System and method for determining and communicating presence information

• US 10,841,421 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2020
• Issued: 11/17/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Twilio, Inc.
• Inventors: Lawson, Jeff, Cooke, Evan, Simutis, Robert J., Malatack, Patrick, Conroy, Kyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Dean, Jr., Joseph E
• Application Number:
  US16/845,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20200244799A1
• Time in Patent Office: 221 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

A system and method for communicating presence information that can include at a first server of a communication platform, receiving an authorization token of a first client application; verifying at least one permission associated with the authorization token; registering a presence status of the first client application upon verifying the at least one permission of the authorization token; at a second server of the communication platform, accepting an incoming communication request; retrieving communication instructions according to the incoming communication request; identifying an instruction to communicate with a communication destination of the first client application; accessing the presence status resource of the first client application; establishing communication with the first client application according to the accessed presence status resource.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a communication platform system, an incoming communication associated with a client device, the incoming communication initiated by a first client application executing on the client device using an application protocol interface (API) provided by the communication platform system;

accessing a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of accounts associated with the first client application, the communication platform system being external to a client system facilitating the first client application;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application is available to engage in a communication session with the client device; and

in response to determining that the first account is available to engage in the communication session with the client device, routing the incoming communication to the first account of the first client application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting a request to a presence server hosting the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request transmitted to the presence server is a presence API call.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each respective account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application transmits status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective account.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the incoming communication, that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the incoming communication is a text message.

8. A communication platform system comprising:

one or more computer processors; and

one or more computer-readable mediums storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more computer processors, cause the communication platform system to perform operations comprising;

receiving an incoming communication associated with a client device, the incoming communication initiated by a first client application executing on the client device using an application protocol interface (API) provided by the communication platform system;

accessing a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of accounts associated with the first client application, the communication platform system being external to a client system facilitating the first client application;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application is available to engage in a communication session with the client device; and

in response to determining that the first account is available to engage in the communication session with the client device, routing the incoming communication to the first account of the first client application.

9. The communication platform system of claim 8, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting a request to a presence server hosting the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application.

10. The communication platform system of claim 9, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request transmitted to the presence server is a presence API call.

11. The communication platform system of claim 9, wherein each respective account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application transmits status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective account.

12. The communication platform system of claim 8, the operations further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the incoming communication, that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session.

13. The communication platform system of claim 12, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client device.

14. The communication platform system of claim 8, wherein the incoming communication is a text message.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more computer processors of a communication platform system, cause the communication platform system to perform operations comprising:

receiving an incoming communication associated with a client device, the incoming communication initiated by a first client application executing on the client device using an application protocol interface (API) provided by the communication platform system;

accessing a presence status resource indicating statuses of a plurality of accounts associated with the first client application, the communication platform system being external to a client system facilitating the first client application;

determining, based on the presence status resource, that a first account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application is available to engage in a communication session with the client device; and

in response to determining that the first account is available to engage in the communication session with the client device, routing the incoming communication to the first account of the first client application.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein accessing the presence status resource comprises:

transmitting a request to a presence server hosting the presence status resource, the presence server having previously consolidated presence statuses for the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the presence server exposes the status resource through a presence API, and the request transmitted to the presence server is a presence API call.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein each respective account of the plurality of accounts associated with the first client application transmits status updates to the presence server in response to a change in status of the respective account.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

determining, based on an authorization token included in the incoming communication, that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein determining that the first client application executing on the client device is authorized to engage in the communication session comprises:

verifying a signature included in the authorization token with an account key associated with the first client application, wherein the signature is applied to the authorization token by the first client application executing on the client device.