Retrieval of stored transmissions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9608946-B2
Application number	US-201514704501-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2015
Priority date	Aug 15, 2011
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

An instant messaging client application is executed on a first terminal, to participate in threads of instant messaging between user terminals over a packet-based network, each thread comprising exchanging text-based messages between the user terminals of a selected group of contacts comprising the first user and at least one second user. A digital record of the messages is maintained in a data storage medium. A further text-based message is received from one of the second terminals over the packet-based network, comprising a citation of a cited one of the text-based messages previously transmitted over the packet-based communication network and stored in the storage medium. The further message is processed at the first terminal so as, by reference to the storage medium, to recover a context of the cited message in relation to others of the text-based messages in the respective thread.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving, at an instant messaging client application executing on a first device, a text-based message from a second device over a communication network, the text-based message including a citation of a previously-communicated text-based message and a token, the token comprising context information identifying a thread of the previously-communicated text-based message and a location of the previously-communicated text-based message within the thread, the text-based message part of a different thread than the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message;
processing the text-based message at the first device to extract the token from the text-based message, and using the token to recover one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages of the thread; and
causing display of an on-screen control that, responsive to selection, causes the instant messaging client application to switch from display of the text-based message to display of the previously-communicated text-based message and the one or more other previously-communicated text based messages of the thread arranged in an order in which the previously-communicated text-based message and the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages were received in the thread.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the citation comprises a human-readable citation of the previously-communicated text-based message.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the context information of the previously-communicated text-based message provides a context of the previously-communicated text-based message in relation to the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages in the thread.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein using the token to recover the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages of the thread comprises retrieving the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages associated with the thread from a storage medium.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining a record of the thread of the previously communicated text-based message in a storage medium located at the first device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising accessing a record of the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message from a storage medium at a server.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising auto-detecting the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message if the previously-communicated text-based message was composed at the first device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the auto-detection is based on at least one of:
one or more keywords in the previously-communicated text-based message; or
a linguistic analysis of the previously-communicated text-based message.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the on-screen control is displayed as a selectable link configured to cause the first device to switch between the threads responsive to actuation of the on-screen control.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein an authorization procedure is performed at the first device to ensure that the switching between threads is conditional upon the user of the first device having been a legitimate participant of the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:
generating a text-based message comprising a human readable citation of a previously-communicated text-based message responsive to a paste operation to paste text from the previously-communicated text-based message into the text-based message;
automatically generating and inserting a computer-readable token into the text-based message responsive to the paste operation, the computer-readable token comprising context information identifying a thread of the previously-communicated text-based message and a location of the previously-communicated text-based message within the thread, the text-based message part of a different thread than the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message; and
transmitting the text-based message to a device over a communication network to enable processing, at the device, of the computer-readable token to recover the context information, the human readable citation of the previously-communicated text-based message selectable, at the device, to switch from display of the text-based message to display of the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the citation comprises a human-readable citation of the previously-communicated text-based message.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the context information of the previously-communicated text-based message provides a context of the previously-communicated text-based message in relation to one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages in the thread.

14. A computing device comprising:
at least a memory and a processor to implement a client application executing on the computing device, the client application configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at an instant messaging client application executing on a first device, a text-based message from an additional computing second device over a communication network, the text-based message including a citation of a previously-communicated text-based message and a token, the token comprising context information identifying a thread of the previously-communicated text-based message and a location of the previously-communicated text-based message within the thread, the text-based message part of a different thread than the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message;
processing the text-based message at the first computing device to extract the token from the text-based message, and using the token to recover one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages of the thread;
causing display of an on-screen control that, responsive to selection, causes the client application to switch from display of the text-based message to display of the previously-communicated text-based message and the one or more other previously-communicated text based messages of the thread arranged in an order in which the previously-communicated text-based message and the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages were received in the thread.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the citation comprises a human-readable citation of the previously-communicated text-based message, and wherein the context information of the previously-communicated text-based message provides a context of the previously-communicated text-based message in relation to the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages in the thread.

16. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein using the token to recover the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages of the thread comprises retrieving the one or more other previously-communicated text-based messages associated with the thread from a storage medium.

17. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the client application is configured to perform operations further comprising auto-detecting the thread of the previously-communicated text-based message if the previously-communicated text-based message was composed at the first device.

18. The computing device of claim 17 , w

Assignees

• Skype

Inventors

• Macdonald Derek

Classifications

• H04L51/04 Primary

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

• H04L51/16

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/216

  Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads · CPC title