FACILITATING THE SENDING OF MULTIMEDIA AS A MESSAGE

• US 20150312184A1
• Filed: 06/23/2014
• Published: 10/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Langholz, Benjamin S., Tyler, William McMillan
• Granted Patent: US 9,836,207 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/001 Texturing; Colouring; Generation of texture or colour inpainting G06T5/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• 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 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 : Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display

Abstract

One or more embodiments described herein include methods and systems of sending multimedia content items as electronic communications. More specifically, systems and methods described herein provide user the ability to easily and effectively select multimedia content items stored on a computing device for inclusion in a communication session without navigating away from the communication session. Additionally, systems and methods described herein provide a user the ability to edit multimedia content items for inclusion in the communication session.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing, on a client device, a messaging graphical user interface, the messaging graphical user interface comprising a communication thread in a first portion, the communication thread comprising a plurality of electronic messages exchanged between a user and one or more co-users;

detecting a selection of a multimedia input control;

in response to the detected selection of the multimedia input control, providing, by at least one processor, a multimedia content item display area in a second portion of the messaging graphical user interface, the multimedia content item display area providing a preview of one or more multimedia content items stored on the client device available for sending as an electronic message.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein providing the multimedia content item display area comprises providing a preview of one or more recently stored multimedia content items.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more multimedia content items stored on the client device available for sending as an electronic message comprise one or more digital photographs or digital videos.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising cropping the preview of each of the one or more multimedia content items stored on the client device available for sending as an electronic message.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising tailoring the cropped preview of each of the one or more multimedia content items to an aspect ratio of the second portion of the messaging graphical user interface.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein providing a preview of one or more multimedia content items comprises providing a digital video that auto plays within the second portion of the messaging graphical user interface.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a selection of a preview of a multimedia content item provided in the multimedia content item display area in the second portion of the messaging graphical user interface; and

in response to the detected selection of the preview of the multimedia content item, sending the multimedia content item corresponding to the selected preview.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising, in response to sending the multimedia content item, adding the multimedia content item to the communication thread in the first portion of the messaging graphical user interface.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the multimedia content item display area is horizontally scrollable.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

detecting a horizontal over-scroll of the multimedia content item display area;

in response to the detected horizontal over-scroll, displaying a camera roll associated with the client device.

11. A method comprising:

providing a split-screen messaging graphical user interface comprising two portions,

the first portion providing a communication thread comprising a plurality of electronic messages exchanged between a user and one or more co-users, and

the second portion providing a multimedia content item display providing a preview of each of one or more multimedia content items;

detecting a selection of a preview of a multimedia content item from the multimedia content item display; and

in response to the detected selection of the preview of the multimedia content item from the multimedia content item display, overlaying, by at least one processor, a first control on the selected preview of the multimedia content item.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising tailoring the preview of each of the one or more multimedia content items provided in the multimedia content item display to an aspect ratio of the second portion of the messaging graphical user interface.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first control overlaid on the selected preview of the multimedia content item is an editing control.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising, in response to the detected selection of the preview of the multimedia content item from the multimedia content item display, overlaying a second control on the selected preview of the multimedia content item.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the second control overlaid on the selected multimedia content item is a send control.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, further comprising, in response to the detected selection of the preview of the multimedia content item from the multimedia content item display, blurring the selected preview of the multimedia content item.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising:

detecting a selection of the editing control overlaid on the selected preview of the multimedia content item;

in response to the detected selection of the editing control overlaid on the selected preview of the multimedia content item, presenting a copy of multimedia content item associated with the selected preview for editing.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising receiving one or more edits to the copy of the multimedia content item.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

adding the copy of the multimedia content item with the one or more edits to the communication thread; and

sending the copy of the multimedia content item with the one or more edits.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system to:

provide, on a client device, a messaging graphical user interface, the messaging graphical user interface comprising a communication thread in a first portion, the communication thread comprising a plurality of electronic messages exchanged between a user and one or more co-users;

detect a selection of a stored multimedia input control;

in response to the detected selection of the stored multimedia input control, provide a multimedia content item display area in a second portion of the messaging graphical user interface, the multimedia content item display area providing a preview of one or more multimedia content items stored on the client device available for sending as an electronic message.