Avoiding a redundant display of a notification on multiple user devices

• US 10,210,480 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chaudhri, Imran, Lemay, Stephen, Cranfill, Caroline, Huang, Ron
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates, Kevin T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Scott, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US13/485,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20130325922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,455 Days
• Field of Search: 709203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A user having multiple electronic devices may receive notifications at each of the devices. When it is determined that a first device is in an active state and that a notification has been viewed on that device, an indication that the notification has been viewed may be communicated by the first device to a synchronization server. It may then be determined whether the viewed notification is also present on one or more of the user'"'"'s other devices. Based on the determination, an indication that the notification has been viewed may be sent from the synchronization server to each of the user'"'"'s devices on which the notification is present. Upon receipt of the indication from the synchronization server, the viewed notification may be removed from each of the devices, thereby avoiding a redundant display of the notification on multiple devices.

Claims

1. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one processor and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the at least one processor to:

identify, by a server computer system, a plurality of associated devices, wherein the server computer system tracks notifications that are present on the plurality of associated devices;

receive, at the server computer system, a first information indication from a first device of the plurality of associated devices that a first notification is received by the first device;

update, at the server computer system, a record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices based on the first information indication;

receive, at the server computer system, a second information indication from the first device that a second notification is received by the first device;

update, at the server computer system, the record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices based on the second information indication;

receive, at the server computer system, a first indication that the first notification has been viewed on the first device, wherein the first notification is associated with a first application of the first device;

receive, at the server computer system, a second indication that the second notification has been viewed on the first device, wherein the second notification is associated with a second application of the first device;

identify, by the server computer system, one or more additional devices of the plurality of associated devices presenting the first and second notification based on the record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices;

send, by the server computer system, a third indication that the first notification has been viewed to at least one of the identified one or more additional devices; and

send, by the server computer system, a fourth indication that the second notification has been viewed to at least one of the identified one or more additional devices.

2. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to receive the first indication that the first notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to receive an identifier of the first notification.

3. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 2, wherein the identifier of the first notification comprises a result of a hash algorithm applied to the first notification.

4. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 2, further comprising instructions to cause the at least one processor to identify the first notification in a data store of the server computer system using the identifier of the first notification.

5. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to receive the first indication that the first notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to receive credentials associated with an account of a user.

6. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 5, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to identify the one or more additional devices comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to identify one or more additional devices that are associated with the account.

7. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, further comprising instructions to cause the at least one processor to determine whether the first device is in an active state.

8. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to send the third indication that the first notification has been viewed to at least one of the one or more additional devices comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to send the third indication to only those devices of the one or more additional devices on which the first notification is present.

9. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a server computer system, a plurality of associated devices, wherein the server computer system tracks notifications that are present on the plurality of associated devices;

receiving, by the server computer system, a first information indication from a first device of the plurality of associated devices that a first notification is received by the first device;

updating, by the server computer system, a record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices based on the first information indication;

receiving, by the server computer system, a second information indication from the first device that a second notification is received by the first device;

updating, by the server computer system, the record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices based on the second information indication;

receiving, by the server computer system, a first indication that the first notification has been viewed on a first device of the plurality of associated devices, wherein the first notification is received from a first server computer system;

receiving, by the server computer system, a second indication that the second notification has been viewed on the first device, wherein the second notification is received from a second server computer system;

identifying, by the server computer system, one or more additional devices of the plurality of associated devices presenting the first and second notifications based on the record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices; and

sending to the one or more additional devices, by the server computer system, an indication that at least one of the first notification and the second notification have been viewed on the first device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining, by the server computer system, whether the first device is in an active state.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether the first device is in an active state is based on information received by the server computer system indicative of an orientation of the first device.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication comprises a third indication that the first notification has been viewed and a forth indication that the second notification has been viewed.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein determining that the first notification has been viewed on the first device comprises determining that the first notification has been displayed on a display element of the first device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the first notification has been displayed on a display element of the first device comprises determining that the first notification has been displayed on the display element for longer than a certain time threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the first notification has been viewed on the first device further comprises identifying an orientation of the first device.

16. A non-transitory program storage device, readable by at least one processor and comprising instructions stored thereon to cause the at least one processor to:

receive over a network, at a first device of a plurality of associated devices, a plurality of messages, each message from a different server-based source;

communicate, by the first device, to a synchronization server computer system that the plurality of messages were received, wherein the synchronization server computer system is configured to update a record of which notifications are present on which of the plurality of associated devices based on the communication;

generate, by the first device, a first notification for a first message of the plurality of messages, the first message associated with a first server-based source of the different server-based sources;

generate, by the first device, a second notification for a second message of the plurality of messages, the second message associated with a second server-based source of the different server-based sources, wherein the first and second notifications are configured to display through a common interface of the first device;

determine, by the first device, that at least one of the first and second notifications has been viewed on a display element of the first device; and

send, by the first device, an indication that the at least one notification has been viewed on the first device to a synchronization server computer system, wherein the synchronization server computer system is different from the server-based sources.

17. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 16, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to generate the first and second notifications comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to determine whether one or more of the plurality of messages satisfies a predefined condition to be presented as a notification.

18. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 16, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to generate the first notification for display through the common interface comprise instructions to cause the at least one processor to generate the first notification for display through an interface of a client-side notification service of the first device.

19. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 18, wherein the notification service comprises a service of an operating system of the first device.

20. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 18, wherein the instructions to cause the at least one processor to send the indication that the first notification has been viewed on the first device comprise instructions to cause the client-side notification service to send the indication to a server-side notification service executing on the synchronization server computer system.