Compacted Mode for Displaying Messages in a Conversation

• US 20130013717A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bay-Wei W. Chang, Brian D. Rakowski, Jing Yee Lim, Paul T. Buchheit, Sanjeev Singh
• Inventors: Buchheit, Paul T., Chang, Bay-Wei W., Lim, Jing Yee, Rakowski, Brian D., Singh, Sanjeev
• Granted Patent: US 9,124,543 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A server having one or more processors and memory receives a plurality of messages organized as conversations associated with a user. The server receives, from a client, a request for a selected conversation that is associated with a first message, a second message that was sent after the first message and a plurality of interstitial messages that were sent at times between when the first message was sent and when the second message was sent. The server sends, to the client, display information for displaying content of the selected conversation that includes a representation of the second message in an expanded mode, a representation of the first message in a first compacted mode and a representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in a second compacted mode that is different from the first compacted mode.

Claims

1. A method, performed at a server having one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of messages associated with a user, each message having a unique message identifier, wherein each of the plurality of messages is associated with a respective conversation, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier and comprising a set of one or more related messages;

receiving, from a client, a request for a selected conversation that is associated with a first message, a second message that was sent after the first message and a plurality of interstitial messages that were sent at times between when the first message was sent and when the second message was sent; and

sending, to the client, display information for displaying, in a conversation view, content of the selected conversation, the content including;

a representation of the second message in an expanded mode, wherein, in the expanded mode, an identifier of a sender of the second message a complete message body of the second message are displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the first message in a first compacted mode, wherein, in the first compacted mode, an identifier of a sender of the first message is displayed in the conversation while at least a portion of a message body of the first message is not displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in a second compacted mode, wherein, in the second compacted mode an indication of the number of messages in the plurality of interstitial messages is provided without displaying identifiers for senders of the interstitial messages.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes no text.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a horizontal bar representing each message in the plurality of interstitial messages.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a plurality of horizontal bars.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the display information includes instructions to display the most recent message of the plurality of messages in the selected conversation in the expanded mode.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the request for the selected conversation includes selection of the selected conversation from a list of conversations that match a search query; and

the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode are selected so as to include a plurality of consecutive messages that do not match the search query.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the second message is a message that has not been marked as read; and

the first message and the plurality of interstitial messages are read messages.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the second message is a starred message; and

the first message and the plurality of interstitial messages are unstarred messages.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the second message is a message that has not been marked as read;

the first message is a starred message; and

the plurality of interstitial messages are unstarred messages that have been marked as read.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the display information includes instructions to, in response to detecting selection of the first message in the first compacted mode:

ceasing to display the first message in the first compacted mode; and

displaying the first message in the expanded mode.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the display information includes information for displaying two or more messages in the expanded mode.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the two or more messages include a most recent message in the selected conversation and a starred message in the selected conversation.

13. A server system, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving a plurality of messages associated with a user, each message having a unique message identifier, wherein each of the plurality of messages is associated with a respective conversation, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier and comprising a set of one or more related messages;

receiving, from a client, a request for a selected conversation that is associated with a first message, a second message that was sent after the first message and a plurality of interstitial messages that were sent at times between when the first message was sent and when the second message was sent; and

sending, to the client, display information for displaying, in a conversation view, content of the selected conversation, the content including;

a representation of the second message in an expanded mode, wherein, in the expanded mode, an identifier of a sender of the second message a complete message body of the second message are displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the first message in a first compacted mode, wherein, in the first compacted mode, an identifier of a sender of the first message is displayed in the conversation while at least a portion of a message body of the first message is not displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in a second compacted mode, wherein, in the second compacted mode an indication of the number of messages in the plurality of interstitial messages is provided without displaying identifiers for senders of the interstitial messages.

14. The server system of claim 13, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes no text.

15. The server system of claim 13, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a horizontal bar representing each message in the plurality of interstitial messages.

16. The server system of claim 13, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a plurality of horizontal bars.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer system with one or more processors, cause the computer system to:

receive a plurality of messages associated with a user, each message having a unique message identifier, wherein each of the plurality of messages is associated with a respective conversation, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier and comprising a set of one or more related messages;

receive, from a client, a request for a selected conversation that is associated with a first message, a second message that was sent after the first message and a plurality of interstitial messages that were sent at times between when the first message was sent and when the second message was sent; and

send, to the client, display information for displaying, in a conversation view, content of the selected conversation, the content including;

a representation of the second message in an expanded mode, wherein, in the expanded mode, an identifier of a sender of the second message a complete message body of the second message are displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the first message in a first compacted mode, wherein, in the first compacted mode, an identifier of a sender of the first message is displayed in the conversation while at least a portion of a message body of the first message is not displayed in the conversation view;

a representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in a second compacted mode, wherein, in the second compacted mode an indication of the number of messages in the plurality of interstitial messages is provided without displaying identifiers for senders of the interstitial messages.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes no text.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a horizontal bar representing each message in the plurality of interstitial messages.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the representation of the plurality of interstitial messages in the second compacted mode includes a plurality of horizontal bars.

21. A method, performed at a server having one or more processors and memory storing programs executed by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of messages associated with a user, each message having a unique message identifier, wherein each of the plurality of messages is associated with a respective conversation, each conversation having a respective conversation identifier and comprising a set of one or more related messages;

receiving, from a client, a request for a selected conversation that is associated with a plurality of messages; and

sending, to the client, display information for displaying, in a conversation view, content of the selected conversation, the content including one or more messages displayed in expanded mode, one or more messages displayed in a first compacted mode and one or more messages displayed in a second compacted mode, wherein;

when a respective message is displayed in the expanded mode, a complete message body of the respective message is displayed in the conversation view;

when the respective message is displayed in the first compacted mode, at least a portion of the message body of the respective message is not displayed in the conversation view and an identifier of a sender of the message is displayed in the conversation view; and

when the respective message is displayed in the second compacted mode, the identifier of the sender and the message body are not displayed in the conversation view.