Organizing messages into conversation threads

• US 9,219,704 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2011
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamlin, Drew W., Hsiao, Daniel, Zuckerberg, Mark E., Bosworth, Andrew G., Seligstein, Joel Benjamin, Bayer, Ross David
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Assistant Examiner(s): TOKUTA, SHEAN S
• Application Number:
  US13/284,555
• Publication Number:
  US 20120124147A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-206
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• 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 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

A messaging system that organizes and presents messages to users of the messaging system. The messaging system includes a mailbox module that receives messages and generates conversation threads from the messages. Messages received from different electronic message channels may be aggregated into a common conversation thread. The conversation threads are also organized in a message interface and then presented to a user of the messaging system. The messaging system may include a social networking system that stores social information about users, which can be used to organize the conversation threads. Other features include a multi mode message interface, and a method for adding contextual information to messages.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a social networking system, a first message corresponding to a first electronic message channel, the first message associated with a first set of users of the social networking system, the first electronic message channel being one of email, chat, extensible messaging and presence protocol or short message service;

adding the first message to a first conversation thread that is associated with the first set of users and includes a collection of messages sent between the first set of users;

receiving, by the social networking system, a second message corresponding to a second electronic message channel that is different than the first electronic message channel, the second message also associated with the first set of users, the second electronic message channel being one of email, chat, extensible messaging and presence protocol or short message service;

adding the second message to the first conversation thread associated with the first set of users;

accessing information about at least one social relationship in the social networking system between the first set of users associated with the first conversation thread;

selecting a subset of the first set of users based on the information about the at least one social relationship;

generating a first summary of the first conversation thread, the first summary including an excerpt from the first conversation thread, names of the selected subset of the first set of users, and profile pictures of the selected subset of the first set of users that are identified from profiles of the selected subset of the first set of users;

generating a second summary of a second conversation thread, the second summary including an excerpt from the second conversation thread, one or more names of one or more users from a second set of users associated with the second conversation thread, and one or more profile pictures of the one or more users from the second set of users that are identified from one or more profiles of the one or more users from the second set of users;

generating a conversation thread list that includes the first summary of the first conversation thread and the second summary of the second conversation thread; and

responsive to receiving a user selection of the first summary in the conversation thread list, generating a message interface corresponding to the first conversation thread for display to a user of the first set of users, the message interface including;

content of the first message in association with an icon representing the first electronic message channel; and

content of the second message in association with an icon representing the second electronic message channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of users includes two or more users of the social networking system and the first conversation thread is associated with the two or more users.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of users includes three or more users of the social networking system and the first conversation thread is associated with the three or more users.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first conversation thread associated with the first set of users includes a collection of all messages sent between the first set of users via the social networking system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first conversation thread associated with the first set of users includes a collection of less than all messages sent between the first set of users via the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second messages are both sent by a single user of the first set of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second messages are sent by different users of the first set of users.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message channel is email and the second message channel is not email.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message interface includes:

the content of the first message in association with a profile picture of a user of the first set of users that sent the first message; and

the content of the second message in association with a profile picture of a user of the first set of users that sent the second message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message interface includes a plurality of messages of the first conversation thread in chronological order.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first summary of the first conversation thread further comprises an indication of a number of users from the first set of users whose names are not included in the first summary of the first conversation thread.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more names in the first summary of the first conversation thread are selected based on at least one social affinity in the social networking system between the first set of users.