PROXIED PUSH

• US 20150350362A1
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Pollack, Daniel B., Thirumalai, Gokul P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,654,581 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system and method are described for establishing two-way push communication between an intermediate or companion device and a mobile device. Mobile devices register to listen for push notifications delivered through a push notification service from a specified set of providers. The presence of the mobile devices is delivered to the push notification service that maps the mobile devices to connections made between their respective companion devices and the push notification service. If the push notification service determines that a mobile device is “online,” in response to receiving a push notification for the mobile device, a current network connection over which a companion device is listening for push notifications is identified and the push notification is forwarded to the companion device. The companion device then can deliver the push notification to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for proxied communications, the method comprising:

at a proxied device having one or more processors and a communications interface;

establishing via the communications interface a non-persistent link between the proxied device and a proxy device having a persistent link with a service in order to send a message to the proxy device asserting to the service presence information for the proxied device that instructs the service to associate the proxied device with an existing mapping between the proxy device and a persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service;

terminating the non-persistent link;

re-establishing via the communications interface the non-persistent link in order to receive a push notification associated with the proxied device from the proxy device, the push notification routed by the service to the proxy device using the association between the proxied device and the existing mapping between the proxy device and the persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service; and

storing the push notification in the memory.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the message to the proxy device asserting to the service presence information for the proxied device using the non-persistent link between the proxied device and the proxy device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the presence information for the proxied device includes one or more of a device token or application token.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein establishing via the communications interface the non-persistent link between the proxied device and the proxy device comprises establishing a Bluetooth lower energy connection with the proxy device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein terminating the non-persistent link comprises sending a message to the proxy device indicating an offline status for the proxied device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein terminating the non-persistent link comprises reducing communications with the proxied device for a predetermined period of time.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the push notification associated with the proxied device from the proxy device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the push notification represents an email notification, an instant message notification, a short message service (SMS) notification, a multimedia message service (MMS) notification, or a content status notification.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending information to the proxy device indicating delivery of the push notification at the proxied device.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a persistent connection between the proxied device and the service that instructs the service to disassociate the proxied device with the existing mapping between the proxy device and the persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service; and

receiving one or more push notifications using the persistent connection between the proxied device and the service.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a display of the push notification that includes a visual representation of a type associated with the push notification.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

terminating any non-persistent links with the proxy device; and

establishing via the communications interface a non-persistent link with a second proxy device in order to receive push notifications associated with the proxied device from the second proxy device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the proxied device or proxy device comprises a mobile media player, a smart phone, a wearable device, a tablet, a gaming device, a laptop, or a desktop computer.

14. A computer program product embodied within a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code executable by one or more processors of a proxied device having a communications interface for proxied communications, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:

code for establishing via the communications interface a non-persistent link between the proxied device and a proxy device having a persistent link with a service;

code for sending, using the non-persistent link, a message to the proxy device asserting to the service presence information for the proxied device that instructs the service to associate the proxied device with an existing mapping between the proxy device and a persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service;

code for terminating the non-persistent link;

code for re-establishing via the communications interface the non-persistent link;

code for receiving a push notification associated with the proxied device from the proxy device in response to re-establishing the non-persistent link, the push notification routed by the service to the proxy device using the association between the proxied device and the existing mapping between the proxy device and the persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service; and

code for performing one or more actions based on the push notification.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the code for sending the message to the proxy device comprises code for sending one or more of a device token or application token.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the code for establishing or re-establishing via the communications interface the non-persistent link between the proxied device and the proxy device comprises code for establishing a Bluetooth lower energy connection with the proxy device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the push notification represents an email notification, an instant message notification, a short message service (SMS) notification, a multimedia message service (MMS) notification, or a content status notification.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 further comprising:

code for establishing a persistent connection between the proxied device and the service that instructs the service to disassociate the proxied device with the existing mapping between the proxy device and the persistent link that the proxy device maintains with the service; and

code for receiving one or more push notifications using the persistent connection between the proxied device and the service.

19. A mobile device comprising:

a hardware processor;

a communications interface; and

a memory storing a set of instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

establish via the communications interface a non-persistent link between the mobile device and a companion device having a persistent link with a content delivery service;

send, using the non-persistent link, a message to the companion device asserting to the content delivery service presence information for the mobile device that instructs the content delivery service to associate the mobile device with an existing mapping between the companion device and a persistent link that the companion device maintains with the content delivery service;

terminate the non-persistent link based on one or more power metrics; and

periodically re-establish via the communications interface the non-persistent link in order to receive push notifications associated with the mobile device from the companion device, the push notifications routed by the content delivery service to the companion device using the association between the mobile device and the existing mapping between the companion device and the persistent link that the companion device maintains with the content delivery service.

20. The mobile device of claim 19 wherein the set of instructions further cause the processor to:

establish via the communications interface a non-persistent link with a second companion device; and

receive one or more push notifications associated with the mobile device from the second companion device.

21. The mobile device of claim 19 wherein the set of instructions further cause the processor to:

establish a persistent connection with a second communications interface between the mobile device and the content delivery service that instructs the content delivery service to disassociate the mobile device with any mappings between an companion devices and any persistent link that the companion devices maintain with the content delivery service; and

receive one or more push notifications using the persistent connection between the mobile device and the content delivery service.

22. The mobile device of claim 19 wherein the set of instructions further cause the processor to perform one or more actions based on receiving a push notification associated with the mobile device from the companion device.

23. The mobile device of claim 22 wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to perform the one or more actions to update a user interface with a visual representation of a type associated with the push notification.

24. The mobile device of claim 22 wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to perform the one or more actions to provide haptic feedback to a user of the mobile device.

25. The mobile device of claim 22 wherein the set of instructions cause the processor to perform the one or more actions to initiate one or more applications hosted on the mobile device that retrieve content from the content delivery service.