Generating Conversation Threads for a Unified Messaging System

• US 20130157626A1
• Filed: 12/19/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Talwar, Mohit, Pavlicic, Miladin, Murlidhar, Siddharth
• Granted Patent: US 9,374,690 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/413
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• 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 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

Methods and systems directed to assigning individual messages and call log data into an aggregated conversation thread on both client and server devices for a user interface having a conversations view including all the communications a given users has with his or her contacts across multiple communication means and protocols. Messages between a user and a particular contact are threaded together, regardless of their format or protocol in order to provide the user with a quick history of all communications with his or her contacts.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing systems:

receiving, from a first client associated with a first node on a social network, information describing a communication between the first client and one or more other clients, the information comprising identifiers for the one or more other clients;

searching a database of threads, each thread comprising a plurality of participants, for a thread associated with the first node and having a plurality of participants matching the identifiers for the one or more other clients;

if a matching thread is identified, then adding the information to the thread; and

if a matching thread is not identified, then creating a new thread associated with the first node, the new thread comprising the information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifiers are social networking user identifier numbers, each representing a node on a social networking system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifiers are received from the client as phone numbers, and further comprising:

performing, prior to searching the database of threads, a reverse-lookup for each phone number in a database of phone numbers, each number in the database of phone numbers associated with a social networking user identifier representing a node on a social networking system; and

replacing, for each phone number having an associated social networking user identifier, the identifier with the social networking identifier; and

for each phone number not having an associated social networking user identifier, adding the phone number to the database of phone numbers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifiers are received as phone numbers, and further comprising:

performing a reverse-lookup for each phone number in a database of phone numbers, each number in the database of phone numbers associated with a social networking user identifier representing a node on a social networking system; and

replacing, for each phone number having an associated social networking user identifier, the identifier with the social networking identifier; and

for each phone number not having an associated social networking user identifier, adding the phone number to the database of phone numbers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is a voice call, and the information further comprises the time and date of the voice call.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is a text message, and the information further comprises:

the time and date of the text message;

the sender and one or more recipients of the text message; and

the body of the text message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is a voicemail, and the information further comprises:

the time and date of the voicemail;

the sender and recipient of the voicemail; and

the content of the voicemail.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the content of the voicemail is an audio recording of the voicemail.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the content of the voicemail is a link to an audio recording of the voicemail.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the content of the voicemail is a series of text strings obtained through speech-to-text processing of the voicemail.

11. A method comprising, by one or more computing systems:

receiving an association between a node identifier representing a user on a social network and a phone number;

searching a database of phone numbers for entries matching the phone number;

upon finding a matching entry, updating the entry with the node identifier; and

updating all references in one or more databases to the phone number with the node identifier.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more databases comprises a database of conversation threads.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the association is received from the user.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the association is received from another user of the social network.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the association is received from a third-party database.

16. The method of claim 11, updating all references to the phone number comprising generating a link from each instance of the phone number to its corresponding entry in the database of phone numbers.

17. The method of claim 11, updating all references to the phone number comprising replacing the phone number with the node identifier.

18. A method comprising, by one or more computing systems:

receiving, from a first client associated with a first node on a social network, information describing a communication between the first client and one or more other clients;

determining if the information includes a thread identifier;

if so, then adding the information to the identified thread in a database of threads, and if not;

searching the database of threads, each thread comprising a plurality of participants, for a thread associated with the first node and having a plurality of participants matching identifiers for the one or more other clients;

if a matching thread is identified, then adding the information to the thread; and

if a matching thread is not identified, then creating a new thread associated with the first node and generating a unique thread identifier for the new thread, the new thread comprising the information.