Urgency Notification Delivery Channel

• US 20130102286A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Toksvig, Michael John McKenzie, Garcia, David Harry, Flores, Eglia Nair
• Granted Patent: US 9,055,415 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

In one embodiment, a first computing device communicating with a second computing device through a communications channel transmits an out-of-band message indicative of the urgency of the communication through a notification channel. In particular embodiments, a server acts as a proxy for relaying the out-of-band message from the first device to the second device. The second device calculates an implicit urgency score based on the communication characteristics, and combines the implicit score with the explicit urgency indicator to determine whether a call is urgent. In particular embodiments, communication handling may be affected by the determination of urgency.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

by a computing device, receiving an indication of a communication from a first user to a second user; and

by the computing device, determining an urgency of the communication based at least in part on social-networking information associated with the first or second user, the social-networking information comprising interactions between the first and second users; and

by the computing device, providing an indication of the urgency as determined for presentation to the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the social-networking information comprises a social coefficient between the first and second users.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactions between the first and second users comprise e-mail, telephone calls, instant messages, Short Message Service (SMS) messages, posts to profile pages of each other, tagging each other in images, or attending same events.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a client computing device of the first user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a client computing device of the second user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a server computing device of a social-networking system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the urgency is determined based at least in part on an explicit indication of urgency provided by the first user in addition to social-networking information associated with the first or second user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication comprises a telephone call from the first user to the second user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the social-networking information is maintained by a social-networking system that comprises a graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes, at least one node in the graph corresponding to the first user, at least one node in the graph corresponding to the second user.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication comprises a visual indicator.

16. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising software that is operable, when executed, to:

receive an indication of a communication from a first user to a second user; and

determine an urgency of the communication based at least in part on social-networking information associated with the first or second user, the social-networking information comprising interactions between the first and second users; and

provide an indication of the urgency as determined for presentation to the second user.

10. The media of claim 16, wherein the social-networking information comprises a social coefficient between the first and second users.

11. The media of claim 16, wherein the interactions between the first and second users comprise e-mail, telephone calls, instant messages, Short Message Service (SMS) messages, posts to profile pages of each other, tagging each other in images, or attending same events.

12. The media of claim 16, wherein the computing device is a client computing device of the first user.

13. The media of claim 16, wherein the computing device is a client computing device of the second user.

14. The media of claim 16, wherein the computing device is a server computing device of a social-networking system.

15. The media of claim 16, wherein the urgency is determined based at least in part on an explicit indication of urgency provided by the first user in addition to social-networking information associated with the first or second user.

17. The media of claim 16, wherein the communication comprises a telephone call from the first user to the second user.

18. The media of claim 16, wherein the social-networking information is maintained by a social-networking system that comprises a graph comprising a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes, at least one node in the graph corresponding to the first user, at least one node in the graph corresponding to the second user.

19. The media of claim 16, wherein the indication comprises a visual indicator.