Managing notification messages

• US 8,364,123 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2009
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Marcellino, Chris, Santamaria, Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nealon, William
• Application Number:
  US12/392,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20100216434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,434 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/412.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/385 of the core network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

Mobile devices each maintain a whitelist of application identifiers corresponding to applications that the user(s) of that mobile device wants to receive notification messages for and a blacklist of application identifiers corresponding to applications that the user(s) of the mobile device does not want to receive notification messages for. Each mobile device transmits its representations of the whitelist and blacklist to a certain one of a plurality of couriers that controls transmission of notification messages for that mobile device. Each notification message includes a mobile device identifier and an application identifier. Each courier processes a given notification message for a mobile device (e.g., deliver to that mobile device, drop, report as uninstalled to the sender) based on the application identifier included in the mobile device and the representations of the whitelist and blacklist for that mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor to execute instructions; and

a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations including,

maintaining a whitelist that represents one or more of a plurality of

applications installed on the mobile device that may receive notification messages from a courier coupled to the mobile device, wherein the whitelist includes one or more application identifiers for each of the one or more of the plurality of applications respectively;

maintaining a blacklist that represents another one of the plurality of

applications installed on the mobile device that may not receive notification messages from the courier, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers for the another one of the plurality of applications respectively; and

transmitting a representation of the whitelist and the blacklist to the couriers that controls the transmission of notification messages to the mobile device, wherein the courier uses the representation to determine whether to forward notification messages received by the courier from a plurality of application servers and the received notification messages are directed to the mobile device.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the representation of the whitelist. and the blacklist includes uncompressed application identifiers of the whitelist and blacklist.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that are not currently running on the mobile device.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that have been disabled by a user of the mobile device.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that a user has selected not to receive notification messages for.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising one or more instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations including:

responsive to the mobile device moving to a different courier, transmitting the representation of the whitelist and the blacklist to the different courier.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist are compacted representations.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the compacted representations of the whitelist and blacklist are probabilistic representations, and wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

creating the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist is smaller than the size of the whitelist; and

creating a probabilistic representation of the blacklist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist is smaller than the size of the blacklist.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein creating the probabilistic representation of the whitelist includes for each application identifier on the whitelist, hashing that application identifier to generate a hashed application identifier and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the hashed application identifier, and

wherein creating the probabilistic representation of the blacklist includes for each application identifier on the blacklist, hashing that application identifier to generate a hashed application identifier and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist list that correspond with the hashed application identifier.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein each hashed application identifier is generated from a SHA-1 hash of the corresponding application identifier, and wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

for each hashed application identifier generated from a corresponding application identifier on the whitelist, performing the following;

dividing that hashed application identifier into a number of segments, calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the calculated values;

for each hashed application identifier generated from a corresponding application identifier on the blacklist, performing the following;

dividing that hashed application identifier into a number of segments, calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist that correspond with the calculated values; and

storing the probabilistic representations of the whitelist and the blacklist on the mobile device.

11. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

prior to hashing the application identifiers on the whitelist and the blacklist,

salting the application identifiers on the whitelist by adding a same random number to each of those application identifiers, and salting the application identifiers on the blacklist by adding a same random number to each application identifier of those application identifiers;

and transmitting those random numbers to the one or more couriers.

12. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

responsive to an application identifier being added to, or removed from, the whitelist, performing the following;

clearing those bits set in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist,

for each application identifier on the whitelist, performing the following;

salting that application identifier with a same random number used for each application identifier on the whitelist,

hashing that application identifier and random number with the SHA-1 hashing algorithm,

dividing the result of the hashing into a number of segments,

calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the calculated values;

storing the probabilistic representation of the whitelist on the mobile device; and

transmitting the probabilistic representation of the whitelist to the one or more couriers.

13. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

responsive to an application identifier being added to, or removed from, the blacklist, performing the following;

clearing those bits set in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, for each application identifier on the blacklist, performing the following;

salting that application identifier with a same random number used for each application identifier on the blacklist,

hashing that application identifier and random number with the SHA-1 hashing algorithm,

dividing the result of the hashing into a number of segments,

calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist that correspond with the calculated values;

storing the probabilistic representation of the blacklist on the mobile device; and

transmitting the probabilistic representation of the blacklist to the one or more couriers.

14. A courier, comprising:

a processor to execute instructions; and

a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform operations including,

receiving a representation of a whitelist and a representation of a blacklist from each of a plurality of mobile devices that were generated by each of the plurality of mobile devices, wherein the whitelist represents one or more of a plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may receive notification messages and the blacklist that represents another one of the plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may not receive notification messages;

storing the received representations for each mobile device;

receiving notification messages for different ones of the plurality of mobile devices, each notification message including an application identifier, wherein the notification messages are received from a plurality of application servers; and

for each received notification message, performing the following;

determining which one of the plurality of mobile devices the notification is for, and determining whether to transmit that notification message to the determined one of the plurality of mobile devices based on the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist received from that mobile device.

15. The courier of claim 14, wherein at least some of the representations of the whitelists and the blacklists include uncompressed application identifiers.

16. The courier of claim 14, wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that are not currently running on that given one of the mobile devices.

17. The courier of claim 14, wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that have been disabled by a user of that given one of the mobile devices.

18. The courier of claim 14, wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that a user of that given one of the mobile devices has selected not to receive notification messages for.

19. The courier of claim 14, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist are compacted representations.

20. The courier of claim 19, wherein the compacted representations of the whitelist and blacklist are probabilistic representations.

21. The courier of claim 20, wherein determining whether to transmit that notification message further comprises:

hashing the application identifier included in the received notification message;

dividing the hashing result into a number of segments;

calculating a value for each of the number of segments;

determining whether each value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist;

if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, transmitting the notification message to the determined one of the mobile devices, and

if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, do not transmit the notification message.

22. The courier of claim 21, wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

for each received notification message, if any of the calculated values do not correspond with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist or the blacklist, notifying that the application is uninstalled on that mobile device to the sender of that notification message.

23. The courier of claim 21, wherein the memory further stores one or more instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations:

if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, dropping that notification message.

24. A system for preventing battery life deterioration of mobile devices, the system comprising:

a mobile device coupled with one or more couriers that control transmission of notification messages to the mobile device for a plurality of applications, the mobile device including a processor to execute instructions, and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having instructions that when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations;

maintain a whitelist that represents one or more of a plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may receive notification messages, wherein the whitelist includes one or more application identifiers for those one or more of the plurality of applications and another one of the plurality of applications installed on the mobile device does not receive notification messages, respectively,

transmit a representation of the whitelist to the one or more couriers; and

the one or more couriers each including a processor to execute instructions and a memory coupled with the processor, the memory having instructions that when executed, cause the processor to perform the following operations;

receive the representation of the whitelist from the mobile device, store the received representation of the whitelist, upon receipt of a notification message for the mobile device including an application identifier, determine whether to transmit that notification message to the mobile device based on the representation of the whitelist, wherein the notification message is received from one of a plurality of application servers.

25. The system of claim 24 further comprising:

wherein the memory of the mobile device is further to store one or more instructions to;

maintain a blacklist that represents the another one of the plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may not receive notification messages, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers for the another one of the plurality of applications respectively, and

transmit the representation of the blacklist to the one or more couriers; and

wherein the memory of each of the one or more couriers are each further to store one or more instructions to;

receive the representation of the blacklist from the mobile device, store the received representation of the blacklist, and upon a determination not to transmit that notification message to the mobile device, determine whether to notify the sender of that notification of an uninstalled application based on the representation of the blacklist.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the blacklist includes uncompressed application identifiers of the whitelist and blacklist.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that are not currently running on the mobile device.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that have been disabled by a user of the mobile device.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that a user has selected not to receive notification messages for.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist are compacted representations.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the compacted representations of the whitelist and blacklist are probabilistic representations, wherein the mobile device is further to store one or more instructions to perform the following:

create the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist is smaller than the size of the whitelist; and

create a probabilistic representation of the blacklist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist is smaller than the size of the blacklist.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising:

wherein the mobile device is further to store one or more instructions to perform the following for each application identifier to the create the probabilistic representation of the whitelist;

hash that application identifier using a hashing algorithm to generate a message digest,

divide that message digest into a number of segments,

calculate a value for each of the number of segments, and

set those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the calculated values; and

wherein upon receipt of a notification message for the mobile device at one of the one or more couriers, that courier further to store one or more instructions to perform the following;

hash the application identifier included in that notification message using the same hashing algorithm to generate a message digest,

divide that message digest into the number of segments,

calculate a value for each of the number of segments,

determine whether each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, wherein if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, transmit the notification message to the mobile device, and wherein if any of the calculated values does not correspond with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, do not transmit the notification to the mobile device.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising:

wherein the mobile device is further to store one or more instructions to perform the following for each application identifier to the create the probabilistic representation of the blacklist;

hash that application identifier using a hashing algorithm to generate a message digest,

divide that message digest into a number of segments,

calculate a value for each of the number of segments, and

set those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist that correspond with the calculated values; and

wherein the courier is further to store one or more instructions to notify the sender of the notification message of an uninstalled application if any of the calculated values does not correspond with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist.

34. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor on a mobile device, will cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

maintaining a whitelist that represents one or more of a plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may receive notification messages from a courier coupled to the mobile device, wherein the whitelist includes one or more application identifiers for each of the one or more of the plurality of applications respectively;

maintaining a blacklist that represents another one applications installed on the mobile device that may not receive notification messages from the courier, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers for the another one of the plurality of applications respectively; and

transmitting a representation of the whitelist and the blacklist to the courier that controls the transmission of notification messages to the mobile device, wherein the courier uses the representation to determine whether to forward notification messages received by the courier from a plurality of application servers and the received notification messages are directed to the mobile device.

35. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the blacklist includes uncompressed application identifiers of the whitelist and blacklist.

36. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that are not currently running on the mobile device.

37. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that have been disabled by a user of the mobile device.

38. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the blacklist includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that a user has selected not to receive notification messages for.

39. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, further comprising:

responsive to the mobile device moving to a different courier, transmitting the representation of the whitelist and the blacklist to the different courier.

40. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 34, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist are compacted representations.

41. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein the compacted representations of the whitelist and blacklist are probabilistic representations, the method further comprising:

creating the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist is smaller than the size of the whitelist; and

creating a probabilistic representation of the blacklist, wherein the size of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist is smaller than the size of the blacklist.

42. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein creating the probabilistic representation of the whitelist includes for each application identifier on the whitelist, hashing that application identifier to generate a hashed application identifier and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the hashed application identifier, and

wherein creating the probabilistic representation of the blacklist includes for each application identifier on the blacklist, hashing that application identifier to generate a hashed application identifier and setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist list that correspond with the hashed application identifier.

43. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 42, wherein each hashed application identifier is generated from a SHA-1 hash of the corresponding application identifier, the method further comprising:

for each hashed application identifier generated from a corresponding application identifier on the whitelist, performing the following;

dividing that hashed application identifier into a number of segments,

calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the calculated values;

for each hashed application identifier generated from a corresponding application identifier on the blacklist, performing the following;

dividing that hashed application identifier into a number of segments,

calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist that correspond with the calculated values; and

storing the probabilistic representations of the whitelist and the blacklist on the mobile device.

44. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 42, further comprising:

prior to hashing the application identifiers on the whitelist and the blacklist,

salting the application identifiers on the whitelist by adding a same random number to each of those application identifiers, and salting the application identifiers on the blacklist by adding a same random number to each application identifier of those application identifiers;

and transmitting those random numbers to the one or more couriers.

45. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 42, further comprising:

responsive to an application identifier being added to, or removed from, the whitelist, performing the following;

clearing those bits set in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist,

for each application identifier on the whitelist, performing the following;

salting that application identifier with a same random number used for each application identifier on the whitelist,

hashing that application identifier and random number with the SHA-1 hashing algorithm,

dividing the result of the hashing into a number of segments, calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the whitelist that correspond with the calculated values;

storing the probabilistic representation of the whitelist on the mobile device; and

transmitting the probabilistic representation of the whitelist to the one or more couriers.

46. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 42, further comprising:

responsive to an application identifier being added to, or removed from, the blacklist, performing the following;

clearing those bits set in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, for each application identifier on the blacklist, performing the following;

salting that application identifier with a same random number used for each application identifier on the blacklist,

hashing that application identifier and random number with the SHA-1 hashing algorithm,

dividing the result of the hashing into a number of segments,

calculating a value for each of the number of segments, and

setting those bits of the probabilistic representation of the blacklist that correspond with the calculated values;

storing the probabilistic representation of the blacklist on the mobile device; and

transmitting the probabilistic representation of the blacklist to the one or more couriers.

47. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, if executed by a processor on a courier, will cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a representation of a whitelist and a representation of a blacklist from each of a plurality of mobile devices that were generated by each of the plurality of mobile devices, wherein the whitelist represents one or more of a plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may receive notification messages and the blacklist that represents another one of the plurality of applications installed on the mobile device that may not receive notification messages;

storing the received representations for each mobile device;

receiving notification messages for different ones of the plurality of mobile devices, each notification message including an application identifier, wherein the notification messages are received from a plurality of application servers; and

for each received notification message, performing the following;

determining which one of the plurality of mobile devices the notification is for, and

determining whether to transmit that notification message to the determined one of the plurality of mobile devices based on the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist received from that mobile device.

48. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein at least some of the representations of the whitelists and the blacklists include uncompressed application identifiers.

49. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 47;

wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that are not currently running on that given one of the mobile devices.

50. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that have been disabled by a user of that given one of the mobile devices.

51. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the representation of the blacklists received from a given one of the mobile devices includes one or more application identifiers corresponding with the another one of the plurality of applications that a user of that given one of the mobile devices has selected not to receive notification messages for.

52. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the representation of the whitelist and the representation of the blacklist are compacted representations.

53. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 52, wherein the compacted representations of the whitelist and blacklist are probabilistic representations.

54. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 53, wherein determining whether to transmit that notification message further comprises:

hashing the application identifier included in the received notification message;

dividing the hashing result into a number of segments;

calculating a value for each of the number of segments;

determining whether each value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist;

if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist, transmitting the notification message to the determined one of the mobile devices, and

if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, do not transmit the notification message.

55. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 54, further comprising for each received notification message, if any of the calculated values do not correspond with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the whitelist or the blacklist, notifying that the application is uninstalled on that mobile device to the sender of that notification message.

56. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 54, wherein if each calculated value corresponds with a set bit in the probabilistic representation of the blacklist, dropping that notification message.