Techniques for communicating notifications to subscribers

• US 9,883,389 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Issued: 01/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Frederick, Adriel, Fu, Antony, Rehwald, Martin, Moreno, Denise, Gadodia, Surendra
• Primary Examiner(s): Wang, Liangche A
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUANG, KAYLEE J
• Application Number:
  US13/715,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20140172992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: 709206, 709203, 709227
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• 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 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Techniques for communicating notifications to subscribers are described. An apparatus may comprise a channel component and a notification component. The channel component may be operative to receive an event from a social networking service to communicate to a subscriber of the social networking service and to determine one or more channels of a plurality of channels by which to communicate the event to the subscriber according to rankings associated with each channel, the rankings specific to the subscriber and determined according to subscriber history. The notification component may be operative to construct a notification based on the event and to transmit the notification to the subscriber using the determined one or more channels. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor circuit;

a hardware communications component;

a channel component operative on the processor circuit to receive, via the hardware communications component, a first event from a social networking service to communicate to a subscriber of the social networking service, and to determine one or more channels of a plurality of channels to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to rankings associated with each channel, the rankings specific to the subscriber and determined according to a combined weight for each channel comprising a global weight of a particular channel and a weight specific to a type of the received first event, wherein the combined weight of the particular channel is reduced when the particular channel has a pending undelivered notification and a reduced combined weight correlates to a lower rank, the channel component operative to receive a second event associated with the subscriber and to determine to communicate the second event to the subscriber using the one or more determined channels; and

a machine learning component operative to increase the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the particular channel is responded to by the subscriber and to lower the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the channel is not responded to by the subscriber.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received first event is associated with a second subscriber, the subscriber and the second subscriber having a defined relationship in the social networking service.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of channels comprise two or more of short message service (SMS), telephone, electronic mail, instant message, push notification to a mobile application, and web notification.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the channel component operative to determine the one or more channels based on the associated rankings and one or more of preferences set by the subscriber, information about subscriber devices, subscriber presence on one or more devices, a current location, or a current date and time.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

a logging component operative to record subscriber responses to prior notifications, the recorded responses comprising the subscriber history;

wherein the machine learning component is operative to determine the associated rankings according to the recorded responses.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the channel component operative to determine two or more channels of the plurality of channels, further comprising:

a notification component operative to construct a first notification based on the first event and to transmit the first notification to the subscriber using the determined one or more channels prior to receiving the second event, the notification component operative to combine the first event and the second event into a second notification after the first notification is transmitted and before the first notification is delivered to the subscriber on the determined delivery channel, the second notification replacing the first notification for transmission to the subscriber;

wherein the notification component is operative to cancel the transmission of the first event on one of the two or more channels in response to the successful transmission of the first event on another of the two or more channels.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, the notification component operative to determine that one of the determined channels has had a failed delivery attempt, the channel component operative to determine an additional channel of the plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber, the notification component operative to transmit the notification to the subscriber using the determined additional channel.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, the channel component operative to perform a validity check of one or more of the plurality of channels in response to receiving the first event and to determine the one or more channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to the validity check.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

an event component operative to receive the first event, the first event associated with the subscriber and comprising a type of event, the event component operative to determine to communicate the first event to the subscriber based on a ranking specific to the subscriber and to the type of event.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a processor, from a social networking service a first event associated with a subscriber of the social networking service;

determining to communicate the first event to the subscriber;

determining one or more channels of a plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to rankings associated with each channel, the rankings specific to the subscriber and determined according to a combined weight for each channel comprising a global weight of a particular channel and a weight specific to a type of the received first event, wherein the combined weight of the particular channel is reduced when the particular channel has a pending undelivered notification and a reduced combined weight correlates to a lower rank;

constructing a first notification based on the first event;

transmitting the first notification to the subscriber using the determined one or more channels;

receiving a second event associated with the subscriber after transmitting the first notification;

determining to communicate the second event to the subscriber;

combining the first event and the second event into a second notification, after the first notification is transmitted and before the first notification is delivered to the subscriber on the determined delivery channel;

replacing the first notification for transmission to the subscriber with the second notification; and

increasing the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the particular channel is responded to by the subscriber and lowering the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the channel is not responded to by the subscriber.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

recording subscriber responses to prior notifications, the recorded responses comprising the subscriber history;

determining rankings for each of the plurality of channels according to the recorded responses; and

determining the one or more channels based on the associated rankings and one or more of preferences set by the subscriber, information about subscriber devices, subscriber presence on one or more devices, a current location, or a current date and time.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

determining two or more channels of the plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber;

determining that one of the two or more determined channels has successfully transmitted the first event to the subscriber; and

cancelling transmission of the first event to the subscriber on channels other than the one that successfully transmitted the first event to the subscriber.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

determining that one of the determined channels has had a failed delivery attempt;

determining an additional channel of the plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber in response to the failed delivery attempt according to the rankings associated with each channel; and

transmitting the notification to the subscriber using the determined additional channel.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

performing a validity check of one or more of the plurality of channels in response to the received first event; and

determining the one or more channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to the validity check.

15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive from a social networking service a first event for communication to a subscriber of the social networking service;

performing a validity check of one or more of a plurality of channels in response to the received first event;

determine one or more channels of a plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to rankings associated with each channel and the validity check, the rankings specific to the subscriber and determined according to a combined weight for each channel comprising a global weight of a particular channel and a weight specific to a type of the received first event, wherein the combined weight of the particular channel is reduced when the particular channel has a pending undelivered notification and a reduced combined weight correlates to a lower rank;

construct a first notification based on the first event;

transmit the first notification to the subscriber using the determined one or more channels;

receive a second event associated with the subscriber after the first notification is transmitted;

combine the first event and the second event into a second notification, after the first notification is transmitted and before the first notification is delivered to the subscriber on the determined delivery channel;

replace the first notification for transmission to the subscriber with the second notification; and

increase the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the particular channel is responded to by the subscriber and lower the global weight of the particular channel when a message delivered to the channel is not responded to by the subscriber.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

determine two or more channels of the plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber according to the rankings associated with each channel;

determine that one of the two or more determined channels has successfully transmitted the first event to the subscriber; and

cancel transmission of the first event to the subscriber on channels other than the one that successfully transmitted the first event to the subscriber.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

determine that one of the determined channels has had a failed delivery attempt;

determine an additional channel of the plurality of channels to use to communicate the first event to the subscriber in response to the failed delivery attempt according to the rankings associated with each channel; and

transmit the notification to the subscriber using the determined additional channel.