Electronic communication messaging

• US 8,868,566 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2007
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Yanagihara, Kazuhisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROMELL, ALEXANDRIA Y
• Application Number:
  US11/856,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077026A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,591 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758, 707/748, 709/206
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus related to suggesting components of an electronic communication. A component input associated with an electronic communication is received. Suggested recipient address sets of the electronic communication based on previous electronic communications associated with the component input are identified and presented to a user for selection.

Claims

1. A method executed by one or more computers, comprising:

receiving, from a first address input field of an editing environment having a plurality of address input fields, a recipient address of an electronic communication, each of the address input fields being associated with a distinct recipient type that is one of a “

to”

type, a “

cc”

type, or a “

bcc”

type, wherein the first address input field is associated with a first recipient type;

identifying, from one or more historical address groups stored on a non-transitory storage device, a historical address group based on the received recipient address, the historical address group comprising a first historical address having the first recipient type and one or more second historical addresses having a second recipient type that is different from the first recipient type, the first historical addresss and the one or more second historical addresses being associated in the historical address group by being addresses of the respective recipient types in a previous electronic communication, wherein identifying the historical address group comprises determining a match between the first historical address and the received recipient address; and

providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display in a second address input field of the editing environment as a recipient suggestion, the second address input field being associated with the second recipient type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display comprises offsetting each of the one or more second historical addresses by a different colored background, and wherein the different colored background indicates the association of a particular second historical address with a particular historical address group.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display comprises suggesting one or more historical address groups based on a frequency of use of each historical address group.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a suggested historical address; and

updating a usage parameter associated with the selected historical address.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining if the usage parameter exceeds an automated group storage threshold; and

storing the identified historical address group as an automated group if the usage parameter exceeds the automated group storage threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

updating usage parameters associated with historical address groups that are not selected; and

for each historical address group that is not selected;

determining if the historical address group is stored as an automated group; and

upon determining that the historical address group is stored as the automated group, deleting the automated group if the corresponding usage parameter associated with the historical address group is less than an automated group threshold.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, for each automated group:

determining recipient addresses defined in the automated group; and

providing the automated group to a computer device associated with the recipient addresses.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a match between the first historical address and the received recipient address comprises exclusively matching the received recipient address to the first historical address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified historical address group is associated with a set of one or more attachments based on prior association of the set of one or more attachments with the identified historical address group.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the set of one or more attachments as an attachment suggestion for display in an attachment display field of the editing environment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified historical address group is associated with an e-mail subject based on prior association of the e-mail subject with the identified historical address group.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing the e-mail subject as a subject suggestion for display in a subject display field of the editing environment.

13. A system, comprising:

one or more computers configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a first address input field of an editing environment having a plurality of address input fields, a recipient address of an electronic communication, each of the address input fields being associated with a distinct recipient type that is one of a “

to”

type, a “

cc”

type, or a “

bcc”

type, wherein the first address input field is associated with a first recipient type;

identifying, from one or more historical address groups stored on a non-transitory storage device, a historical address group based on the received recipient address, the historical address group comprising a first historical address having the first recipient type and one or more second historical addresses having a second recipient type that is different from the first recipient type, the first historical address and the one or more second historical addresses being associated in the historical address group by being addresses of the respective recipient types in a previous electronic communication, wherein identifying the historical address group comprises determining a match between the first historical address and the received recipient address; and

providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display in a second address input field of the editing environment as a recipient suggestion, the second address input field being associated with the second recipient type.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display comprises suggesting one or more historical address groups based on a frequency of prior association.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the identified historical address group is associated with a set of one or more attachments based on prior association of the set of one or more attachments with the identified historical address group.

16. A non-transitory storage medium storing computer instructions, the computer instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a first address input field of an editing environment having a plurality of address input fields, a recipient address of an electronic communication, each of the address input fields being associated with a distinct recipient type that is one of a “

to”

type, a “

cc”

type, or a “

bcc”

type, wherein the first address input field is associated with a first recipient type;

identifying, from one or more historical address groups stored on a non-transitory storage device, a historical address group based on the received recipient address, the historical address group comprising a first historical address having the first recipient type and one or more second historical addresses having a second recipient type that is different from the first recipient type, the first historical address and the one or more second historical addresses being associated in the historical address group by being addresses of the respective recipient types in a previous electronic communication, wherein identifying the historical address group comprises determining a match between the first historical address and the received recipient address; and

providing the one or more second historical addresses in the identified historical address group for display in a second address input field of the editing environment as a recipient suggestion, the second address input field being associated with the second recipient type.

17. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, the operations further comprising:

receiving a selection of a suggested historical address; and

updating a usage parameter associated with the selected historical address.

18. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, wherein the identified historical address group is associated with a set of one or more attachments based on prior association of the set of one or more attachments with the identified historical address group.

19. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

providing the set of one or more attachments as an attachment suggestion for display in an attachment display field of the editing environment.

20. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, wherein the identified historical address group is associated with an e-mail subject based on prior association of the e-mail subject with the identified historical address group.

21. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 20, the operations further comprising:

providing the e-mail subject as a subject suggestion for display in a subject display field of the editing environment.