COMMUNICATING NOTIFICATIONS FROM A THIRD PARTY SYSTEM TO ONLINE SYSTEM USERS VIA THE ONLINE SYSTEM

• US 20160261594A1
• Filed: 03/06/2015
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vishwanath, Tirunelveli R., Raji, Vijaye Ganesh, Yu, James J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,961,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

To allow a third party system to more particularly identify sets of users for distributing content, an online system receives data from a third party system identifying users of the online system who have authorized communication with the third party system and stores information authorizing communication between the third party system and the users in user profiles associated with the user. The online system receives a request from the third party system to transmit a notification to online system users satisfying criteria specified by the request. User profiles including information authorizing communication between the third party system and online system users are identified by the online system, which selects a set of the identified user profiles associated with information satisfying the criteria specified by the request. The online system transmits the notification to client devices associated with users associated with the set of the identified user profiles.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a plurality of user profiles by an online system, each user profile associated with a user of the online system;

receiving, at the online system, information from a third party system identifying one or more device identifiers each associated with information authorizing communication from the third party system to a client device associated with a device identifier;

identifying one or more user profiles maintained by the online system that include device identifiers matching device identifiers included in the information received from the third party system;

for each identified user profile, storing information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier included in the information received from the third party system in an identified user profile including the device identifier included in the information received from the third party system;

receiving, at the online system, a request from the third party system to communicate a notification to users of the third party system satisfying one or more criteria included in the request;

selecting a set of the identified user profiles that each include information authorizing communication from the third party system and that are each associated with information satisfying at least a threshold number of the criteria included in the request; and

transmitting the notification to client devices associated with users associated with user profiles in the set of the identified user profiles.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier comprises a token generated by the third party system and associated with the device identifier.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein storing information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier included in the information received from the third party system in an identified user profile including the device identifier included in the information received from the third party system comprises:

storing the token in the identified user profile including the device identifier included in the information received from the third party system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria included in the request is selected from a group consisting of:

demographic information, actions associated with users, connections between users and additional users, and any combination thereof

5. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the notification to client devices associated with users associated with user profiles in the set of the identified user profiles comprises:

transmitting the notification to a client device associated with a user associated with a user profile in the set of the identified user profiles using a communication channel specified by an identified user profile associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication channel is selected from a group consisting of:

e-mail, text messaging, multimedia messaging, voice messaging, and push notification messaging.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the notification to client devices associated with users associated with user profiles in the set of the identified user profiles comprises:

transmitting the notification to client devices associated with users associated with user profiles in the set of the identified user profiles through a communication channel specified in the request.

8. A method comprising:

maintaining a user profile by an online system associated with a user of the online system;

receiving, at the online system, information from a third party system identifying a device identifier associated with information authorizing communication from the third party system to a client device associated with the device identifier;

determining the user profile associated with the user includes the device identifier;

storing the information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier in the user profile associated with the user;

receiving, at the online system, a request from the third party system to communicate a notification to users of the third party system satisfying one or more criteria included in the request;

identifying the user profile associated with the user, which includes the information authorizing communication from the third party system to eth client device associated with the device identifier;

determining whether information associated with the user profile associated with the user satisfies at least a threshold number of the criteria included in the request; and

transmitting the notification to the client device associated with the device identifier in the user profile associated with the user subject to the determining.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier comprises a token generated by the third party system and associated with the device identifier.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein storing the information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier in the user profile associated with the user comprises:

storing the token in the user profile associated with the user.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the criteria included in the request is selected from a group consisting of:

demographic information, actions associated with users, connections between users and additional users, and any combination thereof

12. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the notification to the client device associated with the device identifier in the user profile associated with the user subject to the determining comprises:

transmitting the notification to the client device associated with the device identifier in the user profile using a communication channel specified by the user profile associated with the user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication channel is selected from a group consisting of:

e-mail, text messaging, multimedia messaging, voice messaging, and push notification messaging.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive, at the online system, user identifying information from a third party system identifying one or more users of the third party system, the user identifying information including one or more device identifiers, each device identifier associated with information authorizing communication from the third party system to the device identifier;

identify user profiles maintained by the online system including device identifiers included in the received user identifying information from the third party system;

for each device identifier included in the received user identifying information, store information authorizing communication from the third party system to the device identifier in an identified user profile including the device identifier;

receive, at the online system, a request from the third party system to communicate a notification to users of the third party system satisfying one or more criteria included in the request;

select one or more user profiles each including information authorizing communication from the third party system and associated with information satisfying at least a threshold number of the criteria included in the request; and

transmit the notification to client devices associated with device identifiers included in the selected one or more user profiles.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the information authorizing communication from the third party system to the client device associated with the device identifier comprises a token generated by the third party system and associated with the device identifier.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein store information authorizing communication from the third party system to the device identifier in an identified user profile including the device identifier comprises:

storing the token in the identified user profile including the device identifier.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the criteria included in the request is selected from a group consisting of:

demographic information, actions associated with users, connections between users and additional users, and any combination thereof

18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein transmit the notification to client devices associated with device identifiers included in the selected one or more user profiles comprises:

transmit the notification to a client device associated with a user associated with a user profile in the set of the identified user profiles using a communication channel specified by an identified user profile associated with the user.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the communication channel is selected from a group consisting of:

e-mail, text messaging, multimedia messaging, voice messaging, and push notification messaging.

20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein transmit the notification to client devices associated with device identifiers included in the selected one or more user profiles comprises:

transmit the notification to client devices associated with users associated with user profiles in the set of the identified user profiles through a communication channel specified in the request.