Portable electronic device for instant messaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9304675-B2
Application number	US-84820807-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2007
Priority date	Sep 6, 2006
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

A portable electronic device for instant messaging is disclosed. One aspect of the invention involves a graphical user interface (GUI) on a portable electronic device with a touch screen display. The GUI has a set of messages exchanged between a user of the device and another person. The set of messages are displayed in a chronological order. In response to detecting a scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a user contact with the touch screen display, the display of messages are scrolled in accordance with a direction of the scrolling gesture. The detecting of the scrolling gesture is substantially independent of a horizontal position of the user contact with the touch screen display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
at a portable electronic device with a touch screen display:
displaying a list of instant message conversations on the touch screen display, a respective instant message conversation including a respective set of instant messages exchanged between a first person and a respective other person;
while displaying the list of instant message conversations, detecting a first scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a first contact with the touch screen display, wherein the first scrolling gesture is independent of a selection of any object;
responding to the first scrolling gesture by scrolling the list of instant message conversations in accordance with a direction of the first scrolling gesture, wherein the detecting of the first scrolling gesture is substantially independent of a horizontal position of the first contact with the touch screen display and the scrolling of the list of instant message conversations is independent of a selection of any object;
detecting a selection gesture on a particular instant message conversation in the list of instant message conversations;
responding to the selection gesture by replacing display of the list of instant message conversations with display of the particular instant message conversation, the particular instant message conversation including a set of instant messages exchanged between the first person and a single other person in a chronological order;
while displaying instant messages in the particular instant message conversation, detecting a second scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a second contact with the touch screen display, wherein the detecting of the second scrolling gesture is substantially independent of a horizontal position of the second contact with the touch screen display, wherein the second scrolling gesture is independent of a selection of any object; and
responding to the second scrolling gesture by scrolling the display of instant messages in the particular instant messaging conversation in accordance with a direction of the second scrolling gesture, wherein the scrolling of the display of instant messages in the particular instant messaging conversation is independent of a selection of any object.

2. The method of claim 1 , including displaying instant messages sent by the first person to the single other person aligned to a first side of the touch screen display and instant messages sent by the single other person to the first person aligned to an opposite side of the touch screen display.

3. The method of claim 1 , further including
displaying one or more timestamps adjacent one or more of the instant messages.

4. The method of claim 1 , further including
displaying the instant messages sent by the first person to the single other person in a first color; and
displaying the instant messages sent by the single other person to the first person in a second color, the second color different from the first color.

5. The method of claim 1 , further including
displaying the instant messages sent by a first one of the first person and the single other person left justified on the touch screen display; and
displaying the instant messages sent by the other one of the first person and the single other person right justified on the touch screen display.

6. The method of claim 1 , further including
visually animating movement of a newly sent instant message, from the first person to the single other person, from a message compose region of the touch screen display to a message display region of the touch screen display.

7. The method of claim 1 , further including
displaying the instant messages exchanged between the first person and the single other person in a message display region; and
displaying a text box and a first set of keys in a message compose region.

8. The method of claim 7 , further including
displaying a symbol in the text box upon detecting a contact with one of the first set of keys.

9. The method of claim 7 , further including
replacing at least a subset of the first set of keys with a second set of keys upon detecting a contact with one of the first set of keys.

10. The method of claim 7 , further including
displaying one or more text entry suggestions in the message compose region in accordance with text entered by the first person; and
upon detecting a predefined gesture, adding a text entry suggestion selected by the first person to the text box.

11. The method of claim 7 , further including
displaying one or more text entry suggestions in the message compose region in accordance with text entered by the first person; and
upon detecting a predefined gesture, replacing at least a portion of text in the text box with a text entry suggestion selected by the first person.

12. The method of claim 1 , further including:
while displaying the list of instant message conversations:
displaying an edit icon in the touch screen display;
upon detecting a selection of the edit icon, displaying a delete icon adjacent to each listed conversation and replacing the edit icon with a done icon;
upon detecting a selection of one of the delete icons, deleting a conversation adjacent to the selected delete icon; and
upon detecting a selection of the done icon, deleting the delete icon adjacent to each listed conversation and replacing the done icon with the edit icon.

13. The method of claim 1 , further including:
while displaying the list of instant message conversations:
displaying an edit icon in the touch screen display;
upon detecting a selection of the edit icon, displaying a delete icon adjacent to each listed conversation;
upon detecting a selection of one of the delete icons, deleting a conversation adjacent to the selected delete icon; and
upon detecting a selection of a portion of the touch screen display that is not occupied by any of the delete icons, deleting the delete icon adjacent to each listed conversation.

14. The method of claim 1 , further including:
while displaying the list of instant message conversations:
displaying an edit icon in the touch screen display;
upon detecting a selection of the edit icon, displaying a delete icon adjacent to each listed conversation and replacing the edit icon with a done icon;
upon detecting a selection of one of the delete icons, displaying a confirmation icon adjacent to the conversation adjacent to the selected delete icon; and
upon detecting a selection of the confirmation icon, deleting the conversation adjacent to the selected delete icon from the touch screen display.

15. A portable electronic device, comprising:
a touch screen display;
one or more processors;
memory; and
one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the programs including instructions for:
displaying a list of instant message conversations on the touch screen display, a respective instant message conversation including a respective set of instant messages exchanged between a first person and a respective other person;
while displaying the list of instant message conversations, detecting a first scrolling gesture comprising a substantially vertical movement of a first contact with the touch screen display, wherein the first scrolling gesture is independent of a selection of any object;
responding to the first scrolling gesture by scrolling the list of instant message conversations in accordance with a direction of the first scrolling gesture, wherein the detecting of th

Assignees

• Lemay Stephen O
• Van Os Marcel
• Herz Scott
• Christie Greg
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Lemay Stephen O
• Van Os Marcel
• Herz Scott
• Christie Greg

Classifications

• G06F3/0485

  Scrolling or panning · CPC title

• H04L51/04

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

• G06Q10/10

  Office automation; Time management · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

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

• H04M2250/12

  including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion · CPC title