Method and apparatus for establishing chat group

• US 9,794,080 B2
• Filed: 04/28/2013
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Li, Wei, Ho, Remyylyang, Shan, Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): Lazaro, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shitayewoldetsad, Berhanu
• Application Number:
  US13/994,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20140324993A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,633 Days
• Field of Search: 709202, 709204-245, 455519, 455520, 4554142, 4554563, 455438, 455436, 4554321
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for establishing a chat group. The method performed by a server includes: obtaining an identifier of a user of a first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first terminal; beginning to establish a chat group; selecting at least one second client terminal from a predetermined geographic scope; and inviting a user of the at least one second client terminal to the chat group; receiving authentication information input by the user of the second client terminal from the second client terminal; determining whether the authentication information is correct; if the authentication information is correct, adding the user of the second client terminal into the chat group; and sending information of the second user to the first client terminal; finishing establishing the chat group when a preset finish condition is met.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a chat group, comprising:

obtaining, by a server, an identifier of a user of a first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first client terminal after receiving a request for establishing a chat group from the first client terminal;

establishing, by the server, a chat group entry and storing the entry on the server according to the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal;

receiving, by the server, a request from a second client terminal to obtain information of other client terminals located around the second client terminal, wherein the request from the second client terminal includes a geographic position of the second client terminal;

in response to the request from the second client terminal, determining a distance between the geographic position of the second client terminal and the geographic position of the first client terminal;

in accordance with a determination that the distance between the geographic position of the second client terminal and the geographic position of the first client terminal is shorter than a preset value, sending an invitation message to join the chat group to the second client terminal, wherein, in response to the invitation message, the second client terminal is configured to display, to a user of the second client terminal, an indication of the chat group to be established including the identifier of the user of the first client terminal and an instruction of inputting authentication information via the second client terminal;

receiving, by the server and from the second client terminal, a response of joining the chat group, the response including authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal, wherein the authentication information was obtained by the user of the second client terminal from the user of the first client terminal independently of the server;

performing authentication by determining whether the authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal is identical with the identifier of the chat group to be established;

in accordance with a determination that the authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal is identical with the identifier of the chat group to be established, allowing access of the user of the second client terminal to the chat group to be established, and sending information of the user of the second client terminal to the first client terminal; and

in response to receiving a finish request from the first client terminal, establishing, by the server, the chat group including the first client terminal and the second client terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the request for establishing the chat group comprises the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal;

and

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal comprises;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal from the request for establishing a chat group.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the request for establishing the chat group comprises the identifier of the user of the first client terminal and the identifier of the chat group to be established;

and

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal comprises;

obtaining, by the server, the identifier of the user of the first client terminal and the identifier of the chat group to be established from the request for establishing the chat group, and

obtaining the geographic position of the first client terminal by locating the first client terminal.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the identifier of the chat group is a predetermined number of digits.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

sending information of the first client terminal and information of other client terminals to the second client terminal, after allowing access of the user of the second client terminal to the chat group to be established.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions thereon for establishing a chat group, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the method claimed in claim 1.

6. An apparatus for establishing a chat group, comprising:

an interface and a processor, wherein the processor comprises an obtaining module, an establishing module, a selecting module, an adding module and a finishing module; and

the interface is to receive a request for establishing a chat group sent by a first client terminal, the request for establishing the chat group comprises an identifier of a user of the first client terminal, an identifier of a chat group to be established;

the obtaining module is to obtain the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and a geographic position of the first client terminal, according to the request for establishing the chat group;

the establishing module is to establish the chat group entry according to the identifier of the user of the first client terminal, the identifier of the chat group to be established and the geographic position of the first client terminal;

the selecting module is to receive a request from a second client terminal to obtain information of other client terminals located around the second client terminal, wherein the request from the second client terminal includes a geographic position of the second client terminal, and, in response to the request from the second client terminal, determine a distance between the geographic position of the second client terminal and the geographic position of the first client terminal;

the interface is further to;

send, in accordance with a determination by the selecting module that the distance between the geographic position of the second client terminal and the geographic position of the first client terminal is shorter than a preset value, an invitation message to join the chat group to the second client terminal, wherein, in response to the invitation message, the second client terminal is configured to display, to a user of the second client terminal, an indication of the chat group to be established including the identifier of the user of the first client terminal and an instruction of inputting authentication information via the second client terminal;

receive, from the second client terminal, a response of joining the chat group, the response including authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal, wherein the authentication information was obtained by the user of the second client terminal from the user of the first client terminal independently of the server; and

send information of the user of the second client terminal to the first client terminal after the user of the second client terminal is allowed access into the chat group to be established;

the adding module is to perform authentication for the user of the second client terminal by determining whether the authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal is identical with the identifier of the chat group to be established and, in accordance with a determination that the authentication information provided by the user of the second client terminal is identical with the identifier of the chat group to be established, allow access of the user of the second client terminal to the chat group to be established;

the finishing module is to establish, in response to receiving a finish request from the first client terminal, the chat group including the first client terminal and the second client terminal.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

when the geographic position of the first client terminal is comprised in the request for establishing the chat group, the obtaining module is to directly obtain the geographic position of the first client terminal from the request for establishing a chat group;

when the geographic position of the first client terminal is not comprised in the request for establishing the chat group, the obtaining module is to obtain the geographic position of the first client terminal by locating the first client terminal.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the interface of the processor is further to send information of the first client terminal and information of other group members to the second client terminal.