Systems devices and methods for automatically selecting an ephemeral message availability

• US 10,616,162 B1
• Filed: 08/24/2015
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Inventors: Zhao, Haibo
• Primary Examiner(s): Springer, James E
• Application Number:
  US14/833,556
• Time in Patent Office: 1,688 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes

Abstract

Methods and devices are presented for managing communications in an ephemeral communication system. In some embodiments, messages in the system are analyzed to determine a complexity value for the message. This may be based on various algorithms, models, or system associations. The complexity information may then be used to recommend an availability value for the message, and to set a deletion trigger for the message based on the recommended availability value. When criteria of the automatically set deletion trigger are met at a device receiving the message, the message is automatically deleted from the device. In some embodiments, this deletion trigger at the device may also be used to initiate deletion of the message from other parts of the system.

Claims

1. A method of processing ephemeral messages in a communication system, the method comprising:

accessing, using a first device comprising one or more processors, a first ephemeral message;

analyzing the first ephemeral message for a complexity value using an ephemeral analysis module implemented using the one or more processors, the complexity value being associated with a set of message elements having an expected impact on an expected recipient viewing time associated with the first ephemeral message, and wherein the analyzing the first ephemeral message is performed in response to an availability setting interface selection between a specific availability increment and an automatic recommendation setting being selected for the automatic recommendation setting;

generating, by the one or more processors using the complexity value, an availability recommendation value for a number of views of the first ephemeral message based on the complexity value, wherein the availability recommendation value is associated with a trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message following initiation of display of the first ephemeral message for the number of views.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first ephemeral message comprises a first image;

wherein analyzing the first ephemeral message for the complexity value comprises identifying a number of faces in the first image; and

wherein the complexity value is based at least in part on the number of faces identified in the first image.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the complexity value is based, at least in part, on a difference between a compressed file size of the first ephemeral message and an uncompressed file size of the first ephemeral message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first ephemeral message comprises a first video clip;

wherein analyzing the first ephemeral message for the complexity value comprises analyzing sequential frames of the first video clip for differences between the sequential frames; and

wherein the complexity value is based, at least in part, on the differences between the sequential frames of the first video clip.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending, from the first device to a second device, the first ephemeral message with the trigger for automatic deletion.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving, at the first device prior to the analyzing of the first ephemeral message, a user input selecting an ephemeral message analysis for the first ephemeral message;

displaying, at an output display of the first device, a message associated with the availability recommendation value and the trigger; and

receiving a user input accepting the availability recommendation value and the trigger;

wherein the first ephemeral message is sent to the second device in response to the user input accepting the availability recommendation.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving, prior to accessing the first ephemeral message, a first user input approving automatic acceptance of the availability recommendation value and the trigger;

receiving a second user input to send the first ephemeral message to the second device;

wherein the analysis of the first ephemeral message is performed in response to the second user input based on the first user input.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the first device from a second device, the first ephemeral message prior to accessing and analyzing the first ephemeral message;

displaying one or more images of the first ephemeral message on a display of the first device for a first time based on the availability recommendation value; and

deleting the first ephemeral message from the first device, following display of the one or more image, based on the trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the first ephemeral message comprises an indicator from the second device allowing an automatic selection of the trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message by the first device.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

communicating, from the first device to a server computer, notification of deletion of the first ephemeral message;

wherein the message is received from the second device via the server computer.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, at the first device, the first ephemeral message from a second device, wherein the first device comprises a communications server computer for an ephemeral message service;

analyzing the first ephemeral message to identify a third device to receive the first ephemeral message and an approval for automatic selection of the trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message by the third device; and

sending the first ephemeral message to the third device with the trigger following the analyzing of the first ephemeral message for the complexity value and the generating of the trigger based on the complexity value.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein first ephemeral message comprises a video clip and a set of metadata, and wherein the trigger comprises a threshold number of two or more views and a deletion time frame, such that the system is prevented from pausing the video clip and a terminated instance of playback is counted as one of the number of views.

13. A computing system comprising:

a memory configured to store a first ephemeral message;

one or more processors coupled to the memory and configured to;

analyze the first ephemeral message for a complexity value using an ephemeral analysis module, the complexity value being associated with a set of message elements having an expected impact on an expected recipient viewing time associated with the first ephemeral message, and wherein the analyzing the first ephemeral message is performed in response to an availability setting interface selection between a specific availability increment and an automatic recommendation setting being selected for the automatic recommendation setting;

generate, using the complexity value, an availability recommendation value for a number of views of the first ephemeral message that may be initiated by the one or more processors based on the complexity value, wherein the availability recommendation value is associated with a trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message.

14. The computing system of claim 13 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to analyze the first ephemeral message using an ephemeral message analysis module, wherein the ephemeral message analysis module comprises one or more image processing models to determine the complexity value.

15. The computing system of claim 14 wherein the once or more processors are configured to analyze the first ephemeral message by processing one or more images of the first ephemeral message to identify a number of face images in the first ephemeral message.

16. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to set the complexity value and the availability recommendation using the number of faces images in the first ephemeral message, wherein a number of faces below a first threshold is associated with a shorter availability recommendation, and a second number of faces above the first threshold is associated with a longer availability recommendation.

17. The computing system of claim 15 comprising an application programming interface server configured to receive the first ephemeral message from a first device and to communicate the first ephemeral message to a second client device with the trigger;

wherein the one or more processors are part of an application server executing the ephemeral message analysis module.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a first device, configure the one or more processors to:

access a first ephemeral message from a first memory of the first device;

analyze the first ephemeral message for a complexity value using an ephemeral analysis module, the complexity value being associated with a set of message elements having an expected impact on an expected recipient viewing time associated with the first ephemeral message, and wherein the analyzing the first ephemeral message is performed in response to an availability setting interface selection between a specific availability increment and an automatic recommendation setting being selected for the automatic recommendation setting; and

generate, using the complexity value, an availability recommendation value for a number of views of the first ephemeral message based on the complexity value, wherein the availability recommendation value is associated with a trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to:

receive, via an camera of the first device, a content element of the first ephemeral message; and

receive, via an input module of the first device, an account identifier associated with a second device to identify the second device to receive the first ephemeral message.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to:

analyze the account identifier associated with the second device to determine that the second device is authorized to automatically determine the trigger for automatic deletion of the first ephemeral message.