Coordinated notifications across multiple channels

• US 9,866,510 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2016
• Issued: 01/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Wheeler, Daniel Lowe, Wen, Tina, Sood, Aseem
• Primary Examiner(s): Pollack, Melvin H
• Application Number:
  US15/243,710
• Publication Number:
  US 20170005974A1
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• Field of Search: 709206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

A server system can provide coordinated event-based notifications to a target user across multiple notification channels. The selection of channels for a particular notification can be based on the type of event underlying the notification, user preferences related to delivery of notifications, and the like. The sending of notifications in different channels can be coordinated so that notifications in different channels are sent at different times, and sending of any given notification can be made to depend on whether the notification (or the underlying event) has already been acted on, as well as on user preferences related to delivery of notification. Some notifications can be sent without delay and/or unconditionally.

Claims

1. A method of providing a notification of an event, the method comprising:

determining, by a server system, that a first notification has not been acted upon during an allotted amount of time, the first notification sent via a first notification channel, the determining performed by;

identifying that a user account associated with the first notification has not responded to or interacted with the notification,

identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not accessed a content item identified by the notification, or

identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not performed an action that addresses an underlying event that triggered the first notification;

selecting a second notification channel that is different from the first notification channel;

sending, in response to the determining that the first notification has not been acted upon, a second notification to the user account via the selected second notification channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification relates to an event and selecting the second notification channel is performed based on a correspondence between an identified type of the event and the second notification channel.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the type of the event is a social event type and the second notification channel is a notification channel that is associated with storage and organizational capabilities.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the event corresponds to notifications that include a link within the notification, and the second notification channel is a notification channel that provides access to storage and organizational capabilities.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining that the first notification has not been acted upon during the allotted amount of time is performed by identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not accessed the content item identified by the notification;

and

wherein identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not accessed the content item identified by the notification includes identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not clicked on a link indicated in the first notification, not opened an item indicated in the first notification, or not opened a shared folder indicated in the first notification.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the second notification via the second notification channel includes retrieving a previously generated version of the second notification from a queue that is specific to a type of notification channel.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification is associated with metadata, and the identifying that user account associated with the first notification has not responded to or interacted with the first notification includes querying for the metadata and reading a status associated with the metadata.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining that the first notification has not been acted upon during the allotted amount of time is performed by identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not performed the action that addresses the underlying event that triggered the first notification;

and

wherein the underlying event that triggered the first notification includes an action occurring that is associated with the user account, and the action to address the underlying event includes the user account clicking on the first notification.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining that the first notification has not been acted upon during the allotted amount of time is performed by identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not performed the action that addresses the underlying event that triggered the first notification;

and

wherein the underlying event that triggered the first notification includes a second user account sharing a content item with the user account, and the action to address the underlying event includes the user account accessing the content item.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining that the first notification has not been acted upon during the allotted amount of time is performed by identifying that the user account associated with the first notification has not performed the action that addresses the underlying event that triggered the first notification;

and

wherein the underlying event that triggered the first notification includes a change in status of the user account, and the action to address the underlying event includes the user account deleting content items stored within the user account so that the user account is under a storage limit, or upgrading the user account so that the user account is associated with greater storage.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification channel is a channel that is addressed to one or more specific client devices or client applications, and the second notification channel is not specific to a client device or client application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first notification channel is a notification feed specific to a service provided by the server system.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to:

send, in response to an event associated with a user account of a content management system, a first notification using a first notification channel;

determine, after an elapsed period, that an action that addresses the event has not occurred;

in response to determining that the action that addresses the event has not occurred, send, using a second notification channel different from the first notification channel, a second notification to a user registered with the user account.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first notification or the second notification provides shared access to a content item.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the first notification channel is a notification feed specific to a service provided by the content management system.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13,

wherein the user account is a first user account;

and

wherein the event associated with a first user account includes a second user account sharing a content item with the first user account, and the action that addresses the event includes the first user account accessing the content item.

17. A content management system comprising:

an application server configured to send information regarding an event that took place at the application server;

a notifications data store configured to store a record of a first notification, the record including a status field, the first notification having been sent responsive to the event that took place at the application server;

a notification server configured to;

determine, after an allotted amount of time, a status from the status field included with the record of the first notification, wherein the status field was modified responsive to a determined status of the first notification, and

in response to determining the status matches a state indicating the first notification is still pending, send a second notification to a user registered with the content management system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the notification server is further configured to send the second notification using a second notification channel different from a first notification channel that was used to send the first notification.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first notification channel is a notification feed specific to a service provided by the content management system.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the event that took place at the application server includes a second user account sharing, using a link, a content item with the user registered with the content management system, and wherein the status of the first notification is based upon whether the link has been utilized to access the content item.