Enabling third parties to add effects to an application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10698744-B2
Application number	US-201715488238-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 14, 2017
Priority date	Apr 14, 2017
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

Techniques that enable a third party to author and add functionality to a target application. A third party may create or author a script that encodes the functionality to be added to the target application. The script may then be provided to and executed by the target application, where execution of the script causes the functionality to be added to the target application. In certain embodiments, the added functionality may be in the form of effects that are output via the target application when the script is executed by the target application. The effects may include audio-visual effects that are displayed or output by the target application and may also include displaying data provided by a third party.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
displaying, by a device, a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first application executing on the device, the first GUI providing a user-selectable option for initiating a communication from the first application to a second application, wherein the communication includes a script encoded with one or more effects or information identifying the script, each effect of the one or more effects being an audio-visual effect that can be applied by the second application;
sending, by the first application, the communication from the first application to the second application in response to a selection of the user-selectable option; and
receiving, by the second application executing on the device, the communication from the first application executing on the device;
displaying, by the device, a second GUI of the second application, wherein the second GUI includes media content captured by one or more cameras of the device, and wherein the media content is captured by the one or more cameras after the second application has received the communication;
identifying the script based on the communication; and
executing, by the second application, the identified script, the executing causing the one or more effects to be output along with the media content such that the media content is augmented by the one or more effects.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the script is authored by a provider of the first application, and wherein the provider of the first application is different from a provider of the second application.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the one or more effects to be output comprises:
outputting a visual effect via the second GUI,
outputting an audio effect via the device, or
displaying data associated with the first application via the second GUI.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the script comprises:
communicating, from the second application to a server system remote from the device, a portion of information included in the communication received by the second application;
identifying, by the server system, the script based on the portion of information; and
communicating the identified script from the server system to the device for use by the second application.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information identifying the script includes information identifying the first application or information identifying a provider of the first application.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the one or more effects to be output comprises outputting, via the second GUI, data associated with the first application.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the data associated with the first application is included in the communication received by the second application from the first application.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
the data associated with the first application is accessed by the second application from a storage location remote from the device; and
the script identifies the storage location.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the script is authored by a provider of the first application, and wherein the data associated with the first application is from a provider other than the provider of the first application.

10. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein displaying the second GUI comprises switching the GUI displayed by the device from the first GUI to the second GUI.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
receiving, by the device, a message from the second application to exit the second application; and
responsive to the message, changing the GUI displayed by the device from the second GUI to the first GUI.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
capturing one or more frames of a video stream, wherein the media content is the video stream, and wherein the one or more frames are captured by the one or more cameras of the device while the one or more effects are being output along with the video stream;
sending, by the second application, a preview of the one or more frames of the video stream to the first application; and
displaying, by the first application, the preview of the one or more frames of the video stream.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the second GUI comprises switching the GUI displayed by the device from the first GUI to the second GUI.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors of a device, the plurality of instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
display, by the device, a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first application executing on the device, the first GUI providing a user-selectable option for initiating a communication from the first application to a second application, wherein the communication includes a script encoded with one or more effects or information identifying the script, each effect of the one or more effects being an audio-visual effect that can be applied by the second application;
send the communication from the first application to the second application in response to a selection of the user-selectable option; and
receive, by the second application executing on the device, the communication from the first application executing on the device;
display, by the device, a second GUI of the second application, wherein the second GUI includes media content captured by one or more cameras of the device, and wherein the media content is captured by the one or more cameras after the second application has received the communication;
identify the script based on the communication; and
execute, by the second application, the identified script, the executing causing the one or more effects to be output along with the media content such that the media content is augmented by the one or more effects.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the script is authored by a provider of the first application, and wherein the provider of the first application is different from a provider of the second application.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein causing the one or more effects to be output comprises outputting, via the second GUI, data associated with the first application, and wherein the data associated with the first application is included in the communication received by the second application from the first application.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 ,
wherein displaying the second GUI comprises switching the GUI displayed by the device from the first GUI to the second GUI.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of instructions when executed by the one or more processors further cause the one or more processors to:
receive, by the device, a message from the second application to exit the second application; and
responsive to the message, change the GUI displayed by the device from the second GUI to the first GUI.

19. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
display, by a device, a first graphical user interface (GUI) of a first application executing on the device, the first GUI providing a user-selectable option for initiating a communication from the first application to a second app

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Smet Stef Marc
• Slater Michael
• Arcuri Michael Philip
• Williams Joshua Ryan
• Subramanyam Karthik
• Yin Bo

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04N23/63

  by using electronic viewfinders · CPC title

• G06F9/451 Primary

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title

• G06F9/44526

  Plug-ins; Add-ons · CPC title

• G06F3/04842

  Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) · CPC title