# US 11,121,997 B1 · Systems, devices, and methods for determining a non-ephemeral message status in a communication system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,121,997 B1 - Document ID: US11121997B1 - Status: Granted - Kind: B1 - Application number: 14/833,621 - Filed: 2015-08-24 - Granted: 2021-09-14 - Earliest claimed: 2015-08-24 - Assignees: Snap Inc. - Applicants: Snap Inc. - Inventors: Haibo Zhao - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11121997B1 ## CPC - H04L 51/18: Commands or executable codes - G06F 40/211: Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars - G06F 40/284: Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates - G06F 40/30: Semantic analysis - H04L 51/42: Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes - H04L 51/222: using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Methods and devices are presented for managing communications in an ephemeral communication system. In some embodiments, messages in the system are associated with a default trigger for deleting each message following an initial viewing of the message. A non-ephemeral analysis module analyses elements of the message to identify any content elements indicating that a message status should be changed from a default ephemeral status to a non-ephemeral status. Following identification of such elements in the message, the message status is changed from ephemeral to non-ephemeral. Based on the non-ephemeral message status, a copy of the message may be automatically stored in a non-ephemeral format, or a default trigger for deletion of the message may be changed. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of processing ephemeral messages in a communication system, the method comprising: accessing, using a first device, a first message of a first message type in the communication system, wherein a first message status for the first message is an ephemeral status, and wherein the first message is associated with a default trigger for deletion of the first message based on the ephemeral status; analyzing the first message for elements associated with a non-ephemeral status using a non-ephemeral analysis module; identifying one or more content elements from content of the first message, wherein the one or more content elements are associated with the non-ephemeral status; and changing, by the first device, the first message status from the ephemeral status to the non-ephemeral status based on the identifying of the one or more content elements associated with the non-ephemeral status. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the first message for the elements associated with the non-ephemeral status comprises parsing the first message for a non-word string previously identified as associating messages comprising the non-word string with the non-ephemeral status. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the first message for the elements associated with the non-ephemeral status comprises analyzing the one or more content elements using a bag-of-words analysis module of the first device. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the first message for the elements associated with the non-ephemeral status comprises analyzing the one or more content elements using a support vector machine analysis module. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the first message for the elements associated with the non-ephemeral status comprises analyzing the one or more content elements using two or more of: a semantic analysis module, a string matching module, a bag-of-words analysis module, and a support vector machine analysis module. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving, at the first device, a user input associated with storage or deletion of the first message; and updating the non-ephemeral analysis module based on the user input. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein a default status for each message of the first message type in the communication system is the ephemeral status, wherein the ephemeral status is associated with the default trigger for deletion of each message associated with the ephemeral status. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving the first message at the first device from a second device prior to accessing the first message by the first device; and modifying, by the first device in response to the changing of the first message status to the non-ephemeral status, the association of the first message with the default trigger for deletion of the first message. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8 wherein modifying the association of the first message with the default trigger comprises changing a deletion trigger from a delete-on-close trigger to a delete-after-expiration-time trigger. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving the first message at the first device from a second device prior to accessing the first message by the first device; and automatically storing, by the first device in response to the changing of the first message status to the non-ephemeral status, a copy of the first message in a non-ephemeral data format. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: displaying the first message on a display of the first device as part of the communication system; receiving a user input to close the first message; and deleting the first message from the first device in response to the user input to close the first message; wherein the default trigger for deletion of the first message based on the ephemeral status comprises the user input to close the first message. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: accessing, using the first device, a second message of the first message type in the communication system, wherein a second message status for the second message is the ephemeral status, and wherein the second message is associated with the default trigger for deletion of the first message based on the ephemeral status; analyzing the second message for elements associated with the non-ephemeral status using the non-ephemeral analysis module; and maintaining the ephemeral status for the second message based on results of the analysis by the non-ephemeral analysis module. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The method of claim 12 further comprising: receiving, at the first device, a screen capture input to store content of the second message; and updating the non-ephemeral analysis module based on the screen capture input to store the content of the second message and the ephemeral status for the second message. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving a set of user inputs at the first device entering the content of the first message; and communicating the first message from the first device to a second device; wherein changing, by the first device, the first message status from the ephemeral status to the non-ephemeral status comprises adding a non-ephemeral status indicator to the first message prior to communicating the first message to the second device. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14 further comprising: receiving, at the first device, a set of user settings to process each message input to the first device with the non-ephemeral analysis module; displaying, on a display of the first device prior to changing the first message status from the ephemeral status to the non-ephemeral status, a user verification message for the non-ephemeral status; and receiving, in response to the display of the user verification message, a user verification input; wherein the first message status is further changed to the non-ephemeral status in response to the user verification input. ### Claim 16 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14 wherein the non-ephemeral status indicator comprises a non-word character string added to the content of the first message. ### Claim 17 A device comprising: a memory; a display, the display configured to display messages as part of a communication system; an input device configured to receive a first message from a network as part of the communication system, wherein a first message status for the first message is an ephemeral status, and wherein the first message is associated with a default trigger for deletion of the first message based on the ephemeral status; and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the display, and the input device, the one or more processors implementing a non-ephemeral analysis module configured to: analyze the first message for elements associated with a non-ephemeral status; identify one or more content elements from content of the first message, wherein the one or more content elements are associated with the non-ephemeral status; and change the first message status from the ephemeral status to the non-ephemeral status based on the identifying of the one or more content elements associated with the non-ephemeral status. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The device of claim 17 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: initiate presentation on the display of the first message; and modify, in response to the changing of the first message status to the non-ephemeral status, the association of the first message with the default trigger for deletion of the first message to an association with a non-ephemeral trigger for deletion of the first message. ### Claim 19 A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, configure the device to: access a first message of a first message type in a communication system, wherein a first message status for the first message is an ephemeral status, and wherein the first message is associated with a default trigger for deletion of the first message based on the ephemeral status; analyze the first message for elements associated with a non-ephemeral status using a non-ephemeral analysis module; identify one or more content elements from content of the first message, wherein the one or more content elements are associated with the non-ephemeral status; change the first message status from the ephemeral status to the non-ephemeral status based on the identifying of the one or more content elements associated with the non-ephemeral status; and modify, in response to the changing of the first message status to the non-ephemeral status, the association of the first message with the default trigger for deletion of the first message to an association with a non-ephemeral trigger for deletion of the first message. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein the instructions to analyze the first message comprise instructions for the non-ephemeral analysis module comprising one or more of a semantic analysis module, a string matching module, a bag-of-words analysis module, and a support vector machine analysis module.