GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE DISPLAY WHICH DIFFERENTIATES AMONG PARTICIPANTS IN A GROUP CONVERSATION

• US 20120331397A1
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Eidelson, Benjamin David, Marra, Gregory Matthew, Prado, Jason B., Gilbert, Fred Peter, Kim, Ye-Jeong, Soni, Punit Singh, Kemp, Aaron David, Nanavati, Sharvil, Sharkey, Jonathan Gordon, Liu, Sean Yaoxing
• Granted Patent: US 9,443,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

A system and machine-implemented method for differentiating participants in a group conversation within a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, via displaying a collection of contact icons on the graphical user interface, each contact icon respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of participants in a group conversation, wherein the group conversation provides for sharing communication messages among the plurality of participants including the user; determining which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation; and differentiating, in the graphical user interface, display of the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation from the remaining contact icons.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for differentiating participants in a group conversation within a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, the method comprising:

displaying a collection of contact icons on the graphical user interface, each contact icon respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of participants in a group conversation, wherein the group conversation provides for sharing communication messages among the plurality of participants including the user;

determining which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation; and

differentiating, in the graphical user interface, display of the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation from the remaining contact icons.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the differentiating step comprises at least one of highlighting, coloring, enlarging and shrinking the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation so as to be different from the remaining contact icons.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the differentiating step comprises grouping the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation together, so as to be separate from the remaining contact icons.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises receiving from a server a determination of which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises:

receiving indications of current access from devices respectively corresponding to the plurality of participants; and

determining which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation based on the received indications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most recent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most frequent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.

8. A system for differentiating participants in a group conversation within a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

determining which of a plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation, based on indications of current access for devices respectively corresponding to the plurality of participants; and

displaying a collection of contact icons on the graphical user interface, each contact icon respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of participants in the group conversation, wherein the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation are differentiated in display from the remaining contact icons.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation are differentiated in display from the remaining contact icons by at least one of highlighting, coloring, enlarging and shrinking.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation are grouped together, so as to be differentiated in display from the remaining contact icons.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the indications of current access are received from a server.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the indications of current access are received from the devices respectively corresponding to the plurality of participants.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most recent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most frequent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.

15. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

displaying a collection of contact icons on a graphical user interface of an electronic device of a user, each contact icon respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of participants in a group conversation, wherein the group conversation provides for sharing communication messages among the plurality of participants including the user;

receiving a determination of which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation; and

differentiating, in the graphical user interface and based on the received determination, display of the contact icons corresponding to the participants currently accessing the group conversation from the remaining contact icons.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the differentiating comprises at least one of highlighting, coloring, enlarging and shrinking the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation so as to be different from the remaining contact icons.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the differentiating comprises grouping the contact icons corresponding to those participants determined to be currently accessing the group conversation together, so as to be separate from the remaining contact icons.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the receiving comprises receiving from a server a determination of which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the receiving comprises receiving indications of current access from devices respectively corresponding to the plurality of participants, so as to determine which of the plurality of participants are currently accessing the group conversation.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most recent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the contact icons are presented in order based on most frequent access of the group conversation by the respective participants.