Managing notifications across multiple devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9288164-B2
Application number	US-201313913322-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2013
Priority date	Jun 7, 2013
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

Modifying a notification on one client device can trigger the generation and transmission of a silent notification to another client device that is associated with the same user account. The silent notification can include instructions to query for and modify a similar notification, if present, on the other client device. Silent notifications that are undeliverable can be stored in offline storage and delivery can be reattempted at a later point in time.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:
detecting, on a client device, a modification event associated with a first notification on the client device;
determining a user ID associated with the client device;
transmitting, to an identity service, a request for another client device associated with the user ID;
receiving a push token for addressing the another client device associated with the user ID;
generating a silent notification having instructions to modify a second notification on the another client device, the second notification having the same content as the first notification; and
transmitting the silent notification from the client device to the another client device, according to the push token.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a public key representing an encryption scheme of the another client device; and
encrypting, prior to transmission, content of the silent notification according to the public key.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first notification and the second notification are generated from a remote source.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the modification event is a request to dismiss an alert from a lock screen of the client device.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the modification event is a request to remove the notification from a notification center of the client device.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the modification to the second notification is the same as the modification to the first notification.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the silent notification includes content from the first notification.

8. A computer implemented method, comprising:
receiving, on a client device, a silent notification having instructions to modify a notification that is equivalent to another notification that has been previously modified on another client device, the silent notification including content and a desired action;
matching the content with one of a plurality of notifications of the client device, the plurality of notifications being different than the notification; and
performing the desired action on the matched notification.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein matching comprises text matching.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising transmitting an acknowledgment of receipt of the silent notification.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 8 , wherein matching further comprises matching an application ID of the notification with one of a plurality of notifications of the client device.

12. A computer implemented method, comprising:
receiving, from a sending device, a silent notification for delivery at a receiving device;
routing the silent notification to the receiving device;
waiting a predefined period of time to receive an acknowledgment in response to routing the silent notification;
storing the silent notification in a storage when the predefined period of time elapses;
detecting the presence of the receiving device; and
rerouting the silent notification to the receiving device in response to the detection.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the silent notification is configured to provide an instruction to modify a notification on the receiving device.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 12 , further comprising confirming the authenticity of the silent notification.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14 , wherein confirming the authenticity of the silent notification includes confirming that a time to live variable of the silent notification has not expired.

16. A system, comprising:
a plurality of client devices related to a user account, each of the plurality of client devices having a persistent push token to uniquely identify a client device;
an identity service configured to return the persistent push tokens of the plurality of client devices in response to a query for the user account; and
a push notification service configured to route a silent notification from a first client device to a second client device according to the persistent push token of the second client device, the silent notification being configured to modify a notification stored on the second client device that was generated outside of the system.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the identity service is further configured to return a result including a first persistent push token of the first client device, a second persistent push token of the second client device, and a session token that is generated from the first persistent push token, the second persistent push token, and a time stamp associated with the query.

18. The system of claim 17 , further comprising a transport service configured to verify communications by comparing the time stamp of the session token against a time-to-live value.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the push notification service is further configured to map the persistent push token to an IP address of the second client device.

20. The system of claim 16 , further comprising an offline storage configured to store the silent notification for future retransmission when the second client device is offline.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions therein, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method, the method comprising: detecting, on a client device, a modification event associated with a first notification on the client device;
determining a user ID associated with the client device;
transmitting, to an identity service, a request for another client device associated with the user ID;
receiving a push token for addressing the another client device associated with the user ID;
generating a silent notification having instructions to modify a second notification on the another client device, the second notification having the same content as the first notification; and
transmitting the silent notification from the client device to the another client device, according to the push token.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21 , further comprising:
receiving a public key representing an encryption scheme of the another client device; and
encrypting, prior to transmission, content of the silent notification according to the public key.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the silent notification instructions modify the second notification on the another client device without displaying the silent notification on the another client device.

24. The method of claim 8 , wherein the silent notification is not displayed on the client device.

25. The method of claim 12 , wherein the silent notification instructions modify a second notification on the receiving device without displaying the silent notification on the receiving device.

26. The system of claim 16 , wherein the silent notification is not displayed on the second client device.

27. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 21 , wherein the silent notification instructions modify the second notification on the another client device without displaying the silent notification on the another client device.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherei

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Vyrros Andrew H
• Shepherd Matthew Elliott
• Edwards Dylan Ross
• Wood Justin
• Pollack Daniel Ben
• Filippis Pierre De
• Drummond Jonathan
• Santamaria Justin
• Novick Greg

Classifications

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title

• H04W12/10

  Integrity · CPC title

• H04L51/00 Primary

  User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail · CPC title

• H04L63/0428

  wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload · CPC title