E-mail processing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016366077-A1
Application number	US-201615182446-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 14, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2015
Publication date	Dec 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An e-mail processing method includes: receiving, by a server, an e-mail from a sender; if there exists a recipient that has not yet been associated with an e-mail account in the recipients of the e-mail, allocating, by the server, an e-mail account to the recipient; and sending the e-mail to the allocated e-mail account, thereby ensuring that the recipient successfully receives an e-mail of a sender and improving communication efficiency between users. An e-mail group creating method includes: detecting, by a server, an e-mail group creating demand for an instant messaging group; extracting, by the server, an e-mail address corresponding to each member contained in the instant messaging group; and generating a corresponding e-mail group, thereby automatically creating an e-mail group and helping to simplify a user's operation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, by a server, an e-mail to be sent to a recipient; determining that the recipient is not associated with an e-mail account; and assigning an allocated e-mail account to the recipient.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the e-mail to the allocated e-mail account.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the recipient is not associated with the e-mail account includes:
matching an ID of the recipient to an association list, the association list storing one or more IDs of associated users and e-mail accounts with which the associated users are associated; and determining that the recipient is not associated with the e-mail account, in response to determining that the ID of the recipient does not match any ID in the associated list.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending a mail notification message to a receiving-end IM client terminal of the recipient to notify the recipient to check the e-mail.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the mail notification message includes information to register the allocated e-mail account.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an e-mail account modification request for the recipient; and modifying the allocated e-mail account according to the e-mail account modification request.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the modifying the allocated e-mail account includes modifying a name of the allocated e-mail account according to the e-mail account modification request.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the modifying the allocated e-mail account includes modifying the allocated e-mail account to another e-mail account according to the e-mail account modification request.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the recipient is not associated with an instant messaging (IM) account of an instant messaging application; sending a registration notification message to the recipient in a communication manner different from the instant messaging application to notify the recipient to register the IM account.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the registration notification message includes a download address of an IM client terminal of the IM application.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising establishing an association relationship between the IM account and the allocated e-mail account.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the e-mail includes receiving the e-mail sent by a sending-end IM client terminal of a sender.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
acquiring a content of the e-mail; determining the recipient of the e-mail; and generating, by a sending-end IM client terminal, the e-mail according to the content of the e-mail and the recipient of the e-mail.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the determining the recipient of the e-mail includes:
displaying, by the sending-end IM client terminal, at least one contact group; receiving, by the sending-end IM client terminal, a selecting instruction sent by the sender, the selecting instruction being used for selecting a target contact group from the at least one contact group; and using, by the sending-end IM client terminal, a contact in the target contact group as the recipient of the e-mail, and adding the contact to a recipient list of the e-mail.

15 . A method comprising:
detecting, by a server, an e-mail group creating demand for an instant messaging group; extracting one or more e-mail address corresponding to members contained in the instant messaging group; and generating an e-mail group including the one or more email addresses.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more e-mail addresses include an e-mail address generated by the server for a corresponding member that is not associated with the e-mail address.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the one or more e-mail addresses include an e-mail address associated with a member in the instant messaging group.

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the detecting the e-mail group creating demand for the instant messaging group includes receiving, an instruction of adding the instant messaging group as an e-mail recipient.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the instant messaging group is an enterprise instant messaging group.

20 . An apparatus comprising:
a detection unit that detects an e-mail group creating demand for an instant messaging group; an extraction unit that extracts one or more e-mail address corresponding to members contained in the instant messaging group; and a generation unit that generates an e-mail group including the one or more email addresses.

Assignees

• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd

Inventors

• Dong Guangqian
• Wu Zhenhao
• Weng Lei
• Chen Hang

Classifications

• H04L51/24

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/066 Primary

  Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression · CPC title

• H04L51/04

  Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] · CPC title

• H04L51/56 Primary

  Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM] · CPC title

• H04L51/224

  providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages · CPC title