Chat-enabled social circles

• US 9,577,836 B1
• Filed: 09/08/2014
• Issued: 02/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Leske, Matthew John, Mey, Christopher David Vander, Gustafsson, Per Johan, Lindholm, Lars Olof Joakim
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi E
• Application Number:
  US14/480,536
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/206, 715/753, 715/759
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• 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 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for chat-enabling a social circle in response to user input provided by a first user, the social circle being defined by the first user and including one or more contacts, the one or more contacts including a second user, for each of the one or more contacts, issuing a chat service subscription request, determining that a subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled, and in response to determining that the subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled, adding the second user as a chat contact of the first user and adding the first user as a chat contact of the second user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

identifying a first social circle and a type of the first social circle of a first user, the first social circle including a second user;

transmitting first set of instructions to a client device of the first user that cause a display of the first social circle, the display of the first social circle including a selectable graphical element for the first user to perform an action;

receiving, from the first user, the action including chat-enablement of the first social circle;

responsive to receiving the action including the chat-enablement of the first social circle, chat-enabling the first social circle;

issuing a chat service subscription request for the first social circle;

determining whether the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled;

responsive to determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled, transmitting second set of instructions to the client device of the first user that cause a display of an instant messaging interface of an instant messaging service, the instant messaging interface including a list of contacts of the first user, and establishing the second user as a messaging contact in the list of contacts of the first user; and

ordering the list of contacts of the first user based on the type of the first social circle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a second social circle of the second user, the second social circle including the first user;

chat-enabling the second social circle in response to user input provided by the second user, and wherein determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled comprises determining that the second social circle is chat-enabled.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat service subscription request associated with the second user comprises an explicit notification to the second user inviting the second user to become the messaging contact of the first user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled comprises sending the explicit notification to the second user inviting the second user to become the messaging contact of the first user and receiving a confirmation from the second user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

setting a visibility of the first user in the instant messaging interface of the instant messaging service based on user input associated with the first social circle;

determining an availability status of the first user with respect to the second user based on the visibility; and

transmitting availability data to display the availability status of the first user to the second user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise identifying a third social circle of the first user, the third social circle including the second user, and chat-enabling the third social circle in response to user input provided by the first user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

setting a first visibility of the first user in the instant messaging interface of the instant messaging service based on user input associated with the first social circle;

setting a second visibility of the first user in the instant messaging interface of the instant messaging service based on user input associated with the third social circle;

determining an availability status of the first user with respect to the second user based on the first visibility and the second visibility; and

transmitting availability data to display the availability status of the first user to the second user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a fourth social circle of the first user, the fourth circle including a third user;

chat-enabling the fourth social circle in response to user input provided by the first user;

determining that a chat service subscription request associated with the third user is fulfilled; and

in response to determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the third user is fulfilled, adding the third user as a messaging contact in the list of contacts of the first user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

setting a first visibility of the first user in the instant messaging interface of the instant messaging service based on user input associated with the first social circle;

setting a second visibility of the first user in the instant messaging interface of the instant messaging service based on user input associated with the fourth social circle;

determining a first availability status of the first user with respect to the second user based on the first visibility;

determining a second availability status of the first user with respect to the third user based on the second visibility; and

transmitting availability data to display the first availability status to the second user and to display the second availability status to the third user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first availability status and the second availability status are different.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the first user to display a web page associated with the first social circle; and

transmitting web page data and chat display instructions to the client device of the first user that cause a display of the web page to the first user, wherein the chat display instructions, when executed, cause the display of the instant messaging interface of the instant message service in the web page, wherein the second user is listed first in the list of contacts of the first user compared to the third user.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the first user to display a web page associated with the fourth social circle; and

transmitting web page data and chat display instructions to the client device of the first user that cause a display of the web page to the first user, wherein the chat display instructions, when executed, cause the display of the instant messaging interface of the instant message service in the web page, wherein the third user is listed first in the list of contacts of the first user compared to the second user.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the first social circle comprises one from a group of a personal social circle, a shared private social circle and a shared public social circle.

14. A non-transitory computer storage media encoded with one or more computer programs, the one or more computer programs comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

identifying a first social circle and a type of the first social circle of a first user, the first social circle including a second user;

transmitting first set of instructions to a client device of the first user that cause a display of the first social circle, the display of the first social circle including a selectable graphical element for the first user to perform an action;

receiving, from the first user, the action including chat-enablement of the first social circle;

responsive to receiving the action including the chat-enablement of the first social circle, chat-enabling the first social circle;

issuing a chat service subscription request for the first social circle;

determining whether the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled;

response responsive to determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled, transmitting second set of instructions to the client device of the first user that cause a display of an instant messaging interface of an instant messaging service, the instant messaging interface including a list of contacts of the first user, and establishing the second user as a messaging contact in the list of contacts of the first user; and

ordering the list of contacts of the first user based on the type of the first social circle.

15. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a first social circle and a type of the first social circle of a first user, the first social circle including a second user;

transmitting first set of instructions to a client device of the first user that cause a display of the first social circle, the display of the first social circle including a selectable graphical element for the first user to perform an action;

receiving, from the first user, the action including chat-enablement of the first social circle;

responsive to receiving the action including the chat-enablement of the first social circle, chat-enabling the first social circle;

issuing a chat service subscription request for the first social circle;

determining whether the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled;

responsive to determining that the chat service subscription request associated with the second user is fulfilled, transmitting second set of instructions to the client device of the first user that cause a display of an instant messaging interface of an instant messaging service, the instant messaging interface including a list of contacts of the first user, and establishing the second user as a messaging contact in the list of contacts of the first user; and

ordering the list of contacts of the first user based on the type of the first social circle.