Ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages

• US 9,537,811 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2014
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Snap, Inc.
• Inventors: Allen, Nicholas, Giovannini, Donald, Lin, Chia-Yi, Murphy, Robert, Spiegel, Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thuong
• Application Number:
  US14/505,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20160099901A1
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 715203-205, 715/702, 715/733, 715/772, 715/863
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/162 Delete operations erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A server has a processor and a memory storing instructions executed by the processor to maintain an ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages. An ephemeral message is posted to the ephemeral gallery. The ephemeral message has an associated message duration parameter and a gallery participation parameter. An ephemeral message is removed from the ephemeral gallery in response to the identification of an expired gallery participation parameter.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions executed by the processor to;

maintain an ephemeral gallery comprising a plurality of ephemeral messages posted by a user for viewing by one or more recipients, wherein each of the ephemeral messages comprises a photograph or a video, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising making the ephemeral gallery available for viewing, upon request, via respective user devices associated with the one or more recipients;

for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages,

maintain an associated message duration parameter that indicates a display duration for the corresponding ephemeral message during viewing of the ephemeral gallery, and

maintain a gallery participation parameter that indicates a time value for continued availability of the corresponding ephemeral message in the ephemeral gallery;

responsive to receiving an ephemeral gallery view request from one of the one or more recipients, cause automated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages on a corresponding user device by performance of operations comprising;

starting a message timer when viewing of one of the plurality of the ephemeral messages is commenced,

determining that the message timer expires when the message timer equals the corresponding display duration,

responsive to expiry of the message timer, displaying a next one of the plurality of ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery, and

repeating the starting, determining, and displaying operations until all ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery are viewed;

remove a particular one of the plurality ephemeral messages from the ephemeral gallery in response to the identification of an expired gallery participation parameter corresponding to the particular ephemeral message, the particular ephemeral message after removal thereof being unavailable for recipient viewing as part of the ephemeral gallery; and

eliminate the ephemeral gallery so that the ephemeral gallery is unavailable for viewing responsive to any recipient request, the ephemeral gallery being eliminated upon expiration of either a gallery timer or upon expiration of the gallery participation parameter of a last message in the ephemeral gallery, the last message being that one of the plurality of ephemeral messages which was posted to the ephemeral gallery last.

2. The server of claim 1 wherein the memory storing instructions executed by the processor includes instructions to post indicia of ephemeral gallery activity.

3. The server of claim 2 wherein the indicia of ephemeral gallery activity includes indicia of a time that the last message was posted to the ephemeral gallery.

4. The server of claim 2 wherein the indicia of ephemeral gallery activity includes graphical indicia of an amount of time remaining for the ephemeral gallery.

5. The server of claim 2 wherein the indicia of ephemeral gallery activity includes indicia of a number of ephemeral gallery views.

6. The server of claim 2 wherein the indicia of ephemeral gallery activity includes indicia of screenshots taken of an ephemeral message in the ephemeral gallery.

7. The server of claim 1 wherein ephemeral messages are supplied in chronological order based upon oldest post times.

8. The server of claim 1 wherein the memory storing instruction executed by the processor includes instructions to:

receive from the user a newly posted ephemeral message;

store the newly posted ephemeral message and an associated message duration parameter, and

associate the ephemeral message with the ephemeral gallery.

9. The server of claim 8 wherein the associated message duration parameter is a default parameter.

10. The server of claim 8 wherein the associated message duration parameter is set by the user.

11. The server of claim 8 wherein the newly posted ephemeral message includes augmentations made by the user.

12. The server of claim 11 wherein the newly posted ephemeral message includes annotations made by the user.

13. The server of claim 12 wherein the annotations are received from a keyboard.

14. The server of claim 12 wherein the annotations are received from a drawing tool.

15. The server of claim 12 wherein the memory storing instructions executed by the processor includes instructions to accept destinations for the newly posted ephemeral message.

16. The server of claim 15 wherein the destinations include the ephemeral gallery and designated individuals as the one or more recipients.

17. The server of claim 1 wherein the memory storing instructions executed by the processor includes instructions to supply an account administration interface to establish one or more ephemeral galleries that respectively receives ephemeral messages from multiple users.