Providing transparency in a messaging system with multiple messaging channels

• US 8,880,627 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2011
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Davenport, Benjamin Peter, Deng, Peter Xiu, Perlow, Jonathan David, Zhang, Lucy Congyun, Gertzfield, Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALRIYASHI, ABDULKADER MOHAMED
• Application Number:
  US13/205,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20130041957A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,184 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/224, 709238-239, 709/204, 379/201.02
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A messaging system facilitates communication between users through various messaging channels. The messaging system supports multiple communication channels and includes a messaging module that automatically selects one or more of the messaging channels for delivering a message to a recipient of the message using, for example, a set of policy rules or a trained model. The messaging module may also provide, in a user interface for sending and receiving messages, a visual indication of the selected messaging channel to the sender of the message to provide the user with transparency about how the message will be delivered. Additionally, the message may be delivered via multiple messaging channels, where the messaging module may rescind messages from some of the messaging channels upon receiving a reply from the recipient of the message or other confirmation that the recipient has seen the message via one of the communication channels.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving information identifying a recipient of a message, wherein the recipient is a user of a messaging system;

selecting, automatically by the messaging system, at least two messaging channels from a plurality of messaging channels for delivering the message to the recipient;

responsive to selecting the at least two messaging channels, providing for display in a user interface a visual indication of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient, the user interface comprising a first region for displaying a message thread and a second region for displaying the visual indication of the at least two messaging channels;

delivering the message to the recipient via the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient;

receiving, by the messaging system, a reply to the message from the recipient via a first messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient;

responsive to receiving the reply to the message via the first messaging channel, de-selecting , automatically by the messaging system, a second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient and updating the visual indication of the user interface to indicate that the second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient is de-selected; and

delivering a new message to the recipient via only the first messaging channel after updating the visual indication to indicate that the second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels is de-selected.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least two messaging channels comprises selecting the at least two messaging channels based on one or more signals.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the messaging system is a social networking system and selecting the at least two messaging channels comprises:

selecting the at least two messaging channels based on information about a social relationship in the social networking system between a sender of the message and the recipient of the message. ssaging channels comprises selecting the at least two messaging channels based on one or more signals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the visual indication of the at least two messaging channels comprises providing a textual description of the at least two messaging channels.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the visual indication of the at least two messaging channels comprises providing at least two graphics that represent the at least two messaging channels.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a presence of the recipient with respect to at least one of the at least two messaging channels; and

providing, for display in the user interface a visual indication of the presence of the recipient.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a location of the recipient; and

providing, for display in the user interface a visual indication of the location of the recipient.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a first message from the recipient via the first messaging channel ;

receiving a second message from the recipient via the second messaging channel; and

providing, for display in the first region of the user interface, the first message and the second message as part of the message thread.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the messaging channels comprise at least one of web-chat, email, and mobile-chat channels.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first messaging channel is e-mail.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first messaging channel is web-chat.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first messaging channel is mobile-chat.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first messaging channel is short message service (SMS).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the at least two messaging channels from the plurality of messaging channels comprises selecting two messaging channels from three or more messaging channels.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing executable program code for:

receiving information identifying a recipient of a message, wherein the recipient is a user of a messaging system;

selecting, automatically by the messaging system, at least two messaging channels from a plurality of messaging channels for delivering the message to the recipient;

responsive to selecting the at least two messaging channels, providing for display in a user interface a visual indication of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient, the user interface comprising a first region for displaying a message thread and a second region for displaying the visual indication of the at least two messaging channels;

delivering the message to the recipient via the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient;

receiving, by the messaging system, a reply to the message from the recipient via a first messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient;

responsive to receiving the reply to the message via the first messaging channel, de-selecting, automatically by the messaging system, a second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient and updating the visual indication of the user interface to indicate that the second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels selected for delivering the message to the recipient is de-selected; and

delivering a new message to the recipient via only the first messaging channel after updating the visual indication to indicate that the second messaging channel of the at least two messaging channels is de-selected.