Simplified message grouping and display

• US 10,555,138 B1
• Filed: 01/26/2018
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Inventors: Wu, William, Murray, Michael Brian, Samaranayake, Chamal, Wagner, Erik
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammonds, Marcus
• Application Number:
  US15/881,415
• Time in Patent Office: 739 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/109 Font handling; Temporal or kinetic typography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• 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

Systems and methods for simplified message grouping and display are provided. In example embodiments, a plurality of messages are received within a conversation which is accessible by a plurality of client devices. Messages are grouped into different cards based on criteria associated with the cards. During a transition between displaying a first of the cards to a second of the cards, an animation may be displayed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a first client device comprising one or more hardware processors and a memory, a first plurality of messages, the plurality of messages being grouped within a conversation into two or more groups, each of the messages in each group meeting a respective group criterion;

generating a first overlaid card by arranging a first message group of a first of the two or more groups on the first overlaid card, the first message group arranged within the first overlaid card based on a criterion;

generating a second overlaid card by arranging a second message group of a second of the two or more groups on the second overlaid card, the second message group arranged within the second overlaid card based on the criterion;

determining a first font size for an arrangement of a second plurality of messages;

determining a second font size for the first and second message groups arranged in the first and second overlaid cards, wherein the second font size has a greater point size than the first font size;

receiving a user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card; and

in response to the user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, displaying an animation while transitioning from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, the first overlaid card and the second overlaid card configured to exclusively display respectively the first and second message groups within the conversation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ordering the overlaid cards;

displaying the overlaid cards according to the order until the overlaid card last in the order is displayed; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ordering the overlaid cards;

displaying the overlaid cards according to the order;

detecting a second user input; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages in response to detecting the second user input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of messages are ordered by timestamp within each message group.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of messages is grouped such that passage of a predetermined threshold amount of time between the sending of two messages causes the two messages to be displayed on different overlaid cards.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an image within the conversation;

displaying a plurality of overlaid cards with messages received earlier than the image; and

displaying the image in a full screen view in response to completion of the display of the plurality of overlaid cards.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a media message sent by a user, wherein the media is accompanied by text messages which have timestamps within a threshold time period of the media message;

embedding a miniature preview of the media message into the first overlaid card; and

displaying the miniature preview of the media message on the first overlaid card in line with text messages displayed on the first media card.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a media message sent by a user, wherein the media is not accompanied by text messages which have timestamps within a threshold time period of the media message;

embedding an enlarged preview of the media message into a full screen media card; and

displaying the full screen media card separately from the first and second overlaid cards.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying a selectable link to the media previewed, wherein the selectable link is displayed within the full screen media card.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a message within the first plurality of messages that is marked as read, and has a latest timestamp as other messages marked as read; and

displaying the message with the latest timestamp within the first overlaid card.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first plurality of messages within a conversation;

grouping the first plurality of messages into two or more groups, each of the messages in each group meeting a respective group criteria;

generating a first overlaid card by arranging a first message group of a first of the two or more groups on the first overlaid card, the first message group arranged within the first overlaid card based on a criterion;

generating a second overlaid card by arranging a second message group of a second of the two or more groups on the second overlaid card, the second message group arranged within the second overlaid card based on the criterion;

determining a first font size for an arrangement of a second plurality of messages;

determining a second font size for the first and second message groups arranged in the first and second overlaid cards, wherein the second font size has a greater point size than the first font size;

receiving a user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card; and

in response to the user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, displaying an animation while transitioning from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, the first overlaid card and the second overlaid card configured to exclusively display respectively the first and second message groups within the conversation.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

ordering the overlaid cards;

displaying the overlaid cards according to the order until the overlaid card last in the order is displayed; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium storing of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

ordering the overlaid cards;

displaying the overlaid cards according to the order;

detecting a second user input; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages in response to detecting the second user input.

14. A system, comprising:

one or more hardware processors;

an electronic memory, electronically coupled to the one or more hardware processors, and storing instructions that when executed by the one or more hardware processors, configure the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a first plurality of messages within a conversation;

grouping the plurality of messages into two or more groups, each of the messages in each group meeting a respective group criteria;

generating a first overlaid card by arranging a first message group of a first of the two or more groups on the first overlaid card, the first message group arranged within the first overlaid card based on a criterion;

generating a second overlaid card by arranging a second message group of a second of the two or more groups on the second overlaid card, the second message group arranged within the second overlaid card based on the criterion;

determining a first font size for an arrangement of a second plurality of messages;

determining a second font size for the first and second message groups arranged in the first and second overlaid cards, wherein the second font size has a greater point size than the first font size;

receiving a user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card; and

in response to the user input to transition from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, displaying an animation while transitioning from displaying the first overlaid card to displaying the second overlaid card, the first overlaid card and the second overlaid card configured to exclusively display respectively the first message group and second message group within the conversation.

15. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

ordering a set of overlaid cards;

displaying the set of overlaid cards according to the order until the overlaid card last in the order is displayed; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages.

16. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

ordering a set of overlaid cards;

displaying the set of overlaid cards according to the order;

detecting a second user input; and

displaying the arrangement of the second plurality of messages in response to detecting the second user input.

17. The system of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

ordering the first plurality of messages by timestamp within each message group.