Avoiding a Redundant Display of a Notification on Multiple User Devices

• US 20130325922A1
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Published: 12/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chaudhri, Imran, Lemay, Stephen, Cranfill, Caroline, Huang, Ron
• Granted Patent: US 10,210,480 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A user having multiple electronic devices may receive notifications at each of the devices. When it is determined that a first device is in an active state and that a notification has been viewed on that device, an indication that the notification has been viewed may be communicated by the first device to a synchronization server. It may then be determined whether the viewed notification is also present on one or more of the user'"'"'s other devices. Based on the determination, an indication that the notification has been viewed may be sent from the synchronization server to each of the user'"'"'s devices on which the notification is present. Upon receipt of the indication from the synchronization server, the viewed notification may be removed from each of the devices, thereby avoiding a redundant display of the notification on multiple devices.

Claims

1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a processor and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the processor to:

receive, at a server computer system, a first indication that a notification has been viewed on a first device of a user;

identify, by the server computer system, one or more additional devices of the user; and

send, by the server computer system, a second indication that the notification has been viewed to at least one of the one or more additional devices of the user.

2. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to receive the first indication that the notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the processor to receive an identifier of the notification.

3. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 2, wherein the identifier of the notification comprises a result of a hash algorithm applied to the notification.

4. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 2, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to identify the notification in a data store of the server computer system using the identifier of the notification.

5. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to receive the first indication that the notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the processor to receive credentials associated with an account of the user.

6. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 5, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to identify the one or more additional devices of the user comprise instructions to cause the processor to identify one or more additional devices that are associated with the account.

7. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to determine whether the notification is present on any of the one or more additional devices of the user.

8. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 7, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to send the second indication that the notification has been viewed to at least one of the one or more additional devices of the user comprise instructions to cause the processor to send the second indication to only those devices of the one or more additional devices of the user on which the notification is present.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a first device of a plurality of associated devices, a notification;

determining, by the processor of the first device, that the first device is in an active state;

determining, by the processor of the first device, that the notification has been viewed on the first device by a user of the first device; and

sending, by the processor of the first device, an indication that the notification has been viewed on the first device and should be removed from any of the plurality of associated devices on which the notification is present.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of determining that the first device is in an active state comprises detecting, by an image capture component of the first device, a human face.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of determining that the first device is in an active state comprises identifying, by one or more sensors of the first device, an orientation of the first device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the act of determining that the first device is in an active state comprises detecting, by the one or more sensors, a change in the orientation of the first device.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the act of determining that the notification has been viewed on the first device comprises determining, by the processor of the first device, that the notification has been displayed on a display element of the first device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of determining that the notification has been displayed on a display element of the first device comprises determining, by the processor of the first device, that the notification has been displayed on the display element for longer than a certain time threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the act of determining that the notification has been viewed on the first device further comprises identifying, by one or more sensors of the first device, an orientation of the first device.

16. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by a processor and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the processor to:

receive, at a first device of a plurality of associated devices, a plurality of messages from a plurality of sources;

generate, by the first device, a plurality of notifications based on the plurality of messages, the plurality of notifications to be displayed through a common interface of the first device;

determine, by the first device, that the first device is in an active state;

determine, by the first device, that one of the plurality of notifications has been viewed on a display element of the first device; and

send, by the first device, an indication that the notification has been viewed on the first device to a synchronization server computer system.

17. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 16, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to generate the plurality of notifications comprise instructions to cause the processor to determine whether one or more of the plurality of messages satisfies a predefined condition to be presented as a notification.

18. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 16, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to generate the plurality of notifications to be presented through the common interface comprise instructions to cause the processor to generate the notifications to be presented through an interface of a client-side notification service of the first device.

19. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 18, wherein the notification service comprises a service of an operating system of the first device.

20. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 18, wherein the instructions to cause the processor to send the indication that the notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the client-side notification service to send the indication to a server-side notification service executing on the synchronization server computer system.