically update the first content in a locally stored instance of the virtual contact card with the modified content.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise in response to receiving the modified content, updating the first content in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the entity is a merchant and wherein the first content and the second content comprise merchant information.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the entity is a user and wherein the first content and the second content comprise user information.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first content of the virtual contact card further comprises programming code that is executable on a local device when the first content is accessed.