Techniques to promote filtered messages based on historical reply rate

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving an incoming message addressed to a recipient from a sender at a messaging system;

determining that the sender and recipient have no pre-existing relationship;

generating a predicted reply probability that the recipient will respond to the message, the predicted reply probability based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders with whom the recipient has no pre-existing relationship and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients with whom the sender has no pre-existing relationship;

generating a notification of the message, wherein the notification is a higher priority notification if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and a lower priority or null notification if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold; and

transmitting the notification to the recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting a higher priority notification as a push notification to the recipient.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

configuring the message for delivery to a primary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and to a secondary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold; and

transmitting the message to the mailbox of the recipient for which the message has been configured.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

transmitting a lower priority notification to the recipient with the transmission of the message.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the sender and the recipient have no pre-existing relationship when the sender is not in the recipient's list of contacts and when the sender and recipient have no pre-existing messaging history.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining one or more connection categories between the sender and the recipient; and

increasing the predicted reply probability based on each of the determined connection categories;

wherein the connection categories comprise a shared social networking group membership category, a friends-of-friends category, a shared calendar event category and a physical proximity category.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the predicted reply probability is based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders having a connection in a particular connection category and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients having a connection in a particular connection category.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the wherein a particular connection category covers multiple connections between the sender and the recipient.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor circuit on a device;

software, executing on the processor, implementing:

a messaging interface component operative to:

receive an incoming message addressed to a recipient from a sender at a messaging system; and

transmit a notification to the recipient; and

a destination mailbox configuration component operative to:

determine that the sender and recipient have no pre-existing relationship;

generate a predicted reply probability that the recipient will respond to the message, the predicted reply probability based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders with whom the recipient has no pre-existing relationship and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients with whom the sender has no pre-existing relationship; and

generate a notification of the message, wherein the notification is a higher priority notification if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and a lower priority or null notification if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the messaging interface component is further operative to:

transmit the notification to the recipient as a push notification when the destination mailbox configuration component has determined that the notification is higher priority notification.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein:

the destination mailbox configuration component is further operative to:

configure the message for delivery to a primary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and to a secondary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold; and

the messaging interface component is further operative to:

transmit the message to a mailbox of the recipient for which the message has been configured; and

transmit the notification to the recipient with the message when the notification is a lower-priority notification.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the destination mailbox configuration component is further configured to:

determine one or more connection categories between the sender and the recipient; and

increase the predicted reply probability based on each of the determined connection categories;

wherein the connection categories comprise a shared social networking group membership category, a friends-of-friends category, a shared calendar event category and a physical proximity category.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the predicted reply probability is based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders having a connection in a particular connection category and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients having a connection in a particular connection category.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive an incoming message addressed to a recipient from a sender at a messaging system;

determine that the sender and recipient have no pre-existing relationship;

generate a predicted reply probability that the recipient will respond to the message, the predicted reply probability based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders with whom the recipient has no pre-existing relationship and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients with whom the sender has no pre-existing relationship;

generate a notification of the message, wherein the notification is a higher priority notification if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and a lower priority or null notification if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold; and

transmit the notification to the recipient.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 comprising further instructions that cause the system to:

transmit a higher priority notification as a push notification to the recipient.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 comprising further instructions that cause the system to:

configure the message for delivery to a primary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability is above a pre-determined threshold and to a secondary mailbox of the recipient if the predicted reply probability falls below the pre-determined threshold;

transmit the message to the mailbox of the recipient for which the message has been configured; and

transmit the notification to the recipient with the message when the notification is a lower-priority notification;

wherein the sender and the recipient have no pre-existing relationship when the sender is not in the recipient's list of contacts and when the sender and recipient have no pre-existing messaging history.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the destination mailbox configuration component is further configured to:

determine one or more connection categories between the sender and the recipient; and

increase the predicted reply probability based on each of the determined connection categories;

wherein the predicted reply probability is based on a historic reply rate of the recipient to messages received from senders having a connection in a particular connection category and the sender's history of receiving replies to messages sent to recipients having a connection in a particular connection category.