Granted Patent B2

US 12,206,640 · App. 17/953,328 · Granted Jan 21, 2025

Inventors: Shelby Seward (Bellevue, WA); Thomas Cast (Redmond, WA)

Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc.

H04L51/42G06Q10/107H04L51/216H04L51/234H04M1/72436

Abstract

Claims (66)

1. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for use with a wireless telecommunication network which, when executed by at least one data processor, performs operations, comprising:

storing, at a server of the wireless telecommunication network, a message thread including multiple messages between a first user and a second user,

wherein the message thread is configured to be read on multiple devices associated with one of the first user or the second user, and

wherein a message in the message thread is marked as unread,

wherein the message in the message thread is read on a device among the multiple devices without notifying the server;

organizing the message thread into multiple folders based on time lapsed between consecutive messages in the message thread;

receiving a reply message including data identifying the first user as a sender and the second user as a recipient,

wherein the reply message includes a short message service (SMS) message or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message;

based on the data identifying the first user and the second user, determining that the reply message is in reply to the message in the message thread;

further determining that a most recent message in the message thread is in a different folder than the message, wherein the most recent message is the reply message; and

without receiving a notification from the device among the multiple devices that the message was read, synchronize, by the server, a message status across the multiple devices to read status by:

marking the message in the message thread as read without receiving a notification from at least one of the multiple devices whether the message was read; and,

sending, by the server, an indication of the marking of the message in the message thread to the multiple devices.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that the second user is a user of the wireless telecommunication network;

maintaining, by the server of the wireless telecommunication network, a copy of the message thread associated with the second user; and

updating a message status in the copy of the message thread associated with the second user, independently of sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:

upon determining that the reply message is in reply to the message thread, updating statuses of all messages in the message thread to read status.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining at a user device of the first user an instruction to mark all messages in the message thread as read; and

upon sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread from the server of the wireless telecommunication network, marking all messages in the message thread with read status.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining at a user device of the first user an instruction to mark the message in the message thread with a read status; and

upon sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread, from the server of the wireless telecommunication network, marking the message in the message thread with the read status.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the data identifying the first user and the second user comprises respective first user and second user mobile numbers or respective first user and second user E.164 addresses.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising adding the reply message to the message thread.

8. A system for use with a wireless telecommunication network, comprising:

one or more processors; and,

memory coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the memory includes instructions executable by the one or more processors to:

store a message thread including multiple messages between a first user and a second user,

wherein the message thread is configured to be read on multiple devices associated with one of the first user or the second user, and

wherein a message in the message thread is marked as unread,

wherein the message in the message thread is read on a device among the multiple devices without notifying a server;

organize the message thread into multiple folders based on time lapsed between consecutive messages in the message thread;

receive a reply message including data identifying the first user as a sender and the second user as a recipient,

wherein the reply message includes a short message service (SMS) message or a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message;

based on the data identifying the first user and the second user, determine that the reply message is in reply to the message in the message thread;

further determine that a most recent message in the message thread is in a different folder than the message, wherein the most recent message is the reply message;

without receiving a notification from the device among the multiple devices that the message was read, synchronize, by the server, a message status across the multiple devices to read status by:

mark the message in the message thread as read without receiving a notification from at least one of the multiple devices whether the message was read; and,

send an indication of the marking of the message in the message thread to the multiple devices.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising the instructions to:

determine that the second user is a user of the telecommunication network;

maintain a copy of the message thread associated with the second user; and

update the copy of the message thread associated with the second user independently of sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread.

10. The system of claim 8 , further comprising the instructions to:

upon determining that the reply message is in reply to the message thread, update statuses of all messages in the message thread to a read status.

11. The system of claim 8 , further comprising the instructions to:

obtain at a user device of the first user an instruction to mark all messages in the message thread as read; and

upon sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread, mark all messages in the message thread with a read status.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising the instructions to:

obtain at a user device of the first user an instruction to mark the message in the message thread with a read status; and

upon sending the indication of the marking of the message in the message thread, mark the message in the message thread with the read status.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the data identifying the first user and the second user comprises mobile numbers or E.164 addresses.

14. At least one non-transitory, computer-readable medium, carrying instructions that, when executed by at least one data processor, performs a method comprising:

receiving, at a server couple to a wireless telecommunication network, multiple related text messages,

wherein the text messages are short message service (SMS) messages or multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, and

wherein a text message among the text messages is read on a device among multiple user devices without notifying the server;

storing a copy of the text messages and read or unread message statuses of the text message to synchronize the message statuses among the multiple user devices associated with a user,

wherein the multiple devices include a mobile phone and a tablet, a laptop or a smart watch;

when the multiple related text messages form a conversation containing multiple text messages, splitting a subset of the multiple related text messages in the conversation into single or multiple folders based on time lapsed between consecutive text messages in the conversation;

determining that a most recent text message in the conversation is in a different folder than the text message, wherein the most recent text message is a reply message in reply to the text message in the message thread; and

without receiving a notification from the device among the multiple devices that the text message was read, synchronizing, by the server, a message status across the multiple devices to read status by, when the user reads the text message on one of the user devices and the one user device does not notify the server that the text message has been read, marking the text message as read.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , further comprising:

when the text message is in response to a last text message in a message thread, marking all text messages in the message thread as read, or marking only a most recent text message in the message thread as read.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (77)