Anonymous calling and/or texting via content provider web sites and applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9729483-B2
Application number	US-201314132813-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2013
Priority date	Dec 18, 2013
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A device provides for display, to a first user device, information associated with a potential contact, and an option to communicate with the potential contact. The device receives a selection of the option from the first user device, and obtains, based on the selection, an identifier for a second user device associated with the potential contact. The device provides a communication request and the identifier to a message server to cause the message server to selectively cause a communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device. An indication that the communication session is denied may be provided to the first user device when the second user device does not accept the communication request. The communication session may be established, without revealing the identifier to the first user device, when the second user device accepts the communication request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
providing, by a content server device, a request for a messaging code to an identity server device,
the messaging code enabling the content server device to provide a communication request to a message server device;

receiving, by the content server device, the messaging code from the identity server device based on the request;
providing, by the content server device and to the identity server device, information identifying preferences for the messaging code;
receiving, by the content server device and from the identity server device, configuration information for the messaging code based on the information identifying the preferences for the messaging code;
configuring, by the content server device, the messaging code based on the configuration information,
the configuration information indicating that a first identifier, for a first user device, not be revealed;

providing for display, by the content server device and to the first user device, information associated with a potential contact;
providing for display, by the content server device and to the first user device, an option to communicate with the potential contact,
the potential contact being associated with a second user device, and
the option including information identifying a preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
the preferred contact method including a call or a text message;

receiving, by the content server device, a selection of the option from the first user device;
obtaining, by the content server device and based on the selection of the option, a second identifier for the second user device; and
providing, by the content server device, the communication request, the first identifier, and the second identifier to the message server device to cause the message server device to selectively cause a communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device,
the communication session including the call or a text messaging session, based on the preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
an indication that the communication session is denied being provided to the first user device when the second user device does not accept the communication request, or
the communication session being established between the first user device and the second user device, without revealing the second identifier to the first user device, when the second user device accepts the communication request,
the first identifier, for the first user device, not being revealed to the second user device when the communication session is established and based on the configuration information.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the communication request includes a call request or a request to send the text message.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the indication that the communication request is denied includes information indicating a reason that the communication request is denied.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing for display, to the first user device, information associated with a professional network, a social network, or an address book service; and
providing the information associated with the potential contact to the first user device via the information associated with the professional network, the social network, or the address book service.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from the second user device, identification of the preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
the message server device selectively causing the communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device via the preferred contact method.

6. The method of claim 1 , where the message server device provides the call or a request to establish the text messaging session to the first user device and the second user device.

7. A device, comprising:
one or more processors to:
provide a request for a messaging code to an identity server device,
the messaging code enabling the device to provide a communication request to a message server device;

receive the messaging code from the identity server device based on the request;
provide, to the identity server device, information identifying preferences for the messaging code;
receive, from the identity server device, configuration information for the messaging code based on the information identifying the preferences for the messaging code;
configure the messaging code based on the configuration information,
the configuration information indicating that a first identifier, for a first user device, not be revealed;

provide for display, to the first user device, information associated with a potential contact,
provide for display, to the first user device, an option to communicate with the potential contact,
the potential contact being associated with a second user device, and
the option including information identifying a preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
the preferred contact method including a call or a text message, receive a selection of the option from the first user device,

obtain, based on the selection of the option, a second identifier for the second user device; and
provide the communication request, the first identifier, and the second identifier to the message server device to cause the message server device to selectively cause a communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device,
the communication session including the call or a text messaging session, based on the preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
an indication that the communication session is denied being provided to the first user device when the second user device does not accept the communication request, or
the communication session being established between the first user device and the second user device, without revealing the second identifier to the first user device, when the second user device accepts the communication request,
the first identifier, for the first user device, not being revealed to the second user device when the communication session is established and based on the configuration information.

8. The device of claim 7 , where the communication request includes a request to establish the call or a request to send the text message.

9. The device of claim 7 , where the indication that the communication request is denied includes information indicating a reason that the communication request is denied.

10. The device of claim 7 , where the one or more processors are further to:
provide for display, to the first user device, information associated with a professional network, a social network, or an address book service, and
provide the information associated with the potential contact to the first user device via the information associated with the professional network, the social network, or the address book service.

11. The device of claim 7 , where the one or more processors are further to:
receive, from the second user device, the information identifying the preferred contact method associated with the potential contact,
the message server device selectively causing the communication session to be established between the first user device and the second user device via the preferred contact method.

12. The device of claim 7 , where the message server device provides the call or a request to establish the text messaging session to the first user device and the second user device.

13. A non-transitory compute

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Sharma Manish
• Flores Kevin
• Blong Devin
• Chaudhary Tushar
• Yadav Annu

Classifications

• H04L51/32

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L51/12 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/14 Primary

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• H04L51/212 Primary

  using filtering or selective blocking · CPC title

• H04L51/52

  for supporting social networking services · CPC title