IP Library Granted Patent US 12,647,479
Granted Patent B2
US 12,647,479 · App. 18/453,781 · Granted Jun 2, 2026

Dynamically generated context pane within a group-based communication interface

Inventors: Matthew Hodgins (Toronto, CA); Sarah Raines (Philadelphia, PA); Christine Lee (Oakland, CA); Shanan Delp (San Francisco, CA)
Assignee: Slack Technologies, LLC
H04L67/1044G06F40/166H04L67/306H04W4/08G06N20/00
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,647,479
App. No.
18/453,781
Granted
Jun 2, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Various examples of the present disclosure can be directed to programmatically generating and rendering for display a context pane within a group-based communication interface. In some examples, the context pane comprises context pane content representative of channel membership associated with a communication channel identifier with which the group-based communication interface is associated. Group-based communication objects of a group-based communication data corpus can be utilized (e.g., by way of a trained machine learning model and/or work graph data structures) to inform the determination of context pane content.

Claims (55)

1 . A method comprising:

causing rendering of a message composition interface within a group-based communication interface presented via a client associated with a group-based communication system, wherein the message composition interface is associated with a communication channel identifier corresponding to a communication channel, wherein the client is associated with a user, and wherein the message composition interface is a user interface element renderable to receive user input comprising message body contents;

determining communication channel membership data associated with the communication channel identifier;

determining one or more members of a plurality of members of the communication channel to display to the user as a first suggestion associated with a message and one or more topics to display to the user as a second suggestion associated with the message, wherein the one or more members and the one or more topics are based at least in part on a plurality of historical messages, the communication channel identifier, the communication channel membership data, and expertise of the one or more members in the one or more topics, wherein the expertise is associated with a frequency of mention of the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages or key words associated with the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages;

responsive to determining the one or more members and the one or more topics, generating context pane content associated with one or more context panes, wherein the context pane content comprises at least one of the one or more members and at least one of the one or more topics;

causing rendering of the message composition interface and the one or more context panes;

causing rendering of the context pane content within the one or more context panes without receiving a user request for the context pane content; and

receiving an indication of selection by the user of at least one member of the one or more members and at least one topic of the one or more topics for inclusion in the message composition interface; and

generating a work graph data structure to illustrate weighted relationship scores between the message body contents and context pane content.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more members and the one or more topics comprises determining at least one of the one or more members or at least one of the one or more topics using a machine learning model.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more topics comprises determining the one or more topics via a data model trained using a topic modeling machine learning mechanism.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication channel is shared with an external organization other than an organization of the user and wherein the context pane content is further based at least in part on user data associated with one or more external users associated with the external organization.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the context pane content further comprises at least one of:

a date;

a time zone;

a priority level of the message associated with the message composition interface; or

one or more privileges associated with the message.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client comprises a first client, the method further comprising:

causing rendering of the message associated with the message composition interface via one or more second clients.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client comprises a first client, and wherein the message composition interface is associated with an exchange of messages between the first client and one or more second clients.

8 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the machine learning model is trained using at least one of the communication channel identifier, the communication channel membership data, or one or more historical messages of the plurality of historical messages.

9 . A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable by the one or more processors, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

causing rendering of a message composition interface within a group-based communication interface presented via a client associated with a group-based communication system, wherein the message composition interface is associated with a communication channel identifier corresponding to a communication channel, wherein the client is associated with a user, and wherein the message composition interface is a user interface element renderable to receive user input comprising message body contents;

determining communication channel membership data associated with the communication channel identifier;

determining one or more members of a plurality of members of the communication channel to display to the user as a first suggestion associated with a message and one or more topics to display to the user as a second suggestion associated with the message, wherein the one or more members and the one or more topics are based at least in part on a plurality of historical messages, the communication channel identifier, the communication channel membership data, and expertise of the one or more members in the one or more topics, wherein the expertise is associated with a frequency of mention of the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages or key words associated with the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages;

responsive to determining the one or more members and the one or more topics, generating context pane content associated with a context pane, wherein the context pane content comprises at least one of the one or more members and at least one of the one or more topics;

causing rendering of the message composition interface and the context pane;

causing rendering of the context pane content within the context pane without receiving a user request for the context pane content; and

receiving an indication of selection by the user of at least one member of the one or more members and at least one topic of the one or more topics for inclusion in the message composition interface; and

generating a work graph data structure to illustrate weighted relationships scores between the message body contents and context pane content.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein determining the one or more members and the one or more topics comprises determining at least one of the one or more members or at least one of the one or more topics using a machine learning model.

11 . The system of claim 9 , wherein determining the one or more topics comprises determining the one or more topics via a data model trained using a topic modeling machine learning mechanism.

12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the communication channel is shared with an external organization other than an organization of the user and wherein the context pane content is further based at least in part on user data associated with one or more external users associated with the external organization.

13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the context pane content further comprises a priority level of the message associated with the message composition interface.

14 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the context pane content further comprises one or more privileges associated with the message.

15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the communication channel is associated with a plurality of organization identifiers, and wherein the context pane content further comprises one or more renderable elements indicating the communication channel is associated with the plurality of organization identifiers.

16 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the communication channel is associated with one or more guest user profiles, and wherein the context pane content further comprises one or more renderable elements indicating the communication channel is associated with the one or more guest user profiles.

17 . The system of claim 9 , wherein, based on receiving the indication of the selection, sending the message to the at least one member.

18 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable by one or more processors that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

causing rendering of a message composition interface within a group-based communication interface presented via a client associated with a group-based communication system, wherein the message composition interface is associated with a communication channel identifier corresponding to a communication channel, wherein the client is associated with a user, and wherein the message composition interface is a user interface element renderable to receive user input comprising message body contents;

determining communication channel membership data associated with the communication channel identifier;

determining one or more members of a plurality of members of the communication channel to display to the user as a first suggestion associated with a message and one or more topics to display to the user as a second suggestion associated with the message, wherein the one or more members and the one or more topics are based at least in part on a plurality of historical messages, the communication channel identifier, the communication channel membership data, and expertise of the one or more members in the one or more topics, wherein the expertise is associated with a frequency of mention of the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages or key words associated with the one or more topics in the plurality of historical messages;

responsive to determining the one or more members and the one or more topics, generating context pane content associated with one or more context panes, wherein the context pane content comprises at least one of the one or more members and at least one of the one or more topics;

causing rendering of the message composition interface and the one or more context panes;

causing rendering of the context pane content within the one or more context panes without receiving a user request for the context pane content; and

receiving an indication of selection by the user of at least one member of the one or more members and at least one topic of the one or more topics for inclusion in the message composition interface; and

generating a work graph data structure to illustrate weighted relationships scores between the message body contents and context pane content.

19 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18 , wherein determining the one or more topics comprises determining the one or more topics via a data model trained using a topic modeling machine learning mechanism.

20 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18 , wherein the context pane content further comprises at least one of:

a date;

a time zone;

a priority level of the message associated with the message composition interface; or

one or more privileges associated with the message.

Assignments (3)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 22, 2023
From: HODGINS, MATTHEW; RAINES, SARAH; DELP, SHANAN; LEE, CHRISTINE
To: SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Reel/Frame 064667/0919 →
MERGER AND CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Aug 22, 2023
From: SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, INC.; SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
To: SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Reel/Frame 064668/0154 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 22, 2023
From: SLACK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
To: SALESFORCE, INC.
Reel/Frame 064668/0375 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation 16990621 · Aug 11, 2020
Provisional Application 62886877 · Aug 14, 2019
Related Publication 20240089318A1 · Mar 14, 2024
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