SMART NOTIFICATIONS

• US 20170083165A1
• Filed: 09/18/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Ali, Zohaib H., Fern, Kenneth, Dawson, Sara Manning L.M., Masterson, Joseph, MANDA, SRINIVASA REDDY, Melo, Eduardo da Fonseca, Yan, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 10,627,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0609 based on severity or priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0618 based on the physical or logical position
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0622 based on time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Controlling notifications based on an importance of the notifications to users is described. A service provider can receive notifications. The service provider can determine an order for sending the notifications based partly on priority levels assigned to the notifications and positions associated with presentations of the notifications. The service provider can send a first notification to at least one device in a first period of time. The service provider can determine that sending a second notification causes a conflict with a presentation policy. Accordingly, the service provider can determine a second period of time subsequent to the first period of time to send the second notification to the at least one device based partly on a lapse of a predetermined amount of time and/or an occurrence of an event, and can send the second notification to the at least one device in the second period of time.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving notifications associated with a profile corresponding to one or more devices;

determining an order for sending the notifications to the one or more devices based at least in part on priority levels assigned to the notifications and positions associated with presentations of the notifications, wherein the positions correspond to regions of a user interface;

sending a first notification of the notifications to at least one device of the one or more devices in a first period of time;

determining that sending a second notification of the notifications exceeds a predetermined number of notifications to be sent to the one or more devices in the first period of time;

determining a second period of time subsequent to the first period of time to send the second notification to the at least one device based at least in part on at least one of a lapse of a predetermined amount of time or an occurrence of an event; and

sending the second notification to the at least one device in the second period of time.

2. The system as claim 1 recites wherein, a prioritization policy assigns a priority level of the priority levels to an individual notification of the notifications based at least in part on one or more of a source of the individual notification, an identifier associated with the individual notification, or a timing associated with the individual notification.

3. The system as claim 2 recites wherein, the identifier associated with the individual notification comprises an indication that the notification includes content that is associated with security, compliance, an update, or a new feature.

4. The system as claim 3 recites wherein, the prioritization policy assigns a highest priority level to notifications that are at least one of expressly requested by the profile or associated with security or compliance content, and assigns successively lower priority levels to notifications including content associated with an update or a new feature, respectively.

5. The system as claim 1 recites wherein, determining the order for sending the notifications is based at least in part on operations further comprising:

accessing a third notification of the notifications;

determining that the first notification and the third notification and are associated with a same priority level;

determining that the first notification is associated with a first position of the positions, the first position corresponding to a first region of the regions of the user interface;

determining that the third notification is associated with a second position of the positions, the second position corresponding to the first region or a second region of the regions of the user interface, wherein the second region is within a threshold distance of the first region; and

sending the third notification to the at least one device in a third period of time that is subsequent to the first period of time.

6. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein determining the order for sending the notifications is based at least in part on operations further comprising:

accessing a third notification of the notifications;

determining that the first notification and the third notification and are associated with a same priority level;

determining that the first notification is associated with a first position of the positions corresponding to a first region of the regions of the user interface;

determining that the third notification is associated with a second position of the positions corresponding to the a second region of the regions of the user interface, wherein the second region is a threshold distance away from the first region; and

sending the third notification to the at least one device during the first period of time.

7. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein the first period of time corresponds to a first session and the second period of time corresponds to a second session.

8. The system as claim 1 recites, wherein:

the profile corresponds to at least two devices of the one or more devices; and

the operations further comprise;

based at least in part on sending the first notification to the at least one device, determining that a user associated with the profile interacted with the first notification; and

based at least in part on determining that the user associated with the profile interacted with the first notification, suppressing sending the first notification to other devices of the at least two devices.

9. A method comprising:

accessing individual notifications of a plurality of notifications from a queue storing the plurality of notifications;

determining an identifier associated with each of the individual notifications;

determining a region in a user interface associated with a presentation of each of the individual notifications;

determining an order for sending each of the individual notifications to a device associated with the profile, wherein determining the order is based at least in part on the identifier and the region in the user interface associated with the presentation of each of the individual notifications;

determining a number of the individual notifications to be sent to the profile in a period of time;

sending the number of the individual notifications to the device based at least in part on the order; and

sending one or more subsequent notifications to the device in one or more subsequent periods of time that are determined based at least in part on predetermined criteria.

10. A method as claim 9 recites, further comprising:

accessing a first individual notification of the individual notifications;

accessing a second individual notification of the individual notifications;

determining that the first individual notification and the second individual notification have a same priority level;

determining that the first individual notification is associated with a first region in the user interface;

determining that the second individual notification is associated with a second region in the user interface;

determining a spatial relationship between the first region and the second region; and

sending the first notification and the second notification to the device based at least in part on the spatial relationship.

11. A method as claim 10 recites, further comprising:

determining that the first region is within a threshold distance of the second region;

sending the first notification at a first time associated with the period of time; and

sending the second notification at a second time associated with a subsequent period of time of the one or more subsequent period of time.

12. A method as claim 10 recites, further comprising:

determining that the first region is a threshold distance away from the second region; and

sending the first notification and the second notification within a same period of time.

13. A method as claim 9 recites, wherein the predetermined criteria includes at least one of a lapse of a predetermined amount of time or an occurrence of an event.

14. A method as claim 13 recites, further comprising determining the occurrence of the event based at least in part on detecting user interaction with the user interface.

15. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

one or more modules stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

accessing notifications associated with a profile;

assigning a priority level to individual notifications of the notifications based at least in part on an identifier associated with the individual notifications;

ranking the individual notifications based at least in part on the priority level and a position associated with the individual notifications corresponding to a region of a user interface where the individual notifications are to be presented;

sending a first individual notification of the individual notifications to a user device associated with the profile, wherein the first individual notification is associated with a first priority level; and

sending a second individual notification of the individual notifications to the user device at a time subsequent to sending the first individual notification, wherein the second individual notification is associated with at least one of;

a second priority level that is a lower priority than the first priority level;

or

a first position that is associated with a region of the user interface that is a same region corresponding to a second position that is associated with the first individual notification or within a threshold distance of the second position.

16. A device as claim 15 recites, wherein the individual notifications each include a data packet including text providing a notice of an event and a function for interacting with the individual notifications.

17. A device as claim 16 recites, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving feedback associated with the first individual notification;

determining approval scores associated with the first individual notification;

determining that a first approval score associated with the at least one of the first individual notification is less than a threshold value; and

initiating a workflow to disable the first individual notification.

18. A device as claim 15 recites, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing a third individual notification of the individual notifications;

determining that the third individual notification is associated with a third priority level that is a lower priority than the first priority level;

suppressing the third individual notification;

determining expiration metadata associated with the third individual notification; and

based at least in part on determining that the third individual notification is not expired, sending the third individual notification to the user device associated with the profile based at least in part on a lapse of time or occurrence of an event.

19. A device as claim 15 recites, wherein the operations further comprise:

accessing a third individual notification of the individual notifications;

determining that the third individual notification is associated with a third priority level that is a lower priority than the first priority level;

suppressing the third individual notification;

determining expiration metadata associated with the third individual notification; and

based at least in part on determining that the third individual notification expired, disabling the third individual notification.

20. A device as claim 15 recites, wherein:

the profile is associated with a plurality of user devices; and

the operations further comprise;

based at least in part on sending the first individual notification to the user device, determining that a user associated with the profile interacted with the first individual notification; and

suppressing sending the first individual notification to other user devices of the plurality of user devices.