ENHANCED ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR MESSAGES

• US 20160261551A1
• Filed: 12/22/2015
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gupta, Piyush, Whalen, William James, Sturgeon, Jonathan, Cranston, Wayne Merl, Kapoor, Salil, Parthasarathy, Krishna Kumar, Mahapatro, Neelamadhaba, Sigalov, Faina
• Granted Patent: US 10,447,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

Technologies are described herein for altering message properties within a message to indicate acknowledgement. In particular, types of acknowledgment may include delivery receipts, read receipts and non-read receipts. According to one aspect presented herein, a method is provided for acknowledging a message. The method includes receiving a message from a client and attempting to send the message to a recipient mailbox. Additionally, the method alters properties of the message in response to attempting to send the message.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for acknowledging a message, the method comprises:

receiving the message from a client;

storing the message into a sent folder of a sender mailbox;

sending the message using a direct delivery system configured to write the message in a recipient mailbox; and

altering properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to sending the message, wherein the altered properties indicate that the message was written to the recipient mailbox.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein altering the properties of the message comprises altering the properties of the message to indicate delivery of the message to the recipient mailbox.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein altering properties of the message further comprises changing an appearance of the message to graphically indicate delivery of the message to the recipient mailbox.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein altering the properties of the message comprises altering the properties of the message to indicate the message was not delivered to the recipient mailbox.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox, in response to determining that the message in the recipient mailbox was selected for display.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising altering the properties of the message in response to determining that the message in the recipient mailbox was deleted without being selected for display.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the message to a plurality of mailboxes; and

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to sending the message to the plurality of mailboxes.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to indicate delivery of the message to a first mailbox of the plurality of mailboxes; and

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to indicate non-delivery of the message to a second mailbox of the plurality of mailboxes.

9. A system for acknowledging a message, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, the memory having computer-readable instructions stored thereupon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising

receiving the message from a client,

storing the message into a sent folder of a sender mailbox,

sending the message using a direct delivery system configured to write the message in a recipient mailbox,

determining if the message was written in the recipient mailbox,

altering properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox in response to determining that the message was written to the recipient mailbox, wherein the altered properties indicate that the message was written to the recipient mailbox,

determining if the message was not written in the recipient mailbox, and

altering the properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox in response to determining that the message was not written to the recipient mailbox, wherein the altered properties indicate that the message was not written to the recipient mailbox.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein altering the properties of the message comprises altering the properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox to indicate delivery of the message to the recipient mailbox.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein altering properties of the message comprises changing an appearance of the message stored in the sender mailbox to graphically indicate delivery of the message to the recipient mailbox.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein altering the properties of the message comprises altering the properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox to indicate the message was not delivered to the recipient mailbox.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising altering the properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox in response to determining that the message in the recipient mailbox was selected for display.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising altering the properties of the message stored in the sender mailbox in response determining that the message in the recipient mailbox was deleted without being selected for display.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

attempting to send the message to a plurality of mailboxes; and

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to attempting to send the message to the plurality of mailboxes.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to indicate delivery of the message to a first mailbox of the plurality of mailboxes; and

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to indicate delivery of the message to a second mailbox of the plurality of mailboxes.

17. A method for instant acknowledgment of a message, the method comprises:

receiving the message from a client;

storing the message into a sent folder of a sender mailbox;

sending the message using a direct delivery system configured to write the message in a plurality of recipient mailboxes; and

altering properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to sending the message, wherein the message properties were written to the sender mailbox.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein altering the properties of the message in response to attempting to send the message further comprises:

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to graphically indicate delivery of the message to a first recipient mailbox of the plurality of recipient mailboxes;

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to graphically indicate non-delivery of the message to a second recipient mailbox of the plurality of recipient mailboxes; and

altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox to graphically indicate delivery of the message to a third recipient mailbox of the plurality of recipient mailboxes.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to the message being displayed on a computing device accessing the first recipient mailbox of plurality of recipient mailboxes, wherein the message properties are configured to graphically indicate that the message was displayed on the computing device accessing the first recipient mailbox.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising altering the properties of the message in the sender mailbox in response to the message being deleted without being selected for display on a computing device accessing the third recipient mailbox of plurality of recipient mailboxes, the message properties graphically indicating that the message was deleted without being selected for display on the computing device accessing the third recipient mailbox.