MESSAGE MANAGEMENT METHOD AND DEVICE

• US 20160150385A1
• Filed: 11/19/2015
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Bourge, Fabrice, Froc, Benjamin, Lepetit, Olivier, Berthomieu, Francis
• Granted Patent: US 10,440,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

One embodiment relates to a message management method comprising an interception process for intercepting a first message sent to a device of a user; an estimation process for estimating a level referred to as the “user interruptibility level” representing the extent to which the user can be interrupted in their current activity; an estimation process for estimating a level of importance of the first message; and a processing process for processing the first message as a function of the user interruptibility level and of the importance level of the first message.

Claims

1. A message management method comprising:

intercepting a first message sent to a device of a user;

estimating a level referred to as the “

user interruptibility level”

representing the extent to which said user can be interrupted in their current activity;

estimating a level of importance of said first message; and

processing said first message as a function of said user interruptibility level and of said importance level of the first message, wherein said user is considered as being interruptible or not interruptible as a function of the result of comparing said estimated interruptibility level with a predefined first threshold, and wherein, if said user is considered as being non-interruptible and if said level of importance of the first message is below a second predefined threshold;

generating an answer to said first message, said answer possibly including all or part of said first message; and

sending said answer to the sender of said first message.

2. A management method according to claim 1, further comprising presenting said first message to said user if said user is considered as being interruptible.

3. A management method according to claim 1, wherein, if said user is considered as being non-interruptible, and if said level of importance of the first message is higher than said second threshold, the management method further comprises:

generating a second message optionally obtained from the first message; and

presenting the second message to said user.

4. A management method according to claim 3, wherein the second message contains a proposed answer to said first message that is to be confirmed by said user and possibly contains all or part of said first message.

5. A management method according to claim 1, further comprising a storage process of storing the results of said processing in a log.

6. A management method according to claim 1, wherein, said level of importance of said first message is determined by analyzing its contents, by a characteristic of the sender, and/or by the number of first messages that have been received from the sender over a predefined time interval.

8. A computer having stored thereon a program including instructions for performing the message management method according to claim 1 when said program is executed by said computer.

9. A non-transitory computer readable data medium having stored thereon a computer program including instructions for performing the message management method according to claim 1 when said instructions are executed by a processor.

7. A message management device comprising:

an interception module configured to intercept a first message sent to a device of a user;

an estimation module configured to estimate a level referred to as the “

user interruptibility level”

representing the extent to which said user can be interrupted in their current activity;

an estimation module configured to estimate a level of importance of said first message;

a processing module configured to process said first message as a function of said user interruptibility level and of said level of importance of the first message;

wherein the processing module is configured to generate an answer to said first message and to send said answer to the sender of said first message if said user is considered as being not interruptible, with said user being considered as interruptible or not interruptible as a function of the result of comparing said estimated interruptibility level with a first predefined threshold, and if said level of importance of the first message is less than a second predefined threshold.

10. The message management device of claim 7, wherein said processing module is configured to generate an answer to said first message which comprises all or part of said first message.