DELIVERY AND MANAGEMENT OF STATUS NOTIFICATIONS FOR MULTIPLE MESSAGE FORMATS

• US 20120179767A1
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: CLARKE, Michael Frederick Harness, KALYANASUNDARAM, Sanjay, ROEX, Calvin
• Granted Patent: US 10,110,548 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1863 comprising mechanisms for improved reliability, e.g. status reports arrangements for detecting or preventing errors by carrying supervisory signal the return channel H04L1/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1868 Measures taken after transmission, e.g. acknowledgments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for managing and delivering status notifications relating to messages transmitted between communication devices. Each communication device is provided with a status agent for detecting transmission of messages to a recipient device and receipt of messages from a sending device. Upon transmission, the status agent notifies a status service of the outbound message. Upon receipt of a message or upon the message being marked read once received, the status agent notifies the status service that the received message has been received or read accordingly. The status service then notifies the status agent of the sending device that the message has been received or read, so that the sending device'"'"'s status agent can notify a corresponding messaging application. The status service operates to reconcile outbound message notification and received or read status updates for messages sent using a number of different applications or formats.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting a plurality of messages from a communication device for delivery to a corresponding recipient, the plurality of messages being associated with different ones of a plurality of messaging applications executing at the communication device;

detecting, by a status agent executing at the communication device and in communication with the plurality of messaging applications, transmission of each of said plurality of messages;

transmitting, by the status agent for receipt by a status service, an outbound message notification for each of said plurality of messages thus transmitted;

receiving, by the status agent from the status service, a status update message for each of said plurality of messages, each said status update message indicating delivery of said message to a corresponding receiving communication device; and

notifying, by the status agent, each of said plurality of messaging applications of delivery of its associated one of the plurality of messages.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the status agent from the status service, a status update message for each of said plurality of messages indicating that each of said plurality of messages was read at the corresponding receiving communication device; and

notifying, by the status agent, each of said plurality of messaging applications that its associated one of the plurality of messages has been read.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising each of said plurality of messaging applications:

upon being notified of delivery of its associated one of the plurality of messages, displaying an indicator indicating that said associated one of the plurality of messages was delivered; and

upon being notified that its associated one of the plurality of messages has been read, displaying an indicator indicating that said associated one of the plurality of messages was read.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the status agent detecting transmission of each of said plurality of messages comprises the status agent receiving, from each of said plurality of messaging applications, a notification for its associated one of the plurality of messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the status agent detecting transmission of each of said plurality of messages comprises the status agent monitoring an outbound message queue for each of said plurality of messaging applications.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a further plurality of messages at the communication device, the plurality of messages being associated with different ones of the plurality of messaging applications executing at the communication device;

detecting, by the status agent, receipt of each of said further plurality of messages;

transmitting, by the status agent for receipt by the status service, a received message notification for each of said further plurality of messages thus received;

detecting, by the status agent, that each of said further plurality of messages has been read; and

transmitting, by the status agent for receipt by the status service, a read message notification for each of said further plurality of messages thus read.

7. The method claim 1, wherein the plurality of messaging applications comprises at least one instant messaging application.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of messaging applications comprises a plurality of instant messaging applications.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of messaging applications further comprises either an email application or an SMS application.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the status service comprises one or more servers in communication with the communication device at least in part over a wireless network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of messages or further plurality of messages is transmitted for delivery to the one or more recipients via a messaging infrastructure and the status service is separate from the messaging infrastructure.

12. A communication system, comprising:

at least one data store for storing messages; and

one or more processors in communication with said at least one data store, the one or more processors being configured to;

enable transmission of one or more messages for delivery to a corresponding recipient and receipt of one or more messages, the one or more transmitted or received messages being associated with different ones of one or more messaging applications executing at the communication system;

detect, by a status agent executing at the communication system and in communication with the one or more messaging applications, said transmission or receipt;

detect, by the status agent, when any of the one or more received messages has been read at the communication system;

enable transmission of, by the status agent for receipt by a status service, an outbound message notification for each of said one or more transmitted messages once detected, a received message notification for each of said one or more received messages once detected, and a read message notification for each of said one or more received messages once detected as being read;

enable receipt of, by the status agent from the status service, a delivery status update message for each of said one or more transmitted messages indicating delivery of said transmitted message to a corresponding receiving communication system, and a read status update message for each of said one or more transmitted messages indicating that each of said one or more transmitted messages was read at the corresponding receiving communication system;

notify, by the status agent, each of the one or more messaging applications that its associated one of the one or more transmitted messages has been delivered once a delivery status update message has been received; and

notify, by the status agent, each of the one or more messaging applications that its associated one of the one or more transmitted messages has been read once a read status update message has been received.

13. The communication system of claim 12, further comprising a communication subsystem for wireless communication, wherein transmission of said one or more transmitted messages, outbound message notifications, received message notifications, and read message notifications, and receipt of said one or more received messages, delivery status update messages, and read status update messages is carried out using said communication subsystem.

14. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the communication system is comprised in a wireless communication device.

15. The communication system of claim 12, wherein said communication system comprises one or more servers.

16. The communication system of claim 12, wherein said communication system communicates with said status service over a wide area network.

17. The communication system of claim 12, wherein the one or more messaging applications comprises a plurality of messaging applications.

18. The communication system of claim 17, wherein the one or more messaging applications comprises at least one instant messaging application.

19. A status service system for managing status notifications for multiple messaging applications, the status service system comprising:

at least one data store configured to store outbound message notification data;

a communication subsystem configured to communicate over a network; and

one or more processors in communication with the at least one data store and the communication subsystem, the one or more processors being configured to;

receive, using the communication subsystem, outbound message notifications from a plurality of sending communication devices, each of said outbound message notifications corresponding to one of a plurality of messages sent from one of said plurality of sending communication devices, the plurality of messages being associated with different ones of a plurality of messaging applications;

receive, using the communication subsystem, a delivery status update message from one of a plurality of receiving communication devices for each of the plurality of messages and a read status update message from said one of the plurality of receiving communication devices for each of the plurality of messages;

reconcile each of said delivery status update messages and each of said read status update messages with one of said outbound message notifications to determine a corresponding one of the sending communication devices; and

send, using the communication subsystem, a received message notification to the corresponding one of the sending communication devices in response to receiving said delivery status update message, and a read message notification to the corresponding one of the sending communication devices in response to receiving said read status update message.

20. The status service system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of messages comprises a plurality of message formats.

21. The status service system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of messages comprise instant messages.

22. The status service system of claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to register each one of the plurality of sending communication devices and each one of the plurality of receiving communication devices with the status service system.