Techniques for automatically generating a suggested contact based on a received message

• US 10,565,219 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2015
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Gross, Daniel C., Yang, Lawrence Y., Lemay, Stephen O., Jon, Tiffany S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Morrison, Jay A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Caiado, Antonio J
• Application Number:
  US14/718,049
• Publication Number:
  US 20150347534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,735 Days
• Field of Search: 707722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/287 Visualization; Browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• 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

Abstract

An electronic device suggests contacts and calendar events for users based on their messages. The device can analyze a user'"'"'s messages for contact and event information and automatically generate or update suggested contacts and calendar events for the user based on this information. The suggested contacts and calendar events can be searchable as if they were manually entered by the user, and the user can choose to add or ignore the suggested contacts and calendar events.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device with a display, cause the device to:

receive a message;

in response to receipt of the message, automatically identify, in the received message, an entity and contact information associated with the entity, wherein the identified contact information includes at least one of a phone number, address, business name, or social networking handle;

in response to identifying, automatically determine that a contact associated with the identified entity does not exist among a plurality of contacts in a database;

in response to the determining, automatically generate a contact associated with the entity;

display the generated contact comprising the contact information and an indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, wherein the indication identifies the contact information with a first selectable affordance configured to invoke a user interface for reviewing the suggested contact; and

in response to a request to review the suggested contact, replace display of the indication with the contact information that includes a second selectable affordance configured to invoke a communication application to contact the entity.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein to identify comprises:

identify a signature block of the message; and

analyze the identified signature block for the entity and the contact information.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the message comprises an email and the signature block comprises an e-mail signature.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the email comprises one or more prior emails in an email thread, and wherein to identify the e-mail signature comprises:

analyze the one or more prior emails in the email thread.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein to identify comprises:

identify in the message one or more phrases based on a collection of predefined phrases; and

analyze the one or more identified phrases for the entity and the contact information.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

update the collection of predefined phrases over a network.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

downgrade one or more of the predefined phrases as a result of a request to reject the suggested contact.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

generate one or more of the predefined phrases by cross-correlating contact information in the database with language associated with contact information on the electronic device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

receive a request for a contact; and

in response to the request for a contact, search the suggested contact.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

in response to the generation of the contact, refrain from storing the suggested contact in a remote database over a network.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

receive a request to add the suggested contact to the database; and

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, store the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in the database.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, store the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in a remote database over a network.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium further comprises instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors of the electronic device, cause the device to:

receive a request to reject the suggested contact, and

in response to receiving the request to reject the suggested contact, prevent the suggested contact from being generated in the future as a result of the entity and the contact information being identified in a future message.

14. A method comprising:

at an electronic device with a display;

receiving a message;

in response to the receipt of the message, automatically identifying, in the received message, an entity and contact information associated with the entity, wherein the identified contact information includes at least one of a phone number, address, business, or social networking handle;

in response to the identifying, automatically determining that a contact associated with the identified entity does not exist among a plurality of contacts in a database;

in response to the determining, automatically generating a contact associated with the entity;

displaying the generated contact comprising the contact information and an indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, wherein the indication identifies the contact information with a first selectable affordance configured to invoke a user interface for reviewing the suggested contact; and

in response to a request to review the suggested contact, replacing display of the indication with the contact information that includes a second selectable affordance configured to invoke a communication application to contact the entity.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying comprises:

identifying a signature block of the message; and

analyzing the identified signature block for the entity and the contact information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the message comprises an email and the signature block comprises an e-mail signature.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the email comprises one or more prior emails in an email thread, and wherein identifying the e-mail signature comprises:

analyzing the one or more prior emails in the email thread.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying comprises:

identifying in the message one or more phrases based on a collection of predefined phrases; and

analyzing the one or more identified phrases for the entity and the contact information.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

updating the collection of predefined phrases over a network.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

downgrading one or more of the predefined phrases as a result of a request to reject the suggested contact.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating one or more of the predefined phrases by cross-correlating contact information in the database with language associated with contact information on the electronic device.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a request for a contact; and

in response to the request for a contact, searching the suggested contact.

23. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

in response to the generation of the contact, refraining from storing the suggested contact in a remote database over a network.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a request to add the suggested contact to the database; and

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, storing the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in the database.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, storing the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in a remote database over a network.

26. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a request to reject the suggested contact; and

in response to receiving the request to reject the suggested contact, preventing the suggested contact from being generated in the future as a result of the entity and the contact information being identified in a future message.

27. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving a message;

in response to the receipt of the message, automatically identifying, in the received message, an entity and contact information associated with the entity, wherein the identified contact information includes at least one of a phone number, address, business, or social networking handle;

in response to the identifying, automatically determining that a contact associated with the identified entity does not exist among a plurality of contacts in a database;

in response to the determining, automatically generating a contact associated with the entity;

displaying the generated contact comprising the contact information and an indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, wherein the indication identifies the contact information with a first selectable affordance configured to invoke a user interface for reviewing the suggested contact; and

in response to a request to review the suggested contact, replacing display of the indication with the contact information that includes a second selectable affordance configured to invoke a communication application to contact the entity.

28. The electronic device of claim 27, wherein identifying comprises:

identifying a signature block of the message; and

analyzing the identified signature block for the entity and the contact information.

29. The electronic device of claim 28, wherein the message comprises an email and the signature block comprises an e-mail signature.

30. The electronic device of claim 29, wherein the email comprises one or more prior emails in an email thread, and wherein identifying the e-mail signature comprises:

analyzing the one or more prior emails in the email thread.

31. The electronic device of claim 27, wherein identifying comprises:

identifying in the message one or more phrases based on a collection of predefined phrases; and

analyzing the one or more identified phrases for the entity and the contact information.

32. The electronic device of claim 31, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

updating the collection of predefined phrases over a network.

33. The electronic device of claim 31, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

downgrading one or more of the predefined phrases as a result of a request to reject the suggested contact.

34. The electronic device of claim 31, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

generating one or more of the predefined phrases by cross-correlating contact information in the database with language associated with contact information on the electronic device.

35. The electronic device of claim 27, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

receiving a request for a contact; and

in response to the request for a contact, searching the suggested contact.

36. The electronic device of claim 27, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

in response to the generation of the contact, refraining from storing the suggested contact in a remote database over a network.

37. The electronic device of claim 27, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

receiving a request to add the suggested contact to the database; and

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, storing the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in the database.

38. The electronic device of claim 36, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

in response to the request to add the suggested contact to the database, storing the generated contact, without the indication that the generated contact is a suggested contact, in a remote database over a network.

39. The electronic device of claim 27, the one or more programs further including instructions for:

receiving a request to reject the suggested contact; and

in response to receiving the request to reject the suggested contact, preventing the suggested contact from being generated in the future as a result of the entity and the contact information being identified in a future message.