Method and Apparatus for Establishing Chat Group

• US 20140324993A1
• Filed: 04/28/2013
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Li, Wei, Ho, Remyylyang, Shan, Yi
• Granted Patent: US 9,794,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for establishing a chat group. The method performed by a server includes: obtaining an identifier of a user of a first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal; beginning to establish a chat group; selecting at least one second client terminal from a predetermined geographic scope; and inviting a user of the at least one second client terminal to the chat group; receiving authentication information input by the user of the second client terminal from the second client terminal; determining whether the authentication information is correct; if the authentication information is correct, adding the user of the second client terminal into the chat group; and sending information of the second user to the first client terminal; finishing establishing the chat group when a preset finish condition is met.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a chat group, comprising:

obtaining, by a server, an identifier of a user of a first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal after receiving a request for establishing a chat group from a first client terminal;

establishing, by the server, a chat group entry and storing the entry on the server according to the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal;

selecting, by the server, at least one second client terminal within a predetermined geographic scope;

sending automatically an invitation message to join the chat group to the at least one second client terminal;

receiving, by the server and from the second client terminal, authentication information and performing authentication;

if the authentication is successful, allowing access of the second user to the chat group, and sending information of the second user to the first client terminal; and

finishing, by the server, establishing the chat group when a preset finish condition is met.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the request for establishing a chat group comprises the identifier of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first terminal;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal comprises;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal from the request for establishing a chat group.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the request for establishing a chat group comprises the identifier of the first client terminal and the identifier of a chat group to be established;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal comprises;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the first client terminal and the identifier of a chat group to be established from the request for establishing a chat group, and obtaining the geographic position of the first terminal by locating the first client terminal.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting at least one second client terminal within a predetermined geographic scope comprises:

searching for client terminals around the first client terminal; and

selecting the client terminal as the second client terminal when the distance between the client terminal and the first client terminal is shorter than a preset value.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein selecting at least one second client terminal within a predetermined geographic scope comprises:

searching for client terminals around the first client terminal;

determining whether the client terminals around the first client terminal request to obtain information of other client terminals located around, and

selecting the client terminal as the second client terminal when the distance between the client terminal and the first client terminal is shorter than the preset value and the client terminal requests to obtain information of other client terminals located around.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the invitation message to join the chat group comprises:

the identifier of the first client terminal and an instruction of inputting the identifier of the chat group via the second client terminal; and

performing authentication comprises;

determining whether the authentication information is identical with the identifier of the chat group.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the invitation message to join the chat group comprises:

the identifier of the chat group and an instruction of inputting the identifier of the first client terminal via the second client terminal; and

performing authentication comprises;

determining whether the authentication information is identical with the identifier of the first client terminal.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the preset finish condition comprises:

a finish request sent from the first client terminal is received;

or a procedure of establishing the chat group reaches a preset length of time;

or the number of the group members reaches a preset maximum.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifier of the chat group is a predetermined number of digits.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

sending information of the first client terminal and information of other second client terminals to one of the second client terminals, after adding the user of the second client terminal to the chat group.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions thereon for establishing a chat group, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the method claimed in claim 1.

11. An apparatus for establishing a chat group, comprising:

an interface and a processor, wherein the processor comprises an obtaining module, an establishing module, a selecting module, an adding module and a finishing module; and

the interface is to receive a request for establishing a chat group sent by a first client terminal, the request for establishing the chat group comprises an identifier of the user of the first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established;

the interface is to sending automatically an invitation message to join the chat group to the at least one second client terminal after a chat group entry is established by the establishing module of the processor;

to receive authentication information from the second client terminal; and

to send information of the second client terminal to the first client terminal after the second client terminal is added into the chat group;

the obtaining module is to obtain the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal, according to the request for establishing the chat group;

the establishing module is to establish the chat group entry according to the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of a chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first terminal;

the selecting module is to select at least one second client terminals within a predetermined geographic scope;

the adding module is to perform authentication;

if the authentication is successful, allow access of the second user to the chat group;

the finishing module is to finish establishing the chat group when a preset condition is met.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein

when the geographic position of the first terminal is comprised in the request for establishing the chat group, the obtaining module is to directly obtain the geographic position of the first terminal from the request for establishing a chat group;

when the geographic position of the first terminal is not comprised in the request for establishing the chat group, the obtaining module is to obtain the geographic position of the first terminal by locating the first client terminal.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the selecting module is to search for client terminals around the first client terminal;

and select the client terminal as the second client terminal when the distance between the client terminal and the first client terminal is shorter than a preset value.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the selecting module is to search for client terminals around the first client terminal;

determine whether the client terminals around the first client terminal request to obtain information of client terminals located around, and select the client terminal as the second client terminal when the distance between the client terminal and the first client terminal is shorter than the preset value and the client terminal requests to obtain information of other client terminal located around.

15. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the invitation message to join the chat group comprises:

the identifier of the first client terminal and an instruction of inputting the identifier of the chat group via the second client terminal; and

the adding module is to determine whether the authentication information is identical with the identifier of the chat group.

16. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the invitation message to join the chat group comprises:

the identifier of the chat group and an instruction of inputting the identifier of the first client terminal via the second client terminal; and

the adding module is to determine whether the authentication information is identical with the identifier of the first client terminal.

17. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the preset condition includes that a finish request sent from the first client terminal is received;

or a procedure of establishing the chat group reaches a preset length of time;

or the number of the group members reaches a preset maximum.

18. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the interface of the processor is further to send information of the first client terminal and information of other group members to the second client terminal.