Avoiding Message Conflict

• US 20160142346A1
• Filed: 11/10/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novastone Media Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Novastone Media Ltd.
• Inventors: Orr, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 10,187,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

A communication system for communicating instant messages between a plurality of user accounts, each instant message forming part of a logical conversation stream comprising one or more such messages, the system comprising: a plurality of communication terminals, each communication terminal being configured to service a respective user account by simultaneously supporting multiple instant messaging clients, each client being (i) associated with a respective user interface different from that of the other instant messaging clients supported on the terminal, (ii) capable of transmitting and receiving instant messages to and from user accounts serviced on others of the communication terminals and (iii) configured to attribute to each instant message generated through that client an identifier corresponding to the client; a database storing a user profile for each of the user accounts, each user profile indicating which clients are supported by the communication terminal for the respective user account; and a server entity for supporting communication of the instant messages, the server having access to the database and being configured to direct instant messages received from one of the communication terminals to a specific instant messaging client on another communication terminal servicing an account of an intended recipient, the specific client being selected by the server entity in dependence on the identifier attributed to the message received from the said one of the terminals and the user profile of the account of the intended recipient.

Claims

1. A communication system for communicating instant messages between a plurality of user accounts, each instant message forming part of a logical conversation stream comprising one or more such messages, the system comprising:

a plurality of communication terminals, each communication terminal being configured to service a respective user account by simultaneously supporting multiple instant messaging clients, each client being (i) associated with a respective user interface different from that of the other instant messaging clients supported on the terminal, (ii) capable of transmitting and receiving instant messages to and from user accounts serviced on others of the communication terminals and (iii) configured to attribute to each instant message generated through that client an identifier corresponding to the client;

a database storing a user profile for each of the user accounts, each user profile indicating which clients are supported by the communication terminal for the respective user account; and

a server entity for supporting communication of the instant messages, the server having access to the database and being configured to direct instant messages received from one of the communication terminals to a specific instant messaging client on another communication terminal servicing an account of an intended recipient, the specific client being selected by the server entity in dependence on the identifier attributed to the message received from the said one of the terminals and the user profile of the account of the intended recipient.

2. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the server entity is configured to determine if the user profile of the account of the intended recipient contains an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds, and if so, to direct the instant message to that instant messaging client on the terminal servicing the account of the intended recipient.

3. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the server entity is configured to determine if the user profile of the account of the intended recipient contains an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds, and if not, to direct the instant message to a client on that terminal that is pre-designated as a default client.

4. A communication system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the server entity is configured to determine if the user profile of the account of the intended recipient contains a designation indication of a default client, and if so, to direct the instant message to that client in response to determining that that user profile does not contain an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds.

5. A communication system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the server entity is configured to direct the instant message to the client on the terminal servicing the account of the intended recipient from which the server has most recently received an instant message in response to determining that the user profile of the account of the intended recipient does contains neither:

(i) an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds;

nor (ii) a designation of a default client.

6. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the server entity is configured to determine if the user profile of the account of the intended recipient contains an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds, and if not, to direct the instant message to the client on the terminal servicing the account of the intended recipient from which the server has most recently received an instant message.

7. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the server entity is configured to maintain information defining a list of instant messaging clients, the server entity being configured to determine if the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds is a client on that list, and if so, to only direct the instant message to a client on the terminal servicing the account of the intended recipient if the user profile of that account contains an indication that the terminal for that account supports the same client as the said client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds.

8. A communication system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the server entity is configured to determine if the user profile of the account of the intended recipient contains an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds, and if not, to then determine whether the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds is a client on the list.

9. A communication system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the server entity is configured to not direct the instant message to a client on the terminal servicing the account of the intended recipient in response to determining that:

(i) the user profile of the account of the intended recipient does not contain an indication that the communication terminal for that account supports the same client as the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds; and

(ii) the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds is a client on the list.

10. A communication system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the server entity is configured to direct a further message to the communication terminal from which it received the instant message in response to determining that the client to which the identifier attributed to the received message corresponds is a client on the list.

11. A communication system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the instant messaging clients on a communication terminal is provided by a respective application stored in non-transient form in memory on the terminal.

12. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the instant messaging clients on a communication terminal is provided by common application stored in non-transient form in memory on the terminal which provides each client by means of a respective user interface.

21. A system as claimed in claim 1 or a terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein the communication terminal is one of:

a smartphone, a tablet, a personal computer, a laptop, an audio player, an e-reader.

13. A communication system for communicating instant messages between a plurality of user accounts, each instant message forming part of a logical conversation stream comprising one or more such messages, the system comprising:

a plurality of communication terminals, each communication terminal being configured to service a respective user account by simultaneously supporting multiple instant messaging clients, each client being (i) associated with a respective user interface different from that of the other instant messaging clients supported on the terminal, (ii) capable of transmitting and receiving instant messages to and from user accounts serviced on others of the communication terminals and (iii) configured to attribute to each instant message generated through that client an identifier corresponding to the client;

a database storing a user profile for each of the user accounts, each user profile indicating clients are supported by the communication terminal for the respective user account; and

a server entity for supporting communication of the instant messages, the server having access to the database and being configured to direct an instant message to a specific instant messaging client on each of the plurality of terminals as part of a push notification, the specific client for each terminal being selected by the server entity in dependence on the identifier attributed to the message that triggered the push notification and the user profile of the account of the intended recipient.

14. A communication terminal configured to service a user account by transmitting and receiving instant messages to and from a plurality of user accounts on remote devices, each message forming part of a logical conversation stream;

wherein the communication terminal is configured to simultaneously support multiple instant messaging clients, each client being associated with a respective user interface different from that of the other instant messaging clients supported on the terminal and configured to;

transmit and receive instant messages to and from user accounts serviced on others of the communication terminals;

attribute to each instant message generated through that client an identifier corresponding to the client; and

filter instant messages received from another communication terminal using the identifier corresponding to said client so as to display received instant messages having attributed thereto an identifier matching the identifier corresponding to said client and to not display received messages with an attributed identifier that does not match the identifier corresponding to said client but that matches an identifier corresponding to one of the other clients supported on the terminal.

15. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein each client is configured to display received messages with an attributed identifier that does not match the identifier corresponding to said client if said client is pre-designated as a default client.

16. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 15, wherein the communication terminal is configured so that only one client of the multiple supported client is pre-designated as a default client.

17. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein each client is configured to determine the identifiers corresponding to the other clients supported on the terminal using A URL scheme.

18. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein the communication terminal is configured to communicate an indication of the clients supported on the terminal for that account to a server.

19. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein each of the instant messaging clients is provided by a respective application stored in non-transient form in memory on the terminal.

20. A communication terminal as claimed in claim 14, wherein each of the instant messaging clients supported on the terminal is provided by a common application stored in non-transient form in memory on the terminal which provides each client by means of a respective user interface.