USER INTERFACE AND METHOD FOR VIEWING SHORT MESSAGES ON A WIRELESS DEVICE

• US 20110016187A1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Maguire, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,434,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/65 Telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A method is performed by an electronic communication device. The method includes storing electronic messages, and storing criteria for determining whether a stored message is related to a current message. A current electronic message is displayed to a user of the communication device, including the current message'"'"'s outside address and message body. The relevance of each of the stored messages to the current message is assessed based on the previously-stored criteria. Those messages that meet the criteria are selected and displayed along with the current message.

Claims

1. A method, performed by an electronic communication device, comprising:

storing electronic messages received by the electronic communication device;

storing indexing data for determining whether a stored message is related to a current message, the indexing data including a time stamp indicated when the stored message was received by the electronic communication device;

displaying a current electronic message to a user of the communication device;

assessing the relevance of each of the stored messages to the current message based on the indexing data, and

selecting messages that include indexing data within a predetermined chronological proximity of the indexing data of the current message, said chronological proximity based on a difference in chronological ranking between the respective assessed message and the current message, said chronological ranking defining the chronological order in which messages are stored; and

displaying the selected electronic messages along with the current message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the current message is a message currently being accessed by the user.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the current message is a message recently received by the device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the current message is a new message being composed by the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the assessed and selected messages are displayed on the device based on the chronological proximity to the current message.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing an outside address associated with SMS messages;

selecting one of the stored SMS messages having an outside address that matches an outside address of the current SMS message, wherein the outside address of the current SMS message and the outside address of the selected SMS message include matching telephone numbers; and

displaying the selected SMS message along with the current SMS message based on its chronological proximity to the current SMS message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the criteria requires the assessed message to be within a pre selected number of the most recently stored messages.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the assessed and selected messages was stored after transmission of the current message.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the chronological proximity is based on the length of time between storing of the current message and storing of the respective assessed message.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein at least one of the assessed and selected messages has a time stamp later than a time stamp of the current message.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the chronological proximity is based on number of stored messages time-stamped between the current message and the respective assessed message.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the current and selected messages share a common outside address, and the outside address is displayed only once on the device'"'"'s screen when displaying the current and selected messages.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of displaying the selected messages includes displaying each selected message'"'"'s outside address and message body.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication device is a wireless communication device.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the assessed and current messages are SMS messages.

16. A method of operating a wireless device, comprising

storing short messaging service (SMS) messages on the wireless device;

displaying, on a viewing screen of the wireless device, a current SMS message;

the wireless device selecting one of the stored SMS messages having indexing data that is within a predefined proximity of indexing data of the current SMS message, the indexing data of the current SMS message and the indexing data of the selected SMS message including a time stamp; and

displaying, on the viewing screen of the wireless device, the selected SMS message along with the current SMS message.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the current SMS message is a stored SMS message currently being accessed by the user.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the current SMS message is a new message being composed by the user.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the selected SMS message is a message received by the wireless device and the indexing data of the selected SMS message is time stamp indicating when the message was received by the wireless device.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the selected SMS message is a message sent by the wireless device and the indexing data of the selected SMS message is the timestamp indicating when the message was sent by the wireless device.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising the wireless device selecting at least one stored SMS message having an outside address that matches an outside address of the current SMS message, wherein the outside address of the current SMS message and the outside address of the selected at least one SMS message include matching telephone numbers.

22. A wireless device, comprising:

a memory;

a processor;

a viewing screen; and

a message software interface module stored on the wireless device and executable by the processor, the message software interface module configured to;

store short messaging service (SMS) messages in the memory;

display a current SMS message on the viewing screen; and

display a select one of the stored SMS messages on the viewing screen along with the current SMS message, the select SMS message including indexing data that is within a predefined proximity of indexing data of the current SMS message, the indexing data of the current SMS message and the indexing data of the selected SMS message including time and date information.

23. The wireless device of claim 22, wherein the message software interface module is further configured to identify the select SMS message for display by matching an outside address of the select SMS message with an outside address of the current SMS message, wherein the outside address of the current SMS message and the outside address of the selected SMS message include matching telephone numbers.

24. The wireless device of claim 22, wherein the current SMS message is a stored SMS message currently being accessed by the user.

25. The wireless device of claim 22, wherein the current SMS message is a new message being composed by the user.

26. The wireless device of claim 22, wherein the selected SMS message is a message received by the wireless device and the indexing data of the selected SMS message is the timestamp indicating when the message was received by the wireless device.

27. The wireless device of claim 22, wherein the selected SMS message is a message sent by the wireless device and the indexing data of the selected SMS message is the timestamp indicating when the message was sent by the wireless device.