Providing an unseen message count across devices

Techniques for providing a count of missed messages across devices

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Computers have been highly integrated at work, at home, on mobile devices, and in many other places. Computers can process large amounts of information quickly and efficiently. Software applications designed to run on computer systems allow users to perform a variety of functions, including business applications, academics, entertainment, and more. Software applications are often designed to perform specific tasks, such as a word processing application for working with documents, or an email program for composing and sending and receiving email.

In some cases, an email application may allow users to access their email locally or remotely. For example, a privacy management application that provides access to a user's email, contacts, and calendar, as well as a version designed for local installation and local access, allows users to use the application remotely from a browser or from a mobile device. You can have a remote version. Thus, a user can access his or her email locally on his desktop or laptop computer system and then remotely via a browser or via a mobile device such as a phone. Keeping new email notifications consistent across local and remote versions of an application is not trivial.

Embodiments described herein provide a mobile device user with an indication of unseen email messages, establish a missed email message count, and maintain a consistent missed email message count across a plurality of mobile devices. it's about In one embodiment, the computer system receives, from a mobile device user, subscription data subscribing the user to an email push notification. The subscription data includes a token ID of the mobile device associated with the user and a timestamp indicating the last time the mobile device user's email inbox was accessed. The computer system determines that a new email message has arrived at the user's email inbox and accesses the user's email inbox to determine the number of missed email messages. The number of missed email messages includes the number of email messages that have not been seen or marked as read using another email client since they were received in the user's inbox and listed in the timestamp. The computer system also sends a push notification to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices, which push notifications provide the number of missed email messages.

In another embodiment, the computer system determines that a timestamp has been established for the subscribed mobile device user. The timestamp indicates the last time the user's email inbox was accessed, and is set upon receipt of subscription information including a token ID for each subscribed mobile device from the mobile device user. The computer system receives the email message for the user in the user's email inbox and determines that the received email message has been read by the user using a non-mobile email client application. The computer system then receives at least one subsequent email message in the user's email inbox and sends a push notification to the user's mobile device notifying of having the at least one missed email message. Unseen email messages include email messages that were received in the user's inbox and have not been shown or marked as read using another email client since the time listed on the timestamp.

In another embodiment, the computer system performs a method similar to maintaining a consistent count of missed email messages across a plurality of mobile devices. However, in this embodiment, the computer system sends a push notification with the number of missed email messages to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices. The computer system then determines that at least one of the missed email messages is subsequently accessed using the second, other mobile device and the time the user's email inbox was last accessed by the second, other mobile device. to update the timestamp.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are subsequently described in the Detailed Description section. This Summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Additional features and advantages are set forth in the detailed description that follows, and in part will be apparent to those skilled in the art, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure herein. The features and advantages of the embodiments described herein may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. Features and embodiments described herein will become more apparent from the following detailed description and appended claims.

In order to clarify the above and other features of the embodiments described herein, a more specific description will be given with reference to the accompanying drawings. These drawings illustrate only examples of the embodiments described herein and are therefore not to be considered as limiting their scope. Embodiments will be described with additional specificity and detail using the accompanying drawings. 1 illustrates a computer architecture in which embodiments described herein may operate, including providing an indication of missed email messages to a mobile device user. 2 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for providing an indication of a missed email message to a mobile user. 3 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for setting a missed email message counter. 4 depicts a flow diagram of an exemplary method for maintaining a consistent missed email message count across a plurality of mobile devices. 5 illustrates a computing environment in which push notifications with missed message counts are sent to one or more subscribed mobile devices.

Embodiments described herein relate to providing an indication of missed email messages to a mobile device user, establishing a missed email message count and maintaining a consistent missed email message count across a plurality of mobile devices. . In one embodiment, the computer system receives, from a mobile device user, subscription data subscribing the user to an email push notification. The subscription data includes a token ID of the mobile device associated with the user and a timestamp indicating the last time the mobile device user's email inbox was accessed. The computer system determines that a new email message has arrived in the user's email inbox and accesses the user's email inbox to determine the number of missed email messages. The number of missed email messages includes the number of email messages that have not been seen or marked as read using another email client since they were received in the user's inbox and listed in the timestamp. The computer system also sends a push notification to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices, which push notifications provide the number of missed email messages.

In another embodiment, the computer system determines that a timestamp has been established for the subscribed mobile device user. The timestamp indicates the last time the user's email inbox was accessed, and is set upon receipt of subscription information including a token ID for each subscribed mobile device from the mobile device user. The computer system receives the email message for the user in the user's email inbox and determines that the received email message has been read by the user using a non-mobile email client application. The computer system then receives at least one subsequent email message in the user's email inbox and sends a push notification to the user's mobile device notifying of having the at least one missed email message. Unseen email messages include email messages that were received in the user's inbox and have not been shown or marked as read using another email client since the time listed on the timestamp.

In another embodiment, the computer system performs a method similar to maintaining a consistent count of missed email messages across a plurality of mobile devices. However, in this embodiment, the computer system sends a push notification with the number of missed email messages to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices. The computer system then determines that at least one of the missed email messages is subsequently accessed using the second, other mobile device and the time the user's email inbox was last accessed by the second, other mobile device. to update the timestamp.

The discussion below now relates to a number of methods and method operations to be performed. These method acts are described in a predetermined order or shown in flowcharts as occurring in a particular order, wherein no particular order is required unless specifically stated, or an operation is performed before the one operation is performed. A specific order may be required because it relies on other actions.

Embodiments described herein may include or utilize a special purpose or general purpose computer including one or more processors and computer hardware such as system memory, as described in more detail below. Embodiments described herein also include physical and other computer-readable media that carry or store computer-executable instructions and/or data structures. These computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer system. A computer-readable medium that stores computer-executable instructions in data form is a computer storage medium. Computer-readable media carrying computer-executable instructions are transmission media. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may include at least two different types of computer readable media, namely, a computer storage medium and a transmission medium, which are merely exemplary and not limiting of the present invention.

Computer storage media may include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, RAM-based solid state drive (SSD), flash memory, phase-change memory (PCM), or other type of memory, or other optical disk storage device, magnetic disk storage device or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to store any desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions, data or data structures and that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. .

A "network" is defined as one or more data links and/or data switches that enable the transfer of electronic data between computer systems and/or modules and/or other electronic devices. When information is transmitted or provided to a computer over a network (wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless), the computer regards the connection as a transmission medium. Transmission media can be used to convey data or desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or in the form of data structures and can include networks that can be accessed by general purpose or special purpose computers. Combinations of these should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

Moreover, program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures can be automatically transferred from a transmission medium to a computer storage medium (or vice versa) upon arrival on the various computer system components. For example, computer-executable instructions or data structures received over a network or data link may be buffered in RAM within a network interface module (eg, a network interface card or "NIC"), which may shortly thereafter be stored in computer system RAM and / or it may be transferred to a nonvolatile computer storage medium of a computer system. Accordingly, computer storage media may be included in computer system components that also (or primarily) utilize transmission media.

Computer-executable (computer-interpretable) instructions include, for example, instructions that cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions may be, for example, binary instructions, intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, or source code. Although claimed subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that claimed subject matter defined in the claims is not necessarily limited to the described features or acts described above. Rather, the described features and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments may include personal computers, desktop computers, laptop computers, message processors, handheld devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, mobile It will be appreciated that it may be practiced in networked computing environments having many types of computer system configurations, including phones, PDAs, tablets, pagers, routers, switches, and the like. Embodiments disclosed herein also provide that each of a local and remote computer system linked through a network (by a wired data link, a wireless data link, or a combination of a wired and wireless data link) performs a task (eg, cloud computing, cloud services, etc.). ) may be implemented in a distributed system environment that performs In a distributed system environment, program modules may be located in local and remote memory storage devices.

In the description and claims that follow, "cloud computing" is defined as a model that enables on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (eg, networks, servers, storage, applications, and services). The definition of "cloud computing" is not limited to any of the numerous other benefits that can be obtained from such a model when properly deployed.

For example, cloud computing is currently being used in the marketplace to provide ubiquitous and convenient on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. Additionally, a shared pool of configurable computing resources can be provisioned quickly through virtualization and released with low management effort or service provider interaction.

The cloud computing model has various characteristics, such as on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, measured service ), and so on. The cloud computing model may also appear in the form of various service models, such as, for example, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The cloud computing model may also be deployed using different deployment models, such as a private cloud, a community cloud, a public cloud, a hybrid cloud, and the like. In the description and claims, "a cloud computing environment is an environment in which cloud computing is used.

Alternatively or in addition to this, the functions described herein may be performed, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components. For example, but not by way of limitation, exemplary types of hardware logic components that may be used include field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), program-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), program-specific standard products (ASSPs), and SOCs (SOCs). System-on-a-chip) systems, Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs), and other types of programmable hardware.

In addition, the system architecture described herein may include a plurality of independent components each contributing to the functioning of the system as a whole. This modular approach can increase flexibility in approaching the problem of platform scalability, and provides a number of advantages for this purpose. System complexity and scalability can be managed through the use of smaller scale parts with limited functional scope. Platform fault tolerance is improved through the use of these loosely coupled modules. Individual components can grow when the business requires direction. Modular development also reduces the time for new features to appear on the market. New features can be added or removed without affecting the core system.

1 illustrates a computer architecture 100 in which at least one embodiment may be practiced. Computer architecture 100 includes a mobile computer system 101 . The mobile computer system 101 may be any type of local or distributed computer system, including a cloud computing system. Computer systems include various modules that perform various functions. For example, the mobile computing system 101 includes a communication module 102 that communicates with another computing system (eg, the server computing system 111 ). The communication module 102 may transmit the subscription data 108 to the server 111 upon request of the user 105 . The subscription data may subscribe the user 105 or the user's mobile device 101 to a push notification from a server. The subscription data 108 includes a token ID 109 identifying the mobile device 101 and a timestamp 110 indicating the last time the mobile device user's email inbox was accessed. The user's email inbox 113 may be one of many pieces of user data 112 including contacts 114 and calendar information 115 . The token ID 109 may be identified or generated based on characteristics of the mobile device, and may be generated and/or provided by an operating system of the mobile device.

The monitoring module 117 of the server computing system 111 may be configured to monitor the user's email inbox for email messages as they are received. (Note that the server computing system 111 may be any type of local or distributed computing system, including a cloud computing system). If the monitoring module 117 determines that a new email has been received, the data access module 118 may be used to access the user's inbox. Then, based on the accessed data, the missed count determining module 119 determines the current missed message count 121 and sends the missed message count to the mobile computing device 101 through the push notification 120 . can be sent to The number of missed messages is shown herein as being received in the user's inbox 113 after the time listed in timestamp 110 and read using another email client (eg, personal information management program 107). Defined as the number of unsupported or unmarked email messages. This concept will be further explained below.

Note that on many mobile devices, applications such as email application 103 exist in various operational states. For example, if the application is in the foreground, the user 105 is currently using the application. Mobile device operating systems typically do not handle notifications for applications. Notifications are delivered directly to the application. In a typical application lifecycle, only a minor share is used in this state. If the application is in the background, the user 105 has recently used the application, and the application has a designated amount of time to continue running in the background. As in the foreground state, the mobile device operating system typically handles notifications for applications in the background state. Likewise, only a small fraction of an application's lifecycle is used in this state.

When an application is in a suspended state, the application resides in memory in a suspended state. Mobile device operating systems typically handle notifications for applications in this state. Unlike the states described above, the majority of an application's lifecycle is spent in this and/or killed state. In the quiesced state, the application does not exist in memory and is not running. The mobile device operating system handles notifications for applications.

Thus, the user may want to know the status of his or her email inbox regardless of which state the email application 103 is currently in. In the embodiment described herein, the user is provided with a notification that a new email has been received while the application is not in the foreground. The new mail notification displays the number of missed emails to the user. As defined above, the missed email count is different from the number of unread emails. The missed email count is the number of emails (including emails on computing device 101 and non-mobile computing device 106 ) received in an inbox since the user last opened his or her inbox across all his email clients. It is defined as a number.

When a new email is received in the user's inbox, a numeric identifier may be pushed to the mobile computing device 101 along with the missed message count 121 , wherein the new email count for the instance of the email application is Less than or equal to the maximum count of missed messages. The maximum missed count may be preset to a predetermined number and may or may not be configurable by the email administrator. The missed message count is reset to 0 missed emails when the email application is brought to the foreground without decrementing one unit at a time (eg based on reading emails). When the email application is brought to the foreground, at least in some cases, a command will be sent to the server to reset the missed count on the server, which will propagate back to all other subscribing clients to be notified of changes to the user's mailbox. . In other cases, the server will not receive an email notification when the email application is brought to the foreground. Changing (or resetting) the timestamp can happen the next time the email application is sent to the background. These concepts will be further described below with reference to methods 200 , 300 and 400 of FIGS. 2 , 3 and 4 respectively.

In view of the systems and architectures described above, a method that may be implemented in accordance with the claimed subject matter will be better understood with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 , 3 , and 4 . To simplify the description, these methods are shown and described as a series of blocks. However, the claimed subject matter is not limited to the order of the blocks as some blocks may occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other blocks than those shown and described herein. Also, not all illustrated blocks may be required to implement the method described below.

2 depicts a flow diagram of a method 200 for providing an indication of a missed email message to a mobile device user. Method 200 will now be described with frequent reference to the components and data of environment 100 of FIG. 1 and environment 500 of FIG. 5 .

Method 200 includes receiving subscription data from a mobile device user (step 210), wherein the subscription data includes a token ID for at least one mobile device associated with the user and a last time the mobile device user's email box was accessed. and a timestamp indicating that the subscription data is used to subscribe the user to the email push notification. Method 200 also includes determining whether a new email message has arrived in the user's email inbox (step 220). The method 200 also includes accessing the user's email inbox to determine a number of missed email messages, the number of missed email messages being received in the user's inbox and different since the time listed in the timestamp. including the number of email messages that were not seen or marked as read using the email client (step 230), and sending a push notification to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices; provide the number of - including (step 240).

The mobile device user's email inbox may be accessed using a personal information management application. The personal information management application 107 may run on the mobile computer system 101 or the non-mobile computer system 106 . In some cases, the server computer system 111 may determine whether a timestamp indicating the last time the user's email inbox was accessed (eg, an existing timestamp 116 ). If the timestamp already exists, the server computer system may update the existing timestamp with the time on the timestamp (eg, timestamp 110) in the received subscription information. Thus, if a mobile device user 105 is accessing his or her email inbox 113 using his or her mobile device 101 , the subscription data 108 sent by the mobile device will have an existing timestamp 116 . ) will contain the timestamp information 110 used to update.

Also, in some cases, the server 111 may be configured based on a second, other subscribed mobile device belonging to the user accessing the user's email inbox, the pre-existing timestamp indicating the last time the user's email inbox was accessed. You may decide that it should be updated. Thus, for example, as shown in FIG. 5 , the user 105 may use various mobile devices (including a first mobile device 101A, a second mobile device 101B, and a third mobile device 101C). You can log in to your own inbox 113 using one of them. A mobile device may correspond to a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or other mobile device. When subscribing to the server and/or requesting an email message from the server, the request of the mobile service includes a timestamp 110 that can be used to update the server's existing timestamp 116 . After receiving the request, the server may update the existing timestamp to the time the user's email inbox was last accessed by a second, third, or other mobile device.

The existing timestamp may be updated, for example, when the user's personal information management application switches to background mode. For example, a user 105 is using an email application 103 (eg, a personal information management application) on his mobile device and the application is in a background mode (either the application is terminated or the mobile device is turned off). When switched, a timestamp may be created or updated on the server. Likewise, subscription data may be sent by the mobile device and received at the server whenever the email application goes into foreground mode on the mobile device.

In some cases, a push notification 120 sent to a user's subscribed mobile device triggers a notification badge to be displayed indicating the number of missed email messages. Thus, a user may glance at his or her application icon, tile or other visual indication to determine that he has a message that he did not see. The number of missed messages will be consistently displayed and pushed (via notification 120 ) to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices (eg, 101A- 101C). In some embodiments, sending a push notification to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices includes sending a missed email message to a third-party service. The third party service may be designed or configured to send a count of missed email messages to the user's mobile device. Accordingly, the third party service may deliver push notifications to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices. Although the push notification has been described with reference to the above-described embodiment, other transmissions (eg, a hanging or pending get channel) may be used instead of or in addition to the push notification.

3 is a flow diagram of a method 300 for setting a count of missed email messages. Method 300 will now be described with frequent reference to the components and data of the environment 500 of FIG. 1 and the environment of FIG. 5 .

Method 300 includes determining (step 310) whether a timestamp indicating the last time the user's email inbox was accessed has been set for the subscribed mobile device user (step 310), wherein the timestamp is Set when receiving subscription information including a token ID for a device from a mobile device user. Method 300 also includes receiving (step 320) one or more email messages for the user in the user's email inbox, determining whether the one or more received email messages have been read by the user using a non-mobile email client application. step 330 , and receiving at least one subsequent email message in the user's email inbox (step 340 ). Method 300 also includes sending (step 350) a push notification to the user's mobile device notifying the user that the user has at least one missed email message, wherein the missed email message is the user's Contains email messages that have been received in the inbox and have not been marked or marked as read using another email client since the time listed in the timestamp.

In this way, the user is notified of missed email messages. As mentioned above, the number of missed email messages is not simply an indication of unread or unviewed messages, and missed email messages were received in a user's inbox but were read using another email client since the specified time indicated in the timestamp. It is a message that is not shown or is not marked.

For example, in method 300 , assume that at least one subsequent email message is received in the user's email inbox after the mobile device user exits the non-mobile email client application. Also assume that the user has at least one unread email message using a non-mobile email client application. In a typical system, the user's email application 103 on the user's mobile device 101 will display at least two unread emails. However, in the embodiments described herein, push notifications only indicate the number of missed email messages. Accordingly, push notifications 120 will only include messages that are viewed after the user has logged out or exited the non-mobile email client application, as these are the only messages that have not been viewed. Other unread messages are those that the user has seen but not read. Accordingly, the unseen message count 121 may include only the count of unseen messages, and will not include unread messages in the user's inbox.

A missed message count 121 is pushed to each of the user's subscribed devices. Thus, in the example above, each of the subscribing devices of the user of FIG. 5 would exhibit a missed message count of one. If a user accesses a missed message on one of their mobile devices, the missed count badge may be removed from the other devices. If the user receives another email while in the email application 103 on his/her mobile device, this message will be identified as a "seen" message and will not generate a push notification to the other device.

4 depicts a flow diagram of a method 400 for maintaining a consistent count of missed email messages across a plurality of mobile devices. The method 400 will now be described with frequent reference to the components and data of the environment 100 .

Method 400 includes receiving, from a mobile device user, subscription data comprising a token ID for at least one mobile device associated with the user and a timestamp indicating the last time the mobile device user's email inbox was accessed (steps) 410), wherein the subscription data subscribes the user to email push notifications. The method 400 also includes determining whether a new email message has arrived for the user in the user's email inbox (step 420) and accessing the user's email inbox to determine a number of missed email messages (step 420). 430) -Number of unseen email messages includes the number of email messages received in the user's inbox and not marked or marked as read using another email client since the time listed in the timestamp. do.

The method 400 also includes sending a push notification to each of the user's subscribed mobile devices providing a number of missed email messages (step 440), wherein at least one of the missed email messages is later sent to a second determining whether it is accessed using another mobile device (step 450), and updating the timestamp to the time when the user's email inbox was last accessed by a second, other mobile device (step 460); do. Thus, the number of missed email messages is consistent across the user's mobile device mode. Every time a user accesses a message they haven't seen. Timestamp 116 is updated at server 111 . Note here that the timestamp is updated on each subsequent inbox access by the mobile device associated with the user, and the timestamp is not updated when the user's inbox is accessed using a non-mobile email client application.

Accordingly, a method, system, and computer program product are provided for providing a mobile device user with an indication of a missed email message. Also provided are methods, systems, and computer program products for establishing missed email message counts and maintaining a consistent missed email message count across a plurality of mobile devices.

The concepts and features described herein may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or features thereof. The described embodiments are illustrative in all respects and should not be regarded as limiting. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description. All modifications included within the meaning and scope of equivalents of the claims are intended to be embraced within their scope.