Granted Patent B2

US 8,577,338 · App. 11/848,560 · Granted Nov 5, 2013

Abstract

Claims (51)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a communications interface module to receive an incoming message of a conversation thread, the incoming message is originated by a remote device and includes a text portion and an attached media item;

a content generation module to provide the content of the attached media; and

a messaging module to automatically output the incoming message to a user interface in an output format, the output format comprising the text portion and content of the attached media item, the messaging module to provide an interface console for display by a display device, the interface console comprising a first field to display the text portion of the incoming message, a second field to display content of the attached media item, and a third field to display a listing of media items included in received messages, the listing of media items arranged in a chronological sequence in order received from the remote device;

wherein the messaging module further comprises:

an attachment module to select the content generation module based on one or more characteristics of the attached media;

a thread management module to generate messages pertaining to conversation threads;

a message processing module to obtain the incoming message from the communications interface module.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the messaging module to obtain an outgoing message generated by a user of the apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , the messaging module to attach a selected media item to the outgoing message, the selected media item chosen by the user of the apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , the communications interface module to send the outgoing message to a messaging server.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , the interface console comprising a fourth field to display the text of the outgoing message.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a user of the apparatus and a user of the remote device are members of the conversation thread.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , the attached media item comprising at least one of: a video file, an audio file, an image file, a resource locator, and an application file.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving an incoming message of a conversation thread, the incoming message is originated by a remote device and includes a text portion and an attached media item;

providing content of the attached media item;

selecting content generation based on one or more characteristics of the attached media;

generating messages pertaining to the conversation thread;

obtaining the incoming message from the communications interface module;

automatically outputting the incoming message to a user interface in an output format, the output format comprising the text portion and content of the attached media item; the output format further comprising a listing of media items included in received messages, the listing of media items arranged in a chronological sequence in order received from the remote device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising obtaining an outgoing message generated by a user.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising attaching a media item to the outgoing message, the media item selected by the user.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising sending the outgoing message to a remote device.

12. The method of claim 9 , the automatically outputting the incoming message to the user interface comprising:

displaying the text of the incoming message in a first field of an interface console;

displaying content of the attached media item in a second field of the interface console; and

displaying the text of the outgoing message in a third field of the interface console.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising displaying the listing of media items included in received messages in a fourth field of the interface console.

14. The method of claim 8 , the attached media item comprising at least one of: a video file, an audio file, an image file, a resource locator, and an application file.

15. A system comprising:

a messaging server;

a user device to exchange messages of a conversation thread with remote devices through the messaging server, the server to store the messages of the conversation thread, the user device including a communications interface module to receive an incoming message of the conversation thread, the incoming message including a text portion and an attached media item;

a content generation module to provide the content of the attached media; and

a messaging module to automatically output the incoming message to a user interface in an output format, the output format comprising the text portion and content of the attached media item, and a listing of media items included in received messages, the listing of media items arranged in a chronological sequence in order received from the remote devices,

wherein the messaging module further comprises:

an attachment module to select the content generation module based on one or more characteristics of the attached media;

a thread management module to generate messages pertaining to conversation threads;

a message processing module to obtain the incoming message from the communications interface module.

16. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed enable a system to:

receive an incoming message of a conversation thread, the incoming message to be originated by a remote device and includes a text portion and an attached media item;

providing content of the attached media item;

selecting content generation based on one or more characteristics of the attached media;

generating messages pertaining to the conversation thread;

obtaining the incoming message from the communications interface module; and

automatically output the incoming message to a user interface in an output format, the output format comprising the text portion and content of the attached media item, and a listing of media items included in received messages, the listing of media items arranged in a chronological sequence in order received from the remote device.

17. The article of claim 16 , wherein the computer-readable storage medium contains instructions that when executed enable the system to:

obtain an outgoing message generated by a user;

attach a media item to the outgoing message, the media item selected by the user; and

send the outgoing message to the remote device.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , the content of the attached media item comprising an image displayed in the first and second fields, a portion of the image displayed in the first field having a degree of transparency so as not to obscure the text displayed in the first field.

Assignments (9)