TEXT MESSAGING CONVERSATION USER INTERFACE FUNCTIONALITY

• US 20090176521A1
• Filed: 03/20/2009
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Kuhl, Lawrence Edward, Klassen, Gerhard Dietrich, Wisebourt, Shaul S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails

Abstract

A computer readable medium, method and user device for a user interface functionality for SMS and SMS-like message conversations is provided. A group of individual SMS messages is treated as a single entity by the SMS conversation UI, the SMS conversation history UI saves space by including the SMS editor within the conversation history panel, and displays a pop-up display with useful information regarding the SMS message being edited.

Claims

1. A method for execution by a wireless user device for processing wireless text messages, the method comprising:

grouping a plurality of individual wireless text messages into threads, each thread containing one or more messages between a respective pair of two addresses and at least one of the threads containing more than one message;

for each thread, displaying a respective UI (User Interface) display element representing the thread, the respective UI display element of each thread containing more than one message being displayed in place of a separate display of each of the messages contained in the thread;

receiving a selection of a UI display element representing a particular thread; and

performing an individual function upon each of the individual wireless text messages of the particular thread.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein grouping comprises:

starting a new thread upon receipt of a message from an address for which no thread has been started or upon transmission of a message to an address for which no thread has been started; and

adding each subsequent sent or received message to an appropriate thread for the message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein grouping comprises:

in response to a user input, starting a new thread between two addresses in respect of which a thread had previously been started.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein each thread has a start time and an end time, and each message between the respective pair of addresses that has a time stamp between the start time and the end time is assigned to that thread.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a user selection of the individual function to be performed.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

saving individual messages in response to user input;

grouping saved individual wireless text messages that no longer belong to a thread; and

in response to a user input, displaying the saved individual wireless text messages to/from a selected address in a display list.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein individual functions available comprise at least one of:

a thread delete function, and performing the individual function respectively upon each of the individual wireless text messages comprises deleting each individual wireless text message of the thread; and

a thread save function, and performing the individual function respectively upon each of the individual wireless text messages comprises displaying in a conversation history display listing each of the individual wireless text messages of the thread.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the conversation history display comprises an indication of a current radio signal strength and an indication of a number of unread messages.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the conversation history display comprises a status for each text message displayed.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

in response to a user input, displaying a display element in association with a particular text message in the conversation history display, the display element providing an indication of an elapsed time since a status of the particular text message last changed.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

displaying a message editor as part of the conversation history display.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

displaying a display element indicating a number of allowed characters remaining for a wireless text message being edited.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

automatically splitting a message being composed into multiple messages if the message being composed is too long for a single message; and

while the message is being composed, displaying a number of single messages that will be sent.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein each thread is an SMS message thread.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the threads are message threads of multiple different text messaging services.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein for each thread the respective UI element is a particular wireless text message that represents the thread.

17. A wireless user device configured to implement the method of claim 1.

18. A computer readable medium having program code means stored thereon for execution by a wireless user device so as to implement the method of claim 1.

19. A wireless communication system comprising at least one wireless user device according to claim 17.