CUSTOM SHARE SHEET WITH SHORTCUT CONTROLS TO SHARE A CONTENT ITEM

• US 20170250940A1
• Filed: 02/29/2016
• Published: 08/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Inventors: Chao, Ed, Avron, Riley, Borowiec, Filip
• Granted Patent: US 10,356,020 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9562 Bookmark management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Techniques are described herein to generate a custom share sheet. The custom share sheet comprises one or more shortcut controls to share a content item using one or more corresponding contact-avenue pairs. A contact-avenue pair includes a link sharing mechanism and contact information for one or more recipients within the application or application protocol that uses the link sharing mechanism. The contact-avenue pairs are generated based on the share history of the particular user sharing the content item. Shortcut controls to sharing a Content Item Are primarily generated based on local share history. These shortcut controls are ordered based on contact-avenue pairs that were most recently used to share a content item. Shortcut controls to sharing a Content Item Are secondarily generated based on cross-platform share history derived from content items stored in cloud storage. These shortcut controls are ordered based on contact-avenue pairs that were used to share the most content items.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, at a computing device, a plurality of contact-avenue pairs based on a user'"'"'s content item sharing history, wherein each contact-avenue pair of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs includes;

(a) an avenue that indicates a link sharing mechanism, to send a link to the particular content item, and

(b) contact information for a recipient to which to send the link to the particular content item via the avenue;

using the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate and display a custom share sheet that provides a shortcut control for one or more contact-avenue pairs of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs; and

responsive to receiving selection of a shortcut control for a particular contact-avenue pair of the one or more contact-avenue pairs, sending a link to the particular content item to the recipient of the contact information of the particular contact-avenue pair via the avenue of the particular contact-avenue pair;

wherein the method is performed by the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate the share sheet that displays two or more shortcut controls to share with two or more contact-avenue pairs, respectively, including the shortcut control to share with the particular contact-avenue pair and a second shortcut control to share with a second contact-avenue pair.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second contact-avenue pair includes a different avenue than the particular contact-avenue pair.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the share sheet is configured to receive, in a single screen, multi-selection input of multiple shortcut controls to contact-avenue pairs of the two or more contact-avenue pairs.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

based on a particular multi-selection input that selects both the shortcut control to share with the particular contact-avenue pair and the second shortcut control to share with the second contact-avenue pair, sending, to a second target contact through a second associated avenue of the second contact-avenue pair, a second link to the particular content item.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs are generated from sharing metadata created at the computing device and stored locally on the computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs are generated from sharing metadata created at a different computing device from the computing device and stored remotely in cloud storage.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of contact-avenue pairs includes a first set of contact-avenue pairs that are generated from a first set of metadata stored locally on the computing device and a second set of contact-avenue pairs that are generated from a second set of metadata stored remotely based on there not being enough contact-avenue-pairs generated from the first set of metadata to populate the share sheet to a threshold amount.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after generating the plurality of contact-avenue pairs, ranking, based on the sharing metadata, a set of contact-avenue pairs of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs in an order; and

using the order to generate the share sheet that displays a shortcut control to each contact-avenue pair in the set of contact-avenue pairs in that order.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the ranking prioritizes contact-avenue pairs based on content items that were shared most recently.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the ranking prioritizes contact-avenue pairs based on a count tracking how many content items have been shared, by the particular user account, with each target contact associated with the contact-avenue pairs.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the share sheet includes a minimum number of slots for shortcut controls to share with contact-avenue pairs;

wherein the method further comprises;

if and only if a number of generated contact-avenue pairs does not meet the minimum number of slots, scanning content item metadata of other data content items located in a cloud storage to determine which target contacts have access to other data content items associated with the particular user account;

determining a popularity metric of each target contact with respect to the particular user account based on a number of other data content items that each target contact has access to;

generating additional contact-avenue pairs based on the popularity metrics; and

using the additional contact-avenue pairs to generate the share sheet.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying multiple contact-avenue pairs that are associated with the same target contact;

selecting a first contact-avenue pair of the multiple contact-avenue pairs; and

in response to selecting, generating the share sheet with the first contact-avenue pair but not a second contact-avenue pair of the multiple contact-avenue pairs.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions, which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, cause:

generating, at a computing device, a plurality of contact-avenue pairs based on a user'"'"'s content item sharing history, wherein each contact-avenue pair of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs includes;

(a) an avenue that indicates a link sharing mechanism, to send a link to the particular content item, and

(b) contact information for a recipient to which to send the link to the particular content item via the avenue;

using the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate and display a custom share sheet that provides at least one shortcut control for one or more contact-avenue pairs of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs; and

responsive to receiving selection of a shortcut control for a particular contact-avenue pair of the one or more contact-avenue pairs, sending a link to the particular content item to the recipient of the contact information of the particular contact-avenue pair via the avenue of the particular contact-avenue pair;

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, storing instructions, which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, further cause:

using the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate the share sheet that displays two or more shortcut controls to share with two or more contact-avenue pairs, respectively, including the shortcut control to share with the particular contact-avenue pair and a second shortcut control to share with a second contact-avenue pair.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the second contact-avenue pair includes a different avenue than the particular contact-avenue pair.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the share sheet is configured to receive, in a single screen, multi-selection input of multiple shortcut controls to contact-avenue pairs of the two or more contact-avenue pairs.

18. A system comprising:

a computing device, with one or more processors and a touch screen, executing instructions stored on one or more non-transitory computer readable media;

a share sheet generator, running on the computing device, configured to;

generate, at the computing device, a plurality of contact-avenue pairs based on a user'"'"'s content item sharing history, wherein each contact-avenue pair of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs includes;

(a) an avenue that indicates a link sharing mechanism, to send a link to the particular content item, and

(b) contact information for a recipient to which to send the link to the particular content item via the avenue;

use the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate and display a custom share sheet that provides at least one shortcut control for one or more contact-avenue pairs of the plurality of contact-avenue pairs; and

responsive to receiving selection of a shortcut control for a particular contact-avenue pair of the one or more contact-avenue pairs, sending a link to the particular content item to the recipient of the contact information of the particular contact-avenue pair via the avenue of the particular contact-avenue pair;

and

a graphic user interface, generated by the share sheet generator and displayed on the touch screen, that is configured to;

based on selection input that selects the shortcut control to share with the particular contact-avenue pair, send, to a particular target contact through a particular associated avenue of the particular contact-avenue pair, a link to the particular content item.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the share sheet generator is further configured to use the plurality of contact-avenue pairs to generate the share sheet that displays two or more shortcut controls to share with two or more contact-avenue pairs, respectively, including the shortcut control to share with the particular contact-avenue pair and a second shortcut control to share with a second contact-avenue pair.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the second contact-avenue pair includes a different avenue than the particular contact-avenue pair.