Techniques for a messaging agent platform

• US 10,581,771 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2016
• Issued: 03/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenberg, Seth Garrett Steinberg, Bhandarkar, Aditya Gopal, Talmor, Yoram, Goldberg, Jeremy Harrison, Larionov, Mikhail, Lee, Jessica, Bushak, Nicolas Andrij
• Primary Examiner(s): Rubin, Blake J
• Application Number:
  US15/394,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20170293954A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,160 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• 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 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

Techniques for a messaging agent platform are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a intermediary server operative to send a page-scoped identifier to a front-end application, the front-end application associated with an entity, the page-scoped identifier identifying a user account with a messaging system in relation to a representation for the entity within the messaging system; receive a user information request from a contact application at the intermediary server, the contact application associated with the representation for the entity within the messaging system, the user information request for the page-scoped identifier; determine a user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account; and send a user information data package to the contact application in response to the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user consent. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

sending a page-scoped identifier to a commerce front-end application from a commerce intermediary server, the commerce front-end application associated with a commerce entity, the page-scoped identifier comprising a unique identifier for a user account on a web page associated with the commerce entity;

receiving a user information request from a commerce contact application at the commerce intermediary server, the commerce contact application associated with a commerce representation for the commerce entity within the messaging system, the user information request for the user account associated with the page-scoped identifier;

determining at a commerce intermediary server, a user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account, the user access consent setting indicating whether a user associated with the user account is willing to share user information of the user with the commerce contact application, the user information include one or more of name information, contact information and biographical information of the user;

sending a user information data package comprising the user information of the user to the commerce contact application from the commerce intermediary server in response to the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user consent; and

rejecting the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user non-consent.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-to-commerce invocation associated with the commerce entity in association with the user account;

generating the page-scoped identifier in response to the user-to-commerce invocation; and

sending the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to the user-to-commerce invocation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-to-commerce message thread invocation from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message thread invocation in association with a commerce-entity trigger suggestion on the client device; and

sending the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce message thread invocation from the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-to-commerce invocation in association with a web plugin on a web page associated with the commerce entity; and

sending the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce invocation in association with the web plugin.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a phone number record from the commerce front-end application;

matching the phone number record to the user account; and

sending the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to matching the phone number record received from the commerce front-end application to the user account.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a commerce-to-user message from a commerce messaging application, the commerce-to-user message addressed to the page-scoped identifier;

identifying the user account based on the page-scoped identifier; and

sending the commerce-to-user message to a client device associated with the user account.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user-to-commerce message from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message addressed to a user-to-commerce message thread associated with the commerce entity; and

setting the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account to indicate user consent.

8. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor circuit on a device; and

a commerce intermediary server operative on the processor circuit to;

send a page-scoped identifier to a commerce front-end application, the commerce front-end application associated with a commerce entity, the page-scoped identifier comprising a unique identifier for a user account on a webpage associated with the commerce entity;

receive a user information request from a commerce contact application at the commerce intermediary server, the commerce contact application associated with a commerce representation for the commerce entity within the messaging system, the user information request for the user account associated with the page-scoped identifier;

determine, at a commerce intermediary server, a user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account, the user access consent setting indicating whether a user associated with the user account is willing to share user information of the user with the commerce contact application, the user information include one or more of name information, contact information and biographical information of the user;

send a user information data package comprising the user information of the user to the commerce contact application in response to the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user consent; and

reject the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user non-consent.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a user-to-commerce invocation associated with the commerce entity in association with the user account;

generate the page-scoped identifier in response to the user-to-commerce invocation; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to the user-to-commerce invocation.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a user-to-commerce message thread invocation from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message thread invocation in association with a commerce-entity trigger suggestion on the client device; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce message thread invocation from the client device.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a user-to-commerce invocation in association with a web plugin on a web page associated with the commerce entity; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce invocation in association with the web plugin.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a phone number record from the commerce front-end application;

match the phone number record to the user account; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to matching the phone number record received from the commerce front-end application to the user account.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a commerce-to-user message from a commerce messaging application, the commerce-to-user message addressed to the page-scoped identifier;

identify the user account based on the page-scoped identifier; and

send the commerce-to-user message to a client device associated with the user account.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

the commerce intermediary server operative to receive a user-to-commerce message from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message addressed to a user-to-commerce message thread associated with the commerce entity; and

set the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account to indicate user consent.

15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

send a page-scoped identifier to a commerce front-end application from a commerce intermediary server, the commerce front-end application associated with a commerce entity, the page-scoped identifier comprising a unique identifier for a user account on a webpage associated with the commerce entity;

receive a user information request from a commerce contact application at the commerce intermediary server, the commerce contact application associated with a commerce representation for the commerce entity within the messaging system, the user information request for the user account associated with the page-scoped identifier;

determine, at a commerce intermediary server, a user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account, the user access consent setting indicating whether a user associated with the user account is willing to share user information of the user with the commerce contact application, the user information include one or more of name information, contact information and biographical information of the user;

send a user information data package comprising the user information of the user to the commerce contact application from the commerce intermediary server in response to the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user consent; and

reject the user information request when the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier indicates user non-consent.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive a user-to-commerce message thread invocation from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message thread invocation in association with a commerce-entity trigger suggestion on the client device; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce message thread invocation from the client device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive a user-to-commerce invocation in association with a web plugin on a web page associated with the commerce entity; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to receiving the user-to-commerce invocation in association with the web plugin.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive a phone number record from the commerce front-end application;

match the phone number record to the user account; and

send the page-scoped identifier to the commerce front-end application in response to matching the phone number record received from the commerce front-end application to the user account.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive a commerce-to-user message from a commerce messaging application, the commerce-to-user message addressed to the page-scoped identifier;

identify the user account based on the page-scoped identifier; and

send the commerce-to-user message to a client device associated with the user account.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising further instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive a user-to-commerce message from a client device associated with the user account, the user-to-commerce message addressed to a user-to-commerce message thread associated with the commerce entity; and

set the user access consent setting for the page-scoped identifier for the user account to indicate user consent.