METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COLLECTING AND PROVIDING APPLICATION USAGE ANALYTICS

• US 20160134716A1
• Filed: 01/18/2016
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Braze, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Appboy, Inc.
• Inventors: Hyman, Jonathan, Magnuson, William
• Granted Patent: US 9,591,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3003 Monitoring arrangements specially adapted to the computing system or computing system component being monitored
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3065 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in reporting the monitored data error or fault reporting or logging G06F11/0766
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3438 monitoring of user actions tracking the activity of the user H04L67/535
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• 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: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

Methods and systems for collecting and analyzing application usage are disclosed. A usage analytics module is integrated within an application. The application is deployed to a device. Usage analytics are received, at a server, in response to usage of the application at the device. The usage analytics are provided to the developer, wherein the usage analytics includes at least one of: information identifying a user of the application or information linking the usage analytics to an existing user identity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a server, a software application from a first client over a network;

coupling, by the server, a set of instructions with the software application such that the set of instructions is able to facilitate at least one of pushing or pulling at least one of content and communications to a user via the software application, wherein the set of instructions is configured to facilitate the collection of data from a user of the software application and send the data to the server over the network when the set of instructions and the software application are executed concurrently on a second client, wherein the data is based on a usage by the user of the software application;

receiving, by the server, the data from the second client over the network; and

sending, by the server, the data to the first client over the network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is statistics regarding use of the software application by the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is feedback from the user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the feedback is at least one of sufficiently detailed to identify the user of the software application via the first client or sufficiently detailed to link to an existing user identity via the first client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications are marketing related communications.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the marketing related communications are at least one of advertisements or product announcements.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of content or communications is obtained via a source external to the server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the software application is configured to display a first graphical user interface, wherein the set of instructions is configured to display a page of a second graphical user interface when the set of instructions and the software application are executed concurrently on the second client, wherein the page is configured to receive a login for a social network service from the user, wherein the set of instructions is configured to link the software application with the social network service over the network based on the login, wherein the set of instructions is configured to augment information received from the social network service with a user profile over the network, wherein the user profile is stored in a database remote from the second client.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding, by the server, the data to a record in a database, wherein the record comprises a profile of the user, wherein the data augments the profile; and

granting, by the server, an access for the record to the first client.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, by a server, a software application from a first client over a network, wherein the software application is configured to display a first graphical user interface;

coupling, by the server, a set of instructions with the software application such that the set of instructions is able to facilitate at least one of pushing or pulling at least one of content and communications to a user via the software application and display the at least one content and communications on a page of a second graphical user interface when the set of instructions and the software application are executed concurrently on a second client, wherein the set of instructions is configured to facilitate the collection of data from a user of the software application, wherein the set of instructions is configured to add information regarding the data received from the user to a user profile stored in a database when the set of instructions and the software application are executed concurrently on the second client, wherein the database is remote from the second client; and

granting, by the server, an access for the user profile stored in the database to the first client over the network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of instructions is able to collect the data from the user of the software application and send the data to the server over the network when the set of instructions and the software application are executed concurrently on the second client, wherein the data is based on a usage by the user of the software application, wherein the data is at least one of sufficiently detailed to identify the user of the software application via the first client or sufficiently detailed to link to the user profile stored in the database, and further comprising:

receiving, by the server, the data from the second client over the network; and

sending, by the server, the data to the first client over the network.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the data is statistics regarding use of the software application by the user.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the data is feedback from the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the feedback is at least one of sufficiently detailed to identify the user of the software application via the first client or sufficiently detailed to link to an existing user identity via the first client.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the communications are marketing related communications.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the marketing related communications are at least one of advertisements or product announcements.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one of content or communications is obtained via a source external to the server.

18. A method comprising:

receiving, by a server, a first identity key from a first client running a first application comprising a first application usage analytics instruction set integrated therewith, wherein the first identity key corresponds to a service account, wherein the first application is linked to the service account via the first application usage analytics instruction set based on the first identity key;

associating, by the server, the first identity key with a profile such that the profile is related with the service account, wherein the profile is stored in a database accessible to the server;

receiving, by the server, a second identity key from a second client running a second application comprising a second application usage analytics instruction set integrated therewith, wherein the second identity key corresponds to the service account, wherein the second application is linked to the service account via the second application usage analytics instruction set based on the second identity key;

associating, by the server, the second identity key with the profile such that the profile is related with the service account; and

de-duplicating, by the server, the first identity key and the second identity key based on an analysis of a usage of the first application and the second application, wherein the analysis is based on the first application usage analytics instruction set and the second application usage analytics instruction set.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the de-duplicating comprises comparing the first identity key to the second identity key.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set and the second application usage analytics instruction set is integrated into a source code of at least one of the first application or the second application.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising sending, by the server, the analysis to a third client.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the first application and the second application are functionally equivalent.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the first application usage analytics instruction set and the second application usage analytics instruction set are functionally identical.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the second application usage analytics instruction set is a copy of the first application usage analytics instruction set.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein the server receives the analysis from at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set or the second application usage analytics instruction set responsive to the usage of at least one of the first application on the first client and the second application on the second client, wherein the server correlates the analysis to the profile.

26. The method of claim 18, further comprising performing, by the server, the analysis.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein the analysis is based on collecting data from a user of at least one of the first client or the second client via at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set or the second application usage analytics instruction set.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the first application or the second application is configured to display a first graphical user interface, wherein at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set or the second application usage analytics instruction set is configured to facilitate at least one of pushing or pulling at least one of content and communications to a user via the software application and display the at least one content and communications on a page of a second graphical user interface, wherein the set of instructions is configured to facilitate the collection of data from a user of at least one of the first application or the second application, wherein at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set or the second application usage analytics instruction set is configured to add information regarding the data received from the user to a user profile stored in a database, wherein the database is remote from at least one of the first client or the second client.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one content and communications is configured to be presented when at least one of the first application or the second application is initiated.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one content and communications is received from a social network service.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one content and communications is received from an email service associated with the user of at least one of the first application or the second application.

32. The method of claim 18, further comprising monitoring, by the server, a follow-on activity via at least one of the first application usage analytics instruction set or the second application usage analytics instruction set.