Methods for generating message notifications

• US 9,973,462 B1
• Filed: 10/21/2013
• Issued: 05/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Petersen, Morten Just
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Aftab N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Anh
• Application Number:
  US14/058,616
• Time in Patent Office: 1,667 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages

Abstract

A method includes accessing, by one or more computers, a message; identifying, at the one or more computers and based on information contained in the message, at least one topic related to the message; identifying, at the one or more computers, a graphical topic indicator based on the at least one topic; and outputting, by the one or more computers and for display, a visual notification regarding the message, wherein the visual notification includes the graphical topic indicator.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, by one or more computers, a message sent by a sender to a receiver;

identifying, by the one or more computers and based on information contained in the message, a topic descriptive of the message, the topic descriptive of the message not identified based on an input from the sender or the receiver;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a graphical topic indicator based on the topic, the graphical topic indicator not identified based on an input from the sender or the receiver;

identifying, by the one or more computers and based on information contained in the message, the sender of the message;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a graphical sender indicator that is associated with the sender;

outputting, by the one or more computers for visualization on a display device of the receiver, a visual notification regarding the message, wherein the visual notification

includes the graphical topic indicator and the graphical sender indicator,

is separate from the message,

is disposed within first display element that is a bounded area, wherein the graphical topic indicator and the graphical sender indicator are the only elements displayed within the bounded area, and

does not include text fragments from the message;

outputting, by the one or more computers on the display device of the receiver, the message in a message representation that is a second display element separate from the visual notification, wherein the message representation is output without receiving an input from the receiver to display the message and while the visual notification is displayed; and

removing, by the one or more computers from the display device of the receiver, the message representation in response to passage of a display time period for the message representation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the topic descriptive of the message includes semantic analysis of the message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical topical indicator is an icon.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the icon is a single-color icon.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the graphical topic indicator based on the topic includes accessing metadata associated with stored graphical elements and selecting one of the stored graphical elements as the graphical topic indicator based on a comparison of the topic descriptive of the message and the metadata associated with the stored graphical elements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the display device has a display area and the bounded area occupies a majority of the display area.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the topic descriptive of the message is based on comparing the message to known message profiles.

7. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memory devices for storing program instructions used by the one or more processors, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to;

access an email message sent by a sender to a receiver;

identify, based on information contained in the email message, a topic descriptive of the email message, the topic descriptive of the email message not identified based on an input from the sender or the receiver;

identify a graphical topic indicator based on the topic, the graphical topic indicator not identified based on an input from the sender or the receiver;

identify a graphical sender indicator that is associated with the sender of the email message;

output, for visualization on a display device of the receiver, a visual notification regarding the email message, wherein the visual notification

includes the graphical topic indicator and the graphical sender indicator,

is separate from the email message,

is disposed within first display element that is a bounded area, wherein the graphical topic indicator and the graphical sender indicator are the only elements displayed within the bounded area, and

does not include text fragments from the email message;

output, on the display device of the receiver, the email message in a message representation that is a second display element, wherein the email message is output without receiving an input from the receiver to display the email message and while the visual notification is displayed; and

remove, from display at the display device of the receiver, the message representation in response to passage of a display time period for the email message.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to identify the topic descriptive of the email message by semantic analysis of the email message.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the graphical topical indicator is an icon.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the icon is a single-color icon.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to identify the graphical topic indicator based on the topic by accessing metadata associated with stored graphical elements and selecting one of the stored graphical elements as the graphical topic indicator based on a comparison of the topic descriptive of the email message and the metadata associated with the stored graphical elements.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the display device has a display area and the bounded area occupies a majority of the display area.

13. A method comprising:

accessing, by one or more computers, a message;

outputting, for display at a client computing device, a visual notification descriptive of the message, wherein the visual notification

is separate from the message,

consists of a graphical topic indicator, a graphical sender indicator,

does not include text from the message, and

is disposed within first display element that is a bounded area, wherein the graphical topic indicator and the graphical sender indicator are the only elements displayed within the bounded area;

outputting the message in a second display element for display at the client computing device, subsequent to outputting the visual notification for display, without receiving an input from the client computing device to display the message, and while the visual notification is displayed;

in response to not receiving a first user input during a display time period, removing, from display at the client computing device, the second display element in response to passage of the display time period; and

in response to receiving the first user input during the display time period, removing, from display at the client computing device, the second display element in response to receiving a second user input signal.