Automated aggregation of social contact groups

• US 10,592,534 B2
• Filed: 02/16/2016
• Issued: 03/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gong, Zaoyang
• Primary Examiner(s): Frumkin, Jesse P
• Application Number:
  US15/044,533
• Publication Number:
  US 20170235812A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,491 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

An electronic device is configured with a social contact group aggregation system that operates to identify similar groups of contacts that are associated with different social applications and aggregate those groups into a single, unified group with which the device user may interact. When the device user uses a social application to create or import a new group of social contacts, the aggregation system can apply one or more of various aggregation factors to determine if the new group matches a pre-existing group and then aggregate the new group into the existing group if a match is identified. The aggregation factors illustratively include the similarity of names between the new and an existing group, the degree to which social contacts in the groups are already linked, the similarity of profile information among members of the groups, and other associative factors.

Claims

1. A method for aggregating social contact groups associated with a plurality of social applications available to an electronic device, in which each social contact group has social contact members, comprising:

maintaining a list of a plurality of existing social contact groups available to the electronic device, at least some of the plurality of existing social contact groups being respectively associated with different social network applications, and wherein each of the plurality of existing social contact groups contains a plurality of social contacts;

monitoring occurrences of creation or importation of new social contact groups;

determining whether a new social contact group has a predetermined similarity to one of the plurality of existing social contact groups contained in a social network application that is different from one in which the new social contact group is contained, and wherein the determination is based on a comparison of associative factors between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, other than social contact group name, in which the associative factors comprise at least one of commonality of group member profile between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, or pre-existing linkage between one or more group members in the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups;

responsively to the determination, combining members from the new social contact group and the matching existing social contact group into an aggregated social contact group; and

rendering the aggregated social contact group on a user interface (UI) supported by the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 further including enabling a user of the electronic device to interact with the rendered aggregated social contact group through the UI.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering further includes showing content from one or more social applications.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering further includes showing links to one or more social applications.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering further includes showing members in the aggregated social contact group, in which the members are drawn from the plurality of social applications.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering further includes showing the aggregated social contact group with other different aggregated social contact groups.

7. The method of claim 1 further including configuring the UI to enable a user of the electronic device to pin the aggregated social contact group to one of home screen, hub, pivot, or centralized location supported on the electronic device.

8. The method of claim 1 in which the rendering further includes dynamically updating the aggregated social contact group with content or information.

9. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a display that supports a user interface (UI) for conveying information and interacting with a user of the electronic device; and

a memory device storing computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the electronic device to;

track multiple existing groups of social contacts that are associated with the user wherein one or more of the existing groups of social contacts are respectively associated with one or more social networking applications,

monitor for events occurring on the electronic device that pertain to one of creation of a new group of social contacts, or importation of a new group of social contacts,

match the new group of social contacts to an existing group among the multiple existing groups of social contacts based on one or more matching factors, based on a comparison of associative factors between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, other than social contact group name, in which the associative factors comprise at least one of commonality of group member profile between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, or pre-existing linkage between one or more group members in the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups,

aggregate the social contacts in the new group with the social contacts in the matching existing group, and

render the aggregated group of social contacts on the display.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 further including a touchscreen and microphone and in which user inputs comprise one or more of touch-based gestures, visual gestures, or voice inputs.

11. The electronic device of claim 9 in which the matching factors comprise at least one of similarity between names of the new group of social contacts and an existing group of social contacts, degree of linking among members in the new group of social contacts and the existing group of social contacts, or similarity of profiles among members in the new group of social contacts and the existing group of social contacts.

12. The electronic device of claim 9 in which the electronic device further configures the UI to enable the user to perform one or more of setting preferences, controlling the aggregation of the group of social contacts, or controlling rendering of the aggregated group of social contacts on the device.

13. The electronic device of claim 9 in which the electronic device further provides a notification to the user on the UI that social contact group aggregation is available and receives user input in response to the notification.

14. The electronic device of claim 13 in which the electronic device further enables the user to interact with the aggregated group of social contacts using the UI.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors disposed in a device, implement a social contact group aggregation system on the device to:

detect a new social contact group that is associated with a device user;

upon detection of the new social contact group, identify a similar existing social contact group, from multiple distinct social contact groups, that is associated with the device user based on a comparison of associative factors between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, other than social contact group name, in which the associative factors comprise at least one of commonality of group member profile between the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups, or pre-existing linkage between one or more group members in the new social contact group and the existing social contact groups;

responsively to a similar existing social contact group being identified, combine the new social contact group and the similar existing social contact group into an aggregated social contact group;

provide the device user with a user interface (UI) to interact with the aggregated social contact group; and

render content from one or more social applications on the UI.

16. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 in which the social contact group aggregation system further makes a recommendation through a user interface (UI) supported on the device to aggregate the new social contact group with the existing social contact group.

17. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 in which the social contact group aggregation system further interacts with one or more remote systems that are associated with respective one or more of the social applications.

18. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 15 in which the new social contact group is created by the device user or imported to the device.