Systems and methods for proactively providing recommendations to a user of a computing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016357808-A1
Application number	US-201514866795-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The embodiments described herein set forth techniques for identifying when a user activates a search application on his or her mobile computing device, and presenting, prior to receiving an input of search parameters from the user, a prediction of one or more applications that the user may be interested in accessing. According to some embodiments, the search application can be configured to interface with an “application prediction engine” each time the search application is activated and query the application prediction engine for a prediction of one or more applications that the user may be interested in accessing. In turn, the application prediction engine can analyze information associated with the applications installed on the mobile computing device to produce the prediction. Using the prediction, the search application can display the predicted one or more applications within a user interface of the search application for selection by the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for proactively providing predictions to a user of a mobile computing device, the method comprising:
at an application prediction engine executing on the mobile computing device:
for each application included in a list of applications installed on the mobile computing device:
performing at least one function on at least one data signal that corresponds to the application to establish a score for the application, wherein the score indicates a likelihood that the application will be activated by the user, and
associating the score with the application; and

providing a prediction to a search application executing on the mobile computing device, wherein the prediction includes the list of applications and their associated scores.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, prior to providing the prediction to the search application:
receiving, from the search application, a request for the prediction, wherein the search application issues the request in response to an activation of the search application and prior to receiving a search input from the user.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the request indicates a specific number of applications that should be included in the list of applications included in the prediction.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each application included in the list of applications:
adjusting the score in accordance with a weight that is associated with the at least one data signal.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein, when the at least one data signal corresponds to a temporal aspect of application access within the mobile computing device, performing the at least one function on the at least one data signal further comprises, prior to adjusting the score in accordance with the weight that is associated with the at least one data signal:
adjusting the score for the at least one data signal in accordance with a decay factor that applies to the at least one data signal.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one data signal is selected from one or more of application installation timestamps, application activation timestamps, application activation totals, application usage metrics, positions of application icons within a main user interface of the mobile computing device, search parameters recently provided by the user, and gathered feedback that indicates whether previous predictions were accurate.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein a position of an application icon within the main user interface of the mobile computing device can indicate:
a page number of the main user interface in which the application icon is included, and whether the application is included in a folder within the main user interface.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising, subsequent to providing the prediction to the search application:
receiving feedback from the search application, wherein the feedback indicates a behavior of the user subsequent to viewing the prediction in the search application; and updating the gathered feedback to reflect the feedback received from the search application.

9 . A method for proactively presenting predictions to a user of a mobile computing device, the method comprising:
at search application executing on the mobile computing device:
detecting an activation of the search application;
issuing, to an application prediction engine, a request for a prediction of one or more applications that are installed on the mobile computing device and that the user may be interested in activating;
receiving the prediction from the application prediction engine, wherein the prediction includes a list of one or more applications, and each application is associated with a respective score; and
in accordance with the scores, display, within a user interface of the search application, a user interface entry for at least one application of the one or more applications.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the request is issued to the application prediction engine prior to receiving a search input via a search field included in the user interface of the search application.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
receiving a user input through the user interface of the search application; providing, in the form of feedback, information associated with the user input.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the feedback indicates whether the user selected the user interface entry for the at least one application or entered search parameters.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the request indicates a specific number of applications that should be included in the prediction, and the specific number of applications is based on a number of user interface entries for applications that are capable of being displayed to the user within the user interface of the search application.

14 . A mobile computing device configured to proactively present predictions to a user of the mobile computing device, the mobile computing device comprising a processor that is configured to execute:
a search application configured to carry out steps that include:
detecting an activation of the search application, and
prior to receiving an input from the user within a user interface of the search application:
issuing, to an application prediction engine executing on the mobile computing device, a request for a list of one or more applications that are installed on the mobile computing device and that the user may be interested in activating,
receiving the list from the application prediction engine, and
displaying, within the user interface of the search application, a user interface entry for at least one application of the one or more applications included in the list; and
the application prediction engine, wherein the application prediction engine is configured to carry out steps that include:
receiving, from the search application, the request for the list of one or more applications that the user may be interested in activating,
generating the list, and
providing the list to the search application.

15 . The mobile computing device of claim 14 , wherein generating the list comprises:
for each application installed on the mobile computing device:
generating a score for the application by performing one or more functions on one or more data signals that correspond to the application, and
associating the score with the application; and
filtering the applications in accordance with the generated scores; and incorporating the applications as filtered into the list.

16 . The mobile computing device of claim 15 , wherein performing a function of the one or more functions on a data signal of the one or more data signals comprises:
establishing a score for the data signal based on information associated with the data signal; and adjusting the score in accordance with a weight that is associated with the data signal.

17 . The mobile computing device of claim 16 , wherein, when the data signal corresponds to a temporal aspect of application access within the mobile computing device, performing the function on the data signal further comprises, prior to adjusting the score in accordance with the weight that is associated with the data signal:
adjusting the score for the data signal in accordance with a decay factor that applies to the data signal.

18 . The mobile computing device of claim 15 , wherein the one or more data signals include application installation timestamps, application activation timestamps

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Morris Colin
• Scott Peter J
• Federighi Craig M
• Gross Daniel C

Classifications

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06F9/453 Primary

  Help systems · CPC title

• G06F9/4451 Primary

  User profiles; Roaming · CPC title

• G06F17/30424

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30389 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic