Selective linking of message accounts

• US 8,572,194 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2011
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sousa, Audrey Yung Chin, Roberts, Chad, Callegari, Shawn Cantin
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US13/158,201
• Publication Number:
  US 20120317208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-206
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes

Abstract

The present application relates to message account linking that allows users to selectively link message accounts and customize those linked message accounts. In one embodiment, the user selects a number of message accounts for selective linking. A message application updates a message account database to selectively link the message accounts and create a combined message box. When a user selects the combined message box for display, all messages from the selectively linked message accounts are displayed. In one embodiment, a user can create multiple combined message boxes on a single device, and may assign names to each of the combined message boxes. In yet another embodiment, an icon associated with a combined message box is added to the device'"'"'s home screen.

Claims

1. A method of accessing message accounts on a user device, comprising:

providing multiple message accounts on the user device, wherein the multiple message accounts includes at least a first message account, a second message account, a third message account, and a fourth message account;

receiving user input selecting the first message account and the second message account;

linking the first message account and the second message account to create a first combined message box;

receiving user input selecting the third message account and the fourth message account;

linking the third message account and the fourth message account to create a second combined message box;

displaying the first combined message box as a list of messages from both the first message account and the second message account; and

displaying the second combined message box as a list of messages from both the third message account and the fourth message account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth message accounts are one of the following:

an email account, a text message account, a social network messaging inbox, or an instant message account.

3. The method of claim 1, further including providing an interface usable to select at least one of the first, second, third, or fourth message accounts from a list of message accounts for linking to at least one of the first or second combined message boxes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message account is associated with a first service provider and the second message account is associated with a second service provider.

5. The method of claim 1, further including assigning a name to at least one of the first or second combined message boxes.

6. The method of claim 1, further including providing a user interface usable to name at least one of the first or second combined message boxes.

7. The method of claim 1, further including adding to a user interface an icon associated with at least one of the first or second combined message boxes, and wherein the icon includes a display of one or more of the following:

a name of the combined message box associated with the icon, a name of one of the message accounts linked to create the combined message box associated with the icon, or a number representing the sum of the number of messages in the message accounts linked to create the combined message box associated with the icon.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple message accounts includes at least one message account that is not linked to the first or second combined message boxes.

9. The method of claim 1, further including unlinking one of the first, second, third, or fourth message accounts based on receiving user input to unlink the corresponding message account.

10. One or more computer-readable memory having instructions thereon for executing the method of claim 1.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth message accounts are email accounts.

11. A mobile device capable of selectively linking message accounts, the mobile device comprising:

a processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform a method of selectively linking message accounts, the method comprising;

providing multiple message accounts on the device; and

linking a first subset of the multiple message accounts to create a first combined message box based on received user input identifying the first subset of the multiple message accounts, wherein the first combined message box includes messages from each of the message accounts in the first subset of the multiple message accounts; and

linking a second subset of the multiple message accounts to create a second combined message box based on received user input identifying the second subset of the multiple message accounts, wherein the second combined message box includes messages from each of the message accounts in the second subset of the multiple message accounts.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the received user inputs include individual user selection of each message account in the first and second subsets of the multiple message accounts.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first or second subsets of the multiple message accounts includes at least three message accounts but less than all of the multiple message accounts.

14. The method device of claim 11, further including automatically adding to a home screen of the device an icon associated with one of the first or second combined message boxes and automatically removing from the home screen an icon associated with one of the message accounts linked to the combined message box for which the icon was added to the home screen.

15. The device of claim 14, further including:

receiving an indication that the icon associated with the one of the first or second combined message boxes was selected; and

displaying the combined message box associated with the icon as a list of messages from the message accounts linked to create the combined message box associated with the icon.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein all of the message accounts in at least one of the first or second subsets of the multiple message accounts are email accounts.

16. One or more computer-readable memory storing instructions that, when executed by a mobile device, perform a method of providing combined message boxes on the mobile device, the method comprising:

displaying a list of message accounts;

receiving user input selecting a first message account to be linked;

receiving user input selecting a second message account to be linked;

linking the first message account and the second message account to create a first combined message box;

receiving user input selecting a third message account to be linked;

receiving user input selecting a fourth message account to be linked;

linking the third message account and the fourth message account to create a second combined message box;

assigning a name to at least one of the first combined message box or the second combined message box;

displaying the first combined message box as a list of messages from both the first message account and the second message account; and

displaying the second combined message box as a list of messages from both the third message account and the fourth message account.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first message account is an email account and the second message account is an email account.

18. The method of claim 16, further including adding an icon associated with the first combined message box and an icon associated with the second combined message box to a user interface of the mobile device.