ELECTRONIC MESSAGING CHANGED RECIPIENTS DETECTION AND NOTIFICATION

• US 20070073871A1
• Filed: 07/13/2006
• Published: 03/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Adams, Neil, Brown, Michael, Babu, George
• Granted Patent: US 10,013,674 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A method carried out by an electronic device enabled to send and receive electronic messages over a network, including: determining if a new electronic message received by the device is part of a message thread that includes the new message and at least one prior electronic message previously received at the device; and if the new message is determined to be part of a message thread, comparing address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message in the message thread to determine if there has been a change in addressed recipients between the new message and the at least one prior electronic message, and if so, providing a notification to a user of the device of the existence of the change.

Claims

1. An added recipient indication method carried out by a processing apparatus having a messaging application permitting a user to take actions in relation to messages, a set of the messages identifiable as belonging to a common thread and each of the messages having at least one recipient address and a date-time stamp, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a new message having recipient addresses and a date-time stamp, said new message identifiable as belonging to said thread;

detecting any added recipient addresses in said new message by comparing the recipient addresses of said new message to at least the recipient addresses of a most recent prior message belonging to said set of messages; and

if at least one added recipient address is detected, providing a notification of this to said user at some moment in time after an inputted request from said user to display said new message is received.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said notification is a dialog window.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said moment in time is after said user makes a request to send a reply-to-all message composition derived from said new message.

4. An electronic communications device comprising:

a display screen;

a user input device;

a communications system receiving over a communications network messages having at least one recipient address and a date-time stamp;

a storage storing the messages received through the communications system; and

a messaging module (i) receiving through the communications system a new message having recipient addresses and a date-time stamp, said new message identifiable as belonging to a common thread of messages;

(ii) detecting any added recipient addresses in said new message by comparing the recipient addresses of said new message to at least the recipient addresses of a most recent prior message belonging to the common thread of messages; and

(iii) generating a user notification on said display screen that indicates detection of at least one added recipient address, said notification generated if any added recipient addresses have been detected in said new message.

5. The communications device as claimed in claim 4, wherein said notification is displayed on said display screen promptly after an inputted request through the user input device to display said new message.

6. The communications device as claimed in claim 4, wherein said notification is displayed on said display screen promptly after an inputted request through the user input device to send a reply-to-all message composition derived from said new message.

7. The communications device as claimed in claim 4, wherein said notification is provided in a dialog window.

8. The communications device as claimed in claim 7, wherein said dialog window identifies said at least one added recipient address.

9. An added recipient indication method implemented in a message system, the system including a messaging application permitting a user to take actions in relation to messages, a set of the messages identifiable as belonging to a common thread and each of the messages having at least one recipient address and a date-time stamp, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an inputted request from said user to display a selected message belonging to said set of said messages;

detecting any added recipient addresses in said selected message, after said inputted request, by comparing the recipient addresses of said selected message to at least the recipient addresses of a most recent prior message belonging to said set of messages; and

if any added recipient addresses are detected, providing a notification of this to said user.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said notification is provided after said user makes a request to send a reply-to-all message composition derived from said selected message.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said notification is a dialog window including options for said user to select.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recipient addresses of said selected message are only compared to the recipient addresses of said most recent prior message.

13. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recipient addresses of said selected message are compared to the at least one recipient address of all messages in said set of messages.

14. A method carried out by an electronic device enabled to send and receive electronic messages over a network, comprising:

determining if a new electronic message received by the device is part of a message thread that includes the new message and at least one prior electronic message previously received at the device; and

if the new message is determined to be part of a message thread, comparing address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message in the message thread to determine if there has been a change in addressed recipients between the new message and the at least one prior electronic message, and if so, providing a notification to a user of the device of the existence of the change.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein comparing address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message occurs after an inputted request is received from the user to display the new message.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein notification of the existence of the change is provided immediately after an inputted request is received by the electronic device from the user to display the new message.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein notification of the existence of the change is provided after an inputted request is received by the electronic device from the user to compose a reply-to-all message derived from the new message.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein notification of the existence of the change is provided after an inputted request is received by the electronic device from the user to send a reply-to-all message derived from the new message.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein providing the notification includes generating a dialog box on a display screen of the electronic device that includes a user selectable option for modifying address information of the reply-to-all message to change the addressed recipients thereof.

20. The method of claim 14 wherein providing the notification includes generating a dialog box on a display screen of the electronic device that includes information identifying recipients that have been added to or deleted from the addressed recipients of the new message compared to the at least one prior message.

21. The method of claim 14 wherein the message thread includes at least two prior electronic message previously received at the device, and wherein only the address information of the most recent of the prior electronic messages in the message thread is compared with the address information of the new electronic message to determine if there has been any change in addressed recipients.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the message thread includes at least two prior electronic messages previously received at the device, and wherein the address information of all of the prior electronic messages in the message thread is compared with the address information of the new electronic message to determine if there has been any change in addressed recipients.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein determining if a new electronic message received by the device is part of a message thread includes comparing content of a subject line of the new electronic message with content of subject lines of electronic messages previously received by the device.

24. The method of claim 14 wherein previous electronic messages in a message thread are included in a body of subsequent electronic messages in a message thread.

25. The method of claim 14 wherein comparing the address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message in the message thread includes comparing the address information to determine if any new recipient addresses have been added to the new message relative to the at least one prior electronic message.

26. The method of claim 14 wherein comparing the address information of the new message with address information of the at least one prior electronic message in the message thread includes comparing the address information to determine if any recipient addresses have been deleted from the new message relative to the at least one prior electronic message,

27. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium carrying program code means for executing the method of claim 14.

28. A computer readable signal carrying program code means for executing the method of claim 14.

29. An electronic communications device comprising:

a display screen;

a user input device;

a communications system receiving over a communications network messages having at least one recipient address and a date-time stamp;

a storage storing the messages received through the communications system; and

a messaging module (i) receiving through the communications system a new electronic message having at least one recipient address and a date-time stamp, said new message identifiable as belonging to a common thread of messages;

(ii) comparing recipient address information in the new message to recipient address information in at least one prior message in the common thread of messages to determine if there is a change in the addressed recipients between the new message and the at least one prior message and (iii) generating, if a change in the addressed recipients is detected, a user notification on the display screen that indicates a change in the addressed recipient has been detected.

30. The communications device as claimed in claim 29, wherein the messaging module, when comparing the recipient address information in the new message to the recipient address information in at least one prior message in the common thread of messages detects if any recipient addresses have been deleted from the recipient address information of the new message.

31. The communications device as claimed in claim 29, wherein the messaging module, when comparing the recipient address information in the new message to the recipient address information in at least one prior message in the common thread of messages detects if any recipient addressed have been added to the recipient address information of the new message.

32. The communications device as claimed in claim 29, wherein said messaging module is configured to cause the notification to be displayed promptly after an inputted request through the user input device to display said message.

33. The communications device as claimed in claim 29, wherein said messaging module is configured to cause the notification to be displayed on said display screen promptly after an inputted request through the user input device to send a reply-to-all message composition derived from said new message.

34. The communication device as claimed in claim 29 wherein the device is a mobile hand-held device.