US 10,476,830 B2Granted

Ephemeral gallery of ephemeral messages

AssigneeSnap Inc.

InventorsNicholas Allen, Donald Giovannini, Chia-Yi Lin, Robert Murphy, Evan Spiegel

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Abstract

A server maintains a gallery of ephemeral messages. Each ephemeral message is posted to the gallery by a user for viewing by recipients via recipient devices. In response to a gallery view request from any of the recipient devices, the ephemeral messages in the gallery are displayed on the requesting device in automated sequence, each message being displayed for a respective display duration before display of the next message in the gallery. Each ephemeral message has an associated message availability parameter, at the expiry of which the ephemeral message is made unavailable for viewing as part of the gallery. At expiry of the message availability parameter of the last posted message, the gallery is made unavailable for viewing upon request by any recipient.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

one or more processors;
and
one or more memories storing instructions executed by the one or more processors to:
maintain an ephemeral gallery comprising a plurality of ephemeral messages posted for viewing by one or more recipients, wherein the plurality of ephemeral messages comprises respective photographic or video content, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising making the ephemeral gallery available for viewing, upon request, via respective user devices associated with the one or more recipients;
for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages:
maintain an associated message duration parameter that indicates a display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message during viewing of the ephemeral gallery;
and
maintain a gallery participation parameter that indicates a time value for continued availability of the corresponding ephemeral message for viewing by the one or more recipients;
responsive to receiving a request from one of the one or more recipients over a computer network, cause automated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages on a corresponding user device by performance of operations comprising:
starting a message timer when display of one of the ephemeral messages is commenced, the message timer expiring when the message timer equals the display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message;
responsive to expiry of the message timer, displaying a next one of the plurality of ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery;
and
repeating the operations of starting the message timer and displaying the next ephemeral message until all ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery are viewed;
remove a particular one of the plurality of ephemeral messages from the ephemeral gallery in response to identification of an expired gallery participation parameter corresponding to the particular ephemeral message, the particular ephemeral message after removal thereof being unavailable for viewing by the one or more recipients as part of the ephemeral gallery;
and
eliminate the ephemeral gallery so that the ephemeral gallery is unavailable for viewing over the computer network by the one or more recipients, the ephemeral gallery being eliminated upon expiration of the gallery participation parameter of a last message in the ephemeral gallery, the last message being that one of the plurality of ephemeral messages posted to the ephemeral gallery most recently.

13 more elements

A method comprising:

maintaining an ephemeral gallery comprising a plurality of ephemeral messages posted for viewing by one or more recipients, wherein the plurality of ephemeral messages comprises respective photographic or video content, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising making the ephemeral gallery available for viewing, upon request, via respective user devices associated with the one or more recipients, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising, for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages:
maintaining an associated message duration parameter that indicates a display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message during viewing of the ephemeral gallery;
and
maintaining a gallery participation parameter that indicates a time value for continued availability of the corresponding ephemeral message for viewing by the one or more recipients;
responsive to receiving a request from one of the one or more recipients, automatically causing automated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages on a corresponding user device by performance of operations comprising:
starting a message timer when display of one of the ephemeral messages is commenced, the message timer expiring when the message timer equals the display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message;
responsive to expiry of the message timer, displaying a next one of the plurality of ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery;
and
repeating the operations of starting the message timer and displaying the next ephemeral message until all ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery are viewed;
using one or more computer processors, automatically removing a particular one of the plurality of ephemeral messages from the ephemeral gallery in response to identification of an expired gallery participation parameter corresponding to the particular ephemeral message, the particular ephemeral message after removal thereof being unavailable for viewing by the one or more recipients as part of the ephemeral gallery;
and
using one or more computer processors, automatically eliminating the ephemeral gallery so that the ephemeral gallery is unavailable for viewing over the computer network by the one or more recipients, the ephemeral gallery being eliminated upon expiration of the gallery participation parameter of a last message in the ephemeral gallery, the last message being that one of the plurality of ephemeral messages posted to the ephemeral gallery most recently.

9 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing machine-readable instructions for causing a machine, when executing the instructions, to perform operations comprising:

maintaining an ephemeral gallery comprising a plurality of ephemeral messages posted for viewing by one or more recipients, wherein the plurality of ephemeral messages comprises respective photographic or video content, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising making the ephemeral gallery available for viewing, upon request, via respective user devices associated with the one or more recipients, the maintaining of the ephemeral gallery comprising, for each of the plurality of ephemeral messages:
maintaining an associated message duration parameter that indicates a display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message during viewing of the ephemeral gallery;
and
maintaining a gallery participation parameter that indicates a time value for continued availability of the corresponding ephemeral message for viewing by the one or more recipients;
responsive to receiving a request from one of the one or more recipients over a computer network, automatically causing automated sequential display of the plurality of ephemeral messages on a corresponding user device by performance of operations comprising:
starting a message timer when display of one of the ephemeral messages is commenced, the message timer expiring when the message timer equals the display duration of the corresponding ephemeral message;
responsive to expiry of the message timer, displaying a next one of the plurality of ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery;
and
repeating the operations of starting the message timer and displaying the next ephemeral message until all ephemeral messages in the ephemeral gallery are viewed;
automatically removing a particular one of the plurality of ephemeral messages from the ephemeral gallery in response to identification of an expired gallery participation parameter corresponding to the particular ephemeral message, the particular ephemeral message after removal thereof being unavailable for viewing by the one or more recipients as part of the ephemeral gallery;
and
automatically eliminating the ephemeral gallery so that the ephemeral gallery is unavailable for viewing over the computer network by the one or more recipients, the ephemeral gallery being eliminated upon expiration of the gallery participation parameter of a last message in the ephemeral gallery, the last message being that one of the plurality of ephemeral messages posted to the ephemeral gallery most recently.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/702,511Filed 12 Sep 2017 · continuation
Priority: 2 Oct 2014
Published: US 2017/0374003 A128 Dec 2017
Granted: 12 Nov 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification17 codes

G06Q 10/40
Administration; Management: business processes related to social networking or social networking services
G06F 3/0482
Based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like…:…
G06F 3/04847
For the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a…:…
G06F 3/04883
Using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures: for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Family

Application14/505,478Parent of this continuation · filed 2 Oct 2014
Application15/224,312Parent of this continuation · filed 29 Jul 2016
US 2017/0374003 A1Pre-grant publication · published 28 Dec 2017
US 9,537,811 B2Parent of this continuation
US 10,425,370 B2Related patent
US 11,855,947 B1Related patent
US 2016/0099901 A1Published application
US 10,476,830 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.