Conditional message forwarding functions

• US 9,277,379 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2014
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fan, James, Barrett, Thomas, Lam, Jennifer K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisner, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US14/157,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20140171135A1
• Time in Patent Office: 775 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Message forwarding by communication devices is conditionally and/or automatically controlled. A network message management component and/or handset message management component can monitor messages (e.g., short message service (SMS) messages) communicated between user equipment (UE) in a communication network, identify and/or intercept a message for which one or more forwarding conditions have been specified by the message originator, target, or forward target, and conditionally and/or automatically route the message to the target and/or forward target in accordance with predefined message routing rules based at least in part on the conditions specified by the originator, target, or forward target. The predefined message routing rules can be implemented by the network and/or the UEs, and can relate to the UE identifiers, time, priority, cost, operation state, size, desired automatic response messages, or other desired factors, associated with the message.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining whether forwarding, by a second communication device, a copy of a message to a third communication device, the message having been communicated from a first communication device to the second communication device, will result in a cost being incurred based on a subscription that relates to a messaging service, wherein the subscription is associated with a subscriber identity; and

determining whether to forward, by the second communication device, the copy of the message to the third communication device, wherein the determining whether to forward is based on a message routing rule that is based on preference data corresponding to a preference of the subscriber identity, wherein the preference data indicates whether the cost is to be incurred in connection with the copy of the message being forwarded.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the forwarding of the copy comprises determining whether the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device will result in a defined threshold number of messages being exceeded during a defined subscription time period associated with the subscription, and wherein the defined threshold number of messages being exceeded during the defined subscription time period results in the cost being incurred in connection with the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

analyzing a second preference of the preference data associated with the second communication device to facilitate the determining whether to forward the copy of the message to the third communication device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating the copy of the message in response to determining that the copy of the message is to be forwarded to the third communication device based on the second preference and the message routing rule.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the second preference indicates that the copy of the message has been requested to be forwarded to the third communication device during a defined time period.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the second preference relates to a threshold priority level for the forwarding of the copy of the message, and wherein the operations further comprise:

determining whether the message satisfies the threshold priority level to facilitate the determining whether to forward the copy of the message to the third communication device.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the second preference indicates that the copy of the message has been requested to be forwarded to the third communication device in response to determining the second communication device is not communicatively connected to a network device.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the second preference relates to whether the forwarding of the message to the third communication device is permitted based on an identifier associated with the first communication device, and wherein the operations further comprise:

based on the second preference, determining whether the identifier associated with the first communication device is in a set of identifiers for which message forwarding to the third communication device is permitted to facilitate the determining whether to forward the copy of the message to the third communication device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

analyzing a forwarding indicator associated with the message to facilitate determining whether the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device is prohibited by the first communication device, wherein the determining whether to forward the copy of the message to the third communication device comprises determining whether to forward the copy of the message to the third communication device based on the message routing rule and the forwarding indicator.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the message is a text message, and the first communication device is a mobile communication device, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information that indicates a specified time for communication of the text message from the first communication device to the second communication device; and

communicating the text message to the second communication device at the specified time.

11. A method, comprising:

determining, by a system comprising a processor, whether transmitting, by a second communication device, a copy of a message to a third communication device, the message having been communicated from a first communication device to the second communication device, will result in a cost being incurred in connection with a subscription that relates to a messaging service, wherein the subscription is associated with a subscriber identity; and

determining, by the system, whether to transmit, by the second communication device, the copy of the message to the third communication device, wherein the determining whether to transmit is based on a message communication rule that relates to a preference of the subscriber identity, wherein the message communication rule indicates whether the cost is to be incurred in connection with the copy of the message being transmitted to the third communication device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining, by the system, that the transmitting the copy of the message to the third communication device will not result in the cost being incurred in connection with the subscription; and

determining, by the system, that the copy of the message is to be transmitted to the third communication device in response to the determining that the transmitting the copy of the message to the third communication device will not result in the cost being incurred, in accordance with the message communication rule.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining, by the system, that the transmitting the copy of the message to the third communication device will result in the cost being incurred in connection with the subscription; and

determining, by the system, that the copy of the message is not to be transmitted to the third communication device in response to determining that the transmitting the copy of the message to the third communication device will result in the cost being incurred, in accordance with the message communication rule.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

analyzing, by the system, another preference in connection with the message to facilitate the determining whether to transmit the copy of the message to the third communication device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating, by the system, the copy of the message in response to determining that the copy of the message is to be transmitted to the third communication device based on the other preference and the message communication rule.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the other preference indicates that the copy of the message is requested to be transmitted to the third communication device during a defined time period.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the other preference relates to a threshold priority level for the transmitting of the copy of the message, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining, by the system, whether the message satisfies the threshold priority level to facilitate the determining whether to transmit the copy of the message to the third communication device.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the message is a text message, and the third communication device is a mobile communication device, and wherein the method further comprises:

identifying, by the system, another preference that indicates the copy of the text message is to be delivered to an email message box address associated with the third communication device; and

sending, by the system, the copy of the text message to the email message box address associated with the third communication device based on the other preference.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

determining whether forwarding, by a second communication device, a copy of a message to a third communication device, the message having been communicated from a first communication device to the second communication device, is to result in a defined threshold number of messages being exceeded during a defined subscription time period, wherein the defined subscription time period is associated with a subscription that relates to a messaging service and is associated with a subscriber identity, and wherein the defined threshold number of messages being exceeded during the defined subscription time period results in a cost being incurred in connection with the forwarding of the copy of the message; and

determining whether to forward, by the second communication device, the copy of the message to the third communication device, wherein the determining whether to forward is based on a defined message routing rule that relates to a preference of the subscriber identity, and wherein the preference indicates whether the cost is to be incurred in connection with the copy of the message being forwarded.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device is not to result in the cost being incurred in connection with the subscription in response to determining that the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device is not to result in the defined threshold number of messages being exceeded during the defined subscription time period; and

determining that the copy of the message is to be forwarded to the third communication device in response to the determining that the forwarding of the copy of the message to the third communication device is not to result in the cost being incurred, in accordance with the message routing rule.