Unified Notification Platform

• US 20120198002A1
• Filed: 01/27/2011
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Vance, Michael Steffen, Goulart, Valerie Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 9,503,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

Notifications are managed in a unified notification platform that receives messages from disparate services, formats, and protocols, and with disparate attributes and meta-attributes. The unified notification platform provides for user defined meta-attributes to allow rapid classification of incoming messages accordingly to user relationships to message senders, including family, friends and co-workers. Incoming messages are received by a message queue component, serialized and prioritized according to a rules engine. Various user interfaces provide views and reports on the serialized messages. In particular a non-modal notification pop-up is disclosed. The unified notification platform exposes an application programming interface provides automatable and remotable programmatic access for application developers.

Claims

1. A system for managing messages, the system comprising:

a processor;

a hardware user interface communicatively coupled to the processor;

a hardware display communicatively coupled to the processor;

a message queue component, operative on the processor, that manages in a virtual queue a plurality of messages received from a plurality of services, wherein at least one message is associated with a user relationship centric meta-attribute; and

a software display module, operative on the processor, that causes data relating to messages managed by the message queue component to be displayed in the hardware display, based at least on the user relationship centric meta-attribute of at least one message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the software display module comprises a separate window that operates non-modally as not to block the operation of a software user interface of a previously opened application, and in which the separate window provides at least one of the following options:

replying to a message;

adding in-line comments to a message; and

reviewing a plurality of messages that are graphically stacked in the separate window.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the message queue component comprises a software notification module, operative on the processor, which broadcasts a software notification upon receipt of a message when active, and that suppresses software notification when inactive.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the hardware user interface comprises a custom button, and wherein the software display module displays data relating to messages in the message queue component responsive to activation of the custom button.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data operations rules engine, operative on the processor, which stores a rule and performs at least one data operation on the virtual message queue.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one data operation on the virtual message queue is any one of:

adding a message to the virtual message queue;

retrieving a message from the virtual message queue;

reordering a message in the virtual message queue;

updating a message in the virtual message queue;

or

deleting a message from the virtual message queue.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein each message in the virtual message queue retains at least one attribute value and the virtual message queue is operative to update at least one attribute value of at least one message in the virtual message queue.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the attribute values are any one of:

a date-time stamp;

a read flag;

a sender identifier;

a subject identifier;

a to line;

a message memory size;

an attachment included flag;

an importance flag;

or

a source identifier.

9. The system of claim 8, the system further comprising a queuing rules engine, operative on the processor, that stores a rule, and sets at least one attribute value of at least one message in the virtual message queue according to the rule.

10. The system of claim 5, the system further comprising an application programming interface, the application programming interface comprising software functions to programmatically access the virtual message queue, the rules engine, or both.

11. A method for managing messages from a plurality of services, the method comprising:

receiving a first message from a first service and receiving a second message from a second service, wherein at least one of the messages is associated with a user relationship centric meta-attribute;

ordering the first message and the second message in a virtual message queue; and

displaying data relating to the virtual message queue in a window, based at least on the user relationship centric meta-attribute of one of the messages.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein, the displayed data comprises any one of the following:

a message count by message service report wherein a first message count for the first service is displayed with a second message count for the second service;

a message count by thread report wherein the first message and the second message are in the same message thread, and the displayed data is a count of messages in a message thread;

or

a message thread count report wherein the first message and the second message are in the same message thread, and the displayed data is a count of message threads.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising retrieving data from the virtual message queue via applying a rule with a rules engine, wherein the displayed data relating to the virtual message queue is the retrieved data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the rule is to increase retrieval priority of messages from a sender with a user relationship centric meta-attribute.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user relationship centric meta-attribute is any one of:

the sender is a parent/guardian of a particular user;

the sender is a family members of a particular user;

the sender is a friend of a particular user;

the sender is in a very important person (VIP) list for a particular user;

the sender is in a the same professional group as a particular user;

the sender is in the same social network group as a particular user;

or

the sender is associated with a particular user'"'"'s employment.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an notification suppression command; and

suppressing notifications relating to at least one of the ordered first message and second message responsive to receiving the notification suppression command, wherein the applied rule is to suppress messages satisfying a predetermined criterion until a predetermined event occurs.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the predetermined event is any one of:

all messages where the sender is a parent/guardian of a particular user have been responded to;

all messages with an importance flag set have been responded to;

a predetermined time period has passed;

or

a service payment has been made.

18. The method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

receiving a rule update;

retrieving updated data from the virtual message queue via applying the rule update with the rules engine; and

displaying the updated data.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

resolving a plurality of contradictory rules by preferentially applying rules according to a predetermined priority with a rules engine; and

retrieving data from the virtual message queue according to the applied resolved rules with the rules engine,

wherein the displayed data relating to the virtual message queue is the retrieved data according to the applied resolved rules.

20. A computer-readable medium containing instructions to be executed by a processor for implementing a method to manage messages from a plurality of services, the method comprising:

receiving a first message from a first service and receiving a second message from a second service, wherein at least one of the messages is associated with a user relationship centric meta-attribute;

serializing the first message and the second message in a virtual message queue;

retrieving data from the virtual message queue via applying a rule with a rules engine; and

displaying the retrieved data in a separate window based at least on the user relationship centric meta-attribute of one of the messages, wherein the separate window operates non-modally as not to block the operation of a software user interface of a previously opened application.