METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MARKING EMAIL THREADS

• US 20150350142A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: CHAUDHRI, Imran, GUENTHER, Carsten, BARAY, Cristobal, LEMAY, Stephen O., JON, Tiffany S., YANG, Lawrence
• Granted Patent: US 9,450,902 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a technique for marking email threads as important. When an email thread is marked as important, all email messages belonging to the email thread are marked as important in an email user interface. Also, notifications are generated for any incoming messages belonging to the email thread that has been marked as important.

Claims

1. A method for marking email threads, comprising:

receiving a user selection to mark an email thread as important via an email user interface;

identifying a plurality of email messages that belong to the email thread;

marking the email thread by marking each email message of the plurality of email messages as important in the email user interface; and

generating a notification when a new email message belonging to the email thread that has been marked as important is received.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving a user selection comprises:

receiving a selection of an existing email message belonging to an existing email thread; and

receiving a selection of a graphical element to mark the existing email thread as important.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving a user selection comprises receiving a selection of a graphical element to mark an outgoing thread as important when composing a new email message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said marking comprises adding a particular icon next to each email message of the plurality of email messages in the email user interface.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a subset of email messages from the plurality of email messages, wherein the subset of email messages includes a number of most recent email messages.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising obtaining a message identifier (ID) associated with each email message in the subset of email messages.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising communicating the obtained message IDs to an external sync service, wherein the obtained message IDs are used to identify the email thread that has been marked as important across a plurality of client devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtained message IDs are synced to the plurality of client devices via the external sync service.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said notification is configurable by a user, and the notification comprises a visual alert that includes a message indicating that the new email message belonging to the email thread that has been marked as important is received.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a thread notifications mailbox is created for the email thread that is marked as important, and the plurality of messages belonging to the email thread are collected in the thread notifications mailbox.

11. A system for marking email threads, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage medium configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause an email client to;

receive a user selection to mark an email thread as important via an email user interface;

identify a plurality of email messages that belong to the email thread;

mark the email thread by marking each email message of the plurality of email messages as important in the email user interface; and

generate a notification when a new email message belonging to the email thread that has been marked as important is received.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor further causes the email client to:

receive a selection of an existing email message belonging to an existing email thread; and

receive a selection of a graphical element to mark the existing email thread as important.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor further causes the email client to receive a selection of a graphical element to mark an outgoing thread as important when composing a new email message.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor further causes the email client to mark the email thread by adding a particular icon next to each email message of the plurality of email messages in the email user interface.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor causes the email client to identify a subset of email messages from the plurality of email messages, wherein the subset of email messages includes a number of most recent email messages.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor causes the email client to obtain a message identifier (ID) associated with each email message in the subset of email messages.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the obtained message IDs are communicated to an external sync service and the obtained message IDs are used to identify the email thread that has been marked as important across a plurality of client devices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the obtained message IDs are synced to the plurality of client devices via the external sync service.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein said notification is configurable by a user, and the notification comprises a visual alert that includes a message indicating that the new email message belonging to the email thread that has been marked as important is received.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein a thread notifications mailbox is created for the email thread that is marked as important, and the plurality of messages belonging to the email thread are collected in the thread notifications mailbox.