AUTOMATED PARTICIPANT ACCOUNT DETERMINATION FOR A COMMUNICATION SESSION

• US 20130204947A1
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Westen, Peter T., Coffman, Patrick L., Guzman Suarez, Angela J., Bernardo, Jason A., Filippis, Pierre de
• Granted Patent: US 9,641,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90344 by using string matching techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A unified communication application can allow a user to communicate with contacts across multiple electronic communication services. When the user desires to send a message, the communication application can identify a set of candidate account addresses associated with several electronic communication services in response to receiving a partial identifier of an intended recipient. The communication application can present a list including the set of candidate account addresses to the user. In response to receiving a user selection of one of the candidate account addresses, the communication application can determine a sender account from which to send the message.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computer, user input including a partial identifier for an intended recipient of a message to be sent by a sender;

determining, by the computer, based at least in part on the partial identifier, a list of candidate account addresses;

presenting, by the computer, the list of candidate account addresses;

receiving, by the computer, a user selection of one of the candidate account addresses as the identifier of the intended recipient for the message;

determining, by the computer, in response to the selection, a sender account address associated with the sender for sending the message to the intended recipient; and

sending the message to the selected candidate account address from the sender account address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of candidate account addresses includes a set of user identifiers associated with a plurality of electronic communication services

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of electronic communication services includes at least one of e-mail, instant messaging (IM), Short Message Service (SMS), or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the sender account address includes:

determining that the selected candidate account address is associated with a first one of the plurality of electronic communication services; and

selecting, as the sender account address, an account associated with the sender and the first one of the plurality of electronic communication services.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying, by the computer, a first one of the plurality of electronic communication services as being associated with the selected candidate account address;

receiving another user input including another partial identifier for another intended recipient of the message;

searching, by the computer, the database of user contacts to identify another list of candidate account addresses; and

determining a subset in the other list of candidate account addresses, each candidate account address in the subset being associated with the first electronic communication service; and

presenting, by the computer, the subset of candidate account addresses from which the sender can select another intended recipient for the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the list of candidate account addresses includes:

determining whether the partial identifier matches at least one of a first name, a last name, or an account address of one or more contacts in a database of user contacts,

wherein the list is presented in response to determining that the partial identifier matches at least one of the first name, the last name, or the account address, and

wherein the list includes the determined matches.

7. A method comprising:

receiving, at a computer, user input including a sequence of characters;

searching, by the computer and based at least in part on the sequence of characters, a database of user contacts to identify a first set of candidate recipient accounts;

identifying, by the computer, a set of electronic communication services to which a sender is connected;

searching, by the computer and based at least in part on the sequence of characters, one or more service-specific contacts lists of the sender, each service-specific contacts list being associated with one of the electronic communication services in the set of electronic communication services to identify a second set of candidate recipient accounts;

presenting, by the computer, the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts to the sender; and

receiving, by the computer, user selection of a particular candidate recipient account from the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts to send a communication.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein searching the database of user contacts includes searching for a match between the sequence of characters and at least a portion of a first name, a last name, or an account address for each contact in the database of user contacts.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of electronic communication services includes an instant messaging service.

10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

determining an associated electronic communication service for the particular candidate recipient account; and

selecting, based on the associated electronic communication service, a sender account to send the communication.

11. A computer readable storage medium encoded with program instructions that, when executed, cause a processor in a computing device to execute a method for facilitating a chat session, the method comprising:

receiving user input including a partial identifier for an intended recipient of an instant message to be sent by a sender;

searching, based at least in part on the partial identifier, a database of user contacts to identify a set of candidate account addresses for a set of candidate recipients, the set of candidate account addresses including a set of user identifiers associated with a plurality of electronic communication services;

presenting the set of candidate account addresses;

receiving a user selection of one of the candidate account addresses as the identifier of the intended recipient for the instant message; and

determining, based at least in part on the selected candidate account address, a sender account address associated with the sender used for sending the instant message to the intended recipient.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein at least one of the user identifiers is associated with two different electronic communication services.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instant message includes at least one of textual data, video data, audio data, or image data.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein determining the sender account address associated with the sender includes:

determining a particular electronic communication service associated with the selected candidate account address;

determining a set of sender account addresses associated with the particular electronic communication service; and

selecting the sender account address from the set of sender account addresses by identifying a particular sender account address in the set of sender account addresses that communicates most frequently with the candidate account address.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein searching the database of user contacts includes:

matching the partial identifier with a set of first names in the database of user contacts to identify a subset of matching first names;

matching the partial identifier with a set of last names in the database of user contacts to identify a subset of matching last names; and

matching the partial identifier with a set of account addresses in the database of user contacts to identify a subset of matching account addresses,

wherein the set of candidate account addresses includes the subset of matching first names, the subset of matching last names, and the subset of matching account addresses.

16. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory device coupled to the processor, the memory device including instructions to be executed for facilitating communication, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive user input including a partial identifier for an intended recipient of a message to be sent by a sender;

search, based at least in part on the partial identifier, a database of user contacts to identify a set of candidate account addresses for a set of candidate recipients, wherein the set of candidate account addresses includes user identifiers associated with a plurality of electronic communication services;

present the set of candidate account addresses;

receive a user selection of one of the candidate account addresses as the identifier of the intended recipient for the message; and

determine, in response to the selection, a sender account address associated with the sender used for sending the message to the intended recipient.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the user input is received through keyboard input, gesture input, gaze input, or voice command input.

18. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the partial identifier is at least one of a string of characters, a characteristic of a candidate recipient, or a characteristic of an electronic device of the candidate recipient.

19. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to search the database of user contacts further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

determine whether the partial identifier matches at least one of a first name, a last name, or an account address of contacts in the database of user contacts;

subsequent to determining whether the partial identifier matches at least one of the first name, the last name, or the account address of the contacts, identify a set of electronic communication services to which the sender is connected; and

determine, for each of the set of electronic communication services, whether the partial identifier matches a message identifier of contacts in the database of user contacts, the message identifier being associated with one of the set of electronic communication services,

wherein the list presented includes matches to the partial identifier.

20. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to search the database of user contacts further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

determine whether the partial identifier matches at least one of a first name, a last name, or an account address of contacts in the database of user contacts;

in response to determining that the partial identifier does not match at least one of the first name, the last name, or the account address of users, determine whether the partial identifier matches at least one of a communication identifier in a service-specific contacts list,

wherein the communication identifier is associated with at least one of the set of electronic communication services.

21. A computer readable storage medium encoded with program instructions that, when executed, cause a processor in a computing device to execute a method for setting up a communication session, the method comprising:

receiving user input including a sequence of characters;

searching, based at least in part on the sequence of characters, a database of user contacts to identify a first set of candidate recipient accounts;

identifying a set of electronic communication services to which the user is connected;

searching, based at least in part on the sequence of characters, one or more service-specific contacts lists of the sender, each service-specific contacts list being associated with one of the electronic communication services in the set of electronic communication services to identify a second set of candidate recipient accounts;

presenting the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts to the sender; and

receiving user selection of a particular candidate recipient account from the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts to send a communication.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein one of the service-specific contacts list of the sender is stored locally on the computer readable storage medium, wherein another one of the service-specific contacts list of the sender is stored at a remote server accessible through an application programming interface (API).

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the set of communication services includes a set of communication services which the sender is currently logged into.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein presenting the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts includes presenting an ordered list in which the candidate recipient accounts in the first set precede the candidate recipient accounts in the second set.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts are presented to the user by displaying their associated user identifiers and electronic communication service, wherein the first and second sets of candidate recipient accounts are displayed in alphabetical order based at least in part on their associated user identifiers.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, where determining the set of candidate recipient accounts includes performing a match against a portion of at least one of a first name, a last name, or an account address of each contact stored in the database of user contacts.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to receiving the user selection of the particular candidate recipient account, determining a particular electronic communication service associated with the particular candidate recipient account;

determining a sender account that is associated with the particular electronic communication service; and

sending the communication to the particular candidate recipient account using the sender account.