VIRTUAL CONTACT CARDS

• US 20160205058A1
• Filed: 03/21/2016
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhao, Lucy Ma
• Granted Patent: US 10,389,544 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A service provider receives from a user who has an account with it contact card information and recipient information picture information, therefrom determines a virtual contact card and contact channels through which the virtual contact card is sent to the recipients designated by the user, and sends the virtual contact card to the designated recipients through the contact channels. The virtual contact card and contact channels may be selected from what have been previously registered, either by the user or a third person, with the service provider and stored in the user'"'"'s account, or just newly created, updated, and sent from the user at the time of transmission request to the designated recipients. The virtual contact card, when updated by the user, may be automatically sent by the service provider to the same recipients that previously received a pre-updated version.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a non-transitory memory; and

one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

sending a virtual contact card through a network for local storage on each of a plurality of user devices, wherein the virtual contact card includes entity information;

determining that a first subset of the entity information included in the virtual contact card has been modified to provide a modified subset of the entity information; and

sending the modified subset of the entity information through the network to each of the plurality of user devices in order to cause client applications at each of the plurality of user devices to automatically update the first subset of the entity information in locally stored instances of the virtual contact cards at with the modified subset of the entity information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sending the modified subset of the entity information to each of the plurality of user devices is via at least one contact channel selected from a plurality of contact channels according to restrictions established for a respective account associated with each of the plurality of user devices.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the restrictions include a specific time, an order of preferred contact channels, or both for sending the modified subset of the entity information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving a share request identifying the virtual contact card to be sent and one or more recipients associated with the plurality of user devices to which the virtual contact card is to be sent.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise in response to receiving the modified subset of the entity information, updating the first subset of the entity information in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual contact card is for a merchant and the entity information is merchant information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the virtual contact card is for a user and the entity information is user information.

8. A method, comprising:

sending, by one or more processors, a virtual contact card through a network for local storage on each of a plurality of user devices, wherein the virtual contact card includes entity information;

determining, by the one or more processors, that a first portion of the entity information included in the virtual contact card has been modified to provide a modified portion of the entity information; and

sending, by the one or more processors, the modified portion of the entity information through the network to each of the plurality of user devices in order to cause client applications at each of the plurality of user devices to automatically update the first portion of the entity information in locally stored instances of the virtual contact cards at with the modified portion of the entity information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sending the modified portion of the entity information to each of the plurality of user devices is via at least one contact channel selected from a plurality of contact channels according to restrictions established for a respective account associated with each of the plurality of user devices.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the restrictions include a specific time, an order of preferred contact channels, or both for sending the modified portion of the entity information.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving, by the one or more processors, a share request identifying the virtual contact card to be sent and one or more recipients associated with the plurality of user devices to which the virtual contact card is to be sent.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising in response to receiving the modified portion of the entity information, updating, by the one or more processors, the first portion of the entity information in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the virtual contact card is for a merchant and the entity information is merchant information.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the virtual contact card is for a user and the entity information is user information.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a share request identifying a virtual contact card to be sent and one or more recipients associated with a plurality of user devices to which the virtual contact card is to be sent;

sending the virtual contact card through a network for local storage on each of the plurality of user devices, wherein the virtual contact card includes entity information;

determining that a first subset of the entity information included in the virtual contact card has been modified to provide a modified subset of the entity information; and

sending the modified subset of the entity information through the network to each of the plurality of user devices in order to cause client applications at each of the plurality of user devices to automatically update the first subset of the entity information in locally stored instances of the virtual contact cards at with the modified subset of the entity information.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the sending the modified subset of the entity information to each of the plurality of user devices is via at least one contact channel selected from a plurality of contact channels according to restrictions established for a respective account associated with each of the plurality of user devices.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the restrictions include a specific time, an order of preferred contact channels, or both for sending the modified subset of the entity information.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise in response to receiving the modified subset of the entity information, updating the first subset of the entity information in a server stored instance of the virtual contact card.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the virtual contact card is for a merchant and the entity information is merchant information.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the virtual contact card is for a user and the entity information is user information.