IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,863,335
Granted Patent B1
US 11,863,335 · App. 17/977,879 · Granted Jan 2, 2024

Chat channel highlights

Inventors: Jason Clark (Evergreen, CO); Benjamin Gareth Dove (Issaquch, WA); Amanda Naomi Etheridge (Georgetown, TX); Li-An Huang (San Francisco, CA); Robert Allen Ryskamp (Mountain View, CA); Adam Justin Spooner (Greensboro, NC); Matthew Brandon Wesson (Lafayette, CO)
Assignee: Zoom Video Communications, Inc.
H04L12/1822H04L51/216
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,863,335
App. No.
17/977,879
Granted
Jan 2, 2024
Kind
B1
Abstract

Systems and methods for providing spotlight cards within a chat channel are provided. In an aspect, a method includes establishing, by a video conference provider, a first chat channel for exchanging chat messages between a plurality of client devices and receiving, by the video conference provider, an indication to generate a first spotlight card within the first chat channel, wherein the indication identifies spotlight content from a first resource external to the first chat channel. The method also includes generating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content and transmitting, by the video conference provider to one or more of the client devices connected to the first chat channel, the first spotlight card for display within a spotlight panel within the first chat channel, the spotlight panel positioned proximate to a chat messaging panel including chat messages posted to the chat channel.

Claims (83)

1. A method comprising:

establishing, by a video conference provider, a first chat channel for exchanging chat messages between a plurality of client devices;

receiving, by the video conference provider, an indication to generate a first spotlight card within the first chat channel, wherein the indication identifies spotlight content from a first resource external to the first chat channel;

generating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content wherein generating the first spotlight card comprises:

accessing the first resource external to the first chat channel;

identifying the spotlight content responsive to the indication to generate the first spotlight card; and

generating the first spotlight card based on the spotlight content from the first resource external to the first chat channel; and

transmitting, by the video conference provider to one or more of the client devices connected to the first chat channel, the first spotlight card for display within a spotlight panel within the first chat channel, the spotlight panel positioned proximate to a chat messaging panel comprising chat messages posted to the first chat channel.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel of the first chat channel.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein updating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel comprises:

receiving, by the video conference provider, updated spotlight content from the first resource external to the first chat channel; and

updating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card with the updated spotlight content.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein updating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel comprises:

receiving, from a first client device, a selection of the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel; and

providing, by the video conference provider, a detailed view of the first spotlight card to the first client device.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein updating, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel comprises:

receiving, from a first client device, one or more edits to the spotlight content of the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel; and

updating, by the video conference provider, the spotlight content of the first spotlight card based on the one or more edits to the spotlight content.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content comprising establishing a placement in the first chat channel for the first spotlight card, and the method further comprising:

receiving, by the video conference provider, an indication to pin the first spotlight card proximate to content in the chat messaging panel;

changing, by the video conference provider, the placement of the first spotlight card from the spotlight panel to a position proximate to the content in the chat messaging panel; and

pinning, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card to the position proximate to the content in the chat messaging panel such that the first spotlight card remains in the position proximate to the content in the chat messaging panel until a removal indication is received.

7. A system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium;

a communications interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium and the communications interface, the processor configured to execute processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

establish, by a video conference provider, a first chat channel for exchanging chat messages between a plurality of client devices;

receive, by the video conference provider, an indication to generate a first spotlight card within the first chat channel, wherein the indication identifies spotlight content from a first resource external to the first chat channel;

generate, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content, wherein to generate the first spotlight card the processor-executable instructions further cause one or more processors to:

access the first resource external to the first chat channel;

identify the spotlight content responsive to the indication to generate the first spotlight card; and

generate the first spotlight card based on the spotlight content from the first resource external to the first chat channel; and

transmit, by the video conference provider to one or more of the client devices connected to the first chat channel, the first spotlight card for display within a spotlight panel within the first chat channel, the spotlight panel positioned proximate to a chat messaging panel comprising one or more chat messages posted to the chat channel.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

receive, by the video conference provider, an indication to generate a second spotlight card within the first chat channel, wherein:

the second spotlight card comprises second spotlight content from a second resource external to the first chat channel; and

the second resource is different than the first resource associated with the first spotlight card;

generate, by the video conference provider, the second spotlight card identifying the second spotlight content from the second resource; and

transmit, by the video conference provider to the one or more of the client devices connected to the first chat channel, the second spotlight card for display within the spotlight panel of the first chat channel.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

determine, by the video conference provider, a first priority of the first spotlight card; and

determine, by the video conference provider, a second priority of the second spotlight card; and

modify, by the video conference provider, a placement of the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel based on the first priority and the second priority.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein:

the processor-executable instructions to determine, by the video conference provider, the first priority of the first spotlight card cause the processor to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to determine, by the video conference provider, a first interaction level for the first spotlight card;

the processor-executable instructions to determine, by the video conference provider, the second priority of the second spotlight card cause the processor to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to determine, by the video conference provider, a second interaction level for the first spotlight card; and

the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

compare, by the video conference provider, the first interaction level to the second interaction level; and

determine, by the video conference provider, the first priority based on the comparison of the first interaction level of the first spotlight card to the second interaction level of the second spotlight card.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the indication to generate the first spotlight card within the first chat channel is received from a first client device of the plurality of client devices, and the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

determine, by the video conference provider, an authorization setting associated with the first client device for the first chat channel; and

generate, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content based on the authorization setting associated with the first client device for the first chat channel.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the indication to generate the first spotlight card within the first chat channel is received from a first client device of the plurality of client devices, and the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

determine, by the video conference provider, a permissions setting associated with the first client device for the first resource external to the first chat channel; and

generate, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content based on the permissions setting associated with the first client device for the first resource external to the first chat channel.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the first resource external to the first chat channel comprises one or more of:

an application external to the video conference provider;

an application hosted by the video conference provider; or

one or more features native to the video conference provider.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions configured to cause one or more processors to:

establish, by a video conference provider, a first chat channel for exchanging chat messages between a plurality of client devices;

receive, by the video conference provider, an indication to generate a first spotlight card within the first chat channel, wherein the indication identifies spotlight content from a first resource external to the first chat channel;

generate, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card identifying the spotlight content, wherein to generate the first spotlight card the processor-executable instructions further cause one or more processors to:

access the first resource external to the first chat channel;

identify the spotlight content responsive to the indication to generate the first spotlight card; and

generate the first spotlight card based on the spotlight content from the first resource external to the first chat channel; and

transmit, by the video conference provider to one or more of the client devices connected to the first chat channel, the first spotlight card for display within a spotlight panel within the first chat channel, the spotlight panel positioned proximate to a chat messaging panel comprising one or more chat messages posted to the chat channel.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

receive, from a first client device, one or more edits to the spotlight content of the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel, wherein the plurality of client devices comprise the first client device; and

updating, by the video conference provider, the spotlight content of the first spotlight card based on the one or more edits to the spotlight content.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

modify, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card to visually indicate a status change of an application corresponding to the first resource external to the first chat channel.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

receive, from a first client device, an indication to modify the spotlight panel;

modify, by the video conference provider, the spotlight panel based on the indication; and

modify, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel based on the modification of the spotlight panel.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein to modify, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card within the spotlight panel based on the modification of the spotlight panel the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

expand, by the video conference provider, the first spotlight card to provide a detailed view of the spotlight content of the first spotlight card.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to execute further processor-executable instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium to:

receive, from a first client device, an indication to move the first spotlight card from the first chat channel, wherein the plurality of client devices comprise the first client device;

access, by the first client device, a second chat channel, wherein the second chat channel is established by the video conference provider;

receive, from the first client device, an indication to add the first spotlight card to a second spotlight panel of the second chat channel; and

modify, by the video conference provider, the second spotlight panel of the second chat channel to include the first spotlight card.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Sep 18, 2025
From: ZOOM VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: ZOOM COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Reel/Frame 072918/0521 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 27, 2023
From: ETHERIDGE, AMANDA NAOMI; WESSON, MATTHEW BRANDON; HUANG, LI-AN; RYSKAMP, ROBERT ALLEN; DOVE, BENJAMIN GARETH; SPOONER, ADAM JUSTIN; CLARK, JASON
To: ZOOM VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Reel/Frame 064071/0310 →
Cited By (2)
US 12,671,791 US 12,712,929