SHARED CONTENT PRESENTATION WITH INTEGRATED MESSAGING

• US 20170093769A1
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lind, Shaun C., Bachman, William Martin, Fringes, Alexander C. D., Gromek, Monika E., Morag, Ofer, Gedikian, Steve S., Robbin, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 11,025,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• 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: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/377 for mixing or overlaying two or more graphic patterns G09G5/02, G09G5/397 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43076 of the same content streams on multiple devices, e.g. when family members are watching the same movie on different devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43079 of additional data with content streams on multiple devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes

Abstract

Users who are experiencing a shared content stream can exchange messages. Each user device can present a graphical user interface that includes controls to interact with a shared content stream being received and presented at the user device; a control to begin composing a message to other users who are receiving the shared content stream, and a display area to display previously received messages associated with the shared content stream. A message can be associated with a shared content stream, e.g., by providing a tag that identifies the content being played at the time the message was sent.

Claims

1. A graphical user interface for a user device, the graphical interface comprising:

a first portion comprising a content control operable by a user to interact with a shared content stream being received and presented at the user device;

a second portion comprising a message control operable by the user to compose and send a message to one or more other users who are also receiving the shared content stream; and

a third portion comprising a display of an image corresponding to the shared content and previous messages, the previous messages comprising messages previously sent or received by the user device during presentation of the shared content stream, the previous messages configured to traverse along a path overlaid upon the image, and the previous messages being spaced to reflect a timing of the previous messages with respect to a duration timing of the shared content.

2. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the content control includes a control operable to pause and resume playing of the shared content stream.

3. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the content control includes a control operable to invite another user to share the shared content stream.

4. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the display of previous messages is animated such that a representation of a new message is initially presented at a first side of the third portion and moves along the path across the third portion toward a second side opposite the first side.

5. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the message control includes a text box and wherein a virtual keyboard is presented in the first portion in response to user input selecting the text box.

6. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the previous messages are represented as text bubbles or text balloons presented within the third portion of the graphical interface.

7. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein each previous message of the previous messages is displayed with a timestamp that corresponds with the duration timing of the shared content.

8. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the path comprises a directional path configured to present the previous messages in at least one of a linear, curved, or circular fashion.

9. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein the previous messages correspond to a messaging conversation between the user and at least one of the one or more users.

10. The graphical user interface of claim 9 wherein the messaging conversation was identified during playback of the shared content.

11. The graphical user interface of claim 1 wherein each one of the previous messages comprises at least one of text, a video, audio, or an image.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, at a user device, a shared content stream that is shared with one or more other user devices;

presenting, by the user device, the shared content stream to the user; and

while presenting the shared content stream;

presenting, by the user device, a user interface that includes information from the shared content stream and a message control operable by the user to compose and send a message to other users of the one or more other devices;

receiving, via the user interface, user input including a new message to be sent;

determining, by the user device, in response to receiving the user input, a stream-relative timestamp that identifies a portion of the shared content stream that was being presented when the user input was received;

adding, by the user device, a tag to the new message, the tag including the stream-relative timestamp;

sending, by the user device, the new message, including the tag, to the other users of the one or more other devices; and

presenting, by the user interface, an image corresponding to the shared content stream, the message, and the new message, the message and the new message configured to traverse along a path overlaid upon the image and spaced to reflect a timing difference between respective stream-relative timestamps of the message and the new message.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the new message is sent using a first communication protocol that is different from a second communication protocol used to receive the shared content stream.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving an incoming message from one of the other users of the one or more other devices, the incoming message having a tag that includes a stream-relative timestamp; and

presenting the incoming message along the path overlaid upon the image and spaced to reflect a second timing difference between respective stream-relative timestamps of the new message and the incoming message.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising, at a time after presentation of the shared content stream has ceased:

presenting, in a second user interface for a messaging application, a conversation view that includes at least a subset of messages sent and received during the presentation of the shared content stream,

wherein each message of the subset is presented with the stream-relative timestamp from the tag.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein each message of the subset is further presented with a play control, the method further comprising:

detecting user operation of the play control; and

in response to user operation of the play control;

determining, based at least in part on the stream-relative timestamp, a corresponding portion of the content stream; and

replaying the corresponding portion of the content stream.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

while replaying the corresponding portion of the content stream, presenting at least some of the messages sent and received during the presenting of the shared content stream, wherein each of the messages is presented on the path at a time determined from the stream-relative timestamp.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program instructions that, when executed by a processor in a first mobile device, cause the mobile device to perform a method comprising:

receiving a shared content stream that is synchronized with at least a second mobile device;

receiving a first message from the second mobile device, the first message comprising first time-relative information that identifies a first time within the shared content when the first message was sent;

receiving, at a user interface of the first mobile device, user input that identifies a second message to be sent to the second mobile device;

generating second time-relative information that identifies a second time within the shared content associated with the second message; and

presenting, by the user interface, the first message and the second message overlaid upon an image corresponding to the shared content, the first message and the second message configured to traverse along a path and spaced to reflect a timing difference between respective time-relative information of the first message and the second message.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the method further comprising:

providing the second message for presentation by the second mobile device, the second mobile device configured to present the first message and the second message overlaid upon the image and spaced to reflect the timing difference between the respective time-relative information of the first message and the second message.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein at least one of the first message or the second message is displayed with a timestamp that corresponds to the respective time-relative information.