Remote activation of mobile applications

A method comprising:

• receiving notification of a request transmitted from a user over a web connection to activate an application on a mobile phone device operated by the user, the request including:
• i) a unique mobile phone identifier value specifying how to contact the mobile phone device operated by the user, and ii) notification of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device;
• generating a message, the message including an application identifier specifying an identity of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device;
• and
• via the unique mobile phone identifier value and the application identifier, transmitting the message to the application on the mobile phone device.

A method comprising:

• receiving a message from an application server, the message directed to a an application to be activated on a mobile phone device operated by a user, the message including state information;
• forwarding the message including the state information to the application on the mobile phone device;
• receiving a response generated by the application on the mobile phone device, the response produced by the application being based at least in part on the state information in the message;
• and
• transmitting the response generated by the application from the mobile phone device over a network to the application server.

A method comprising:

• via an application in a mobile phone device operated by a user:
• receiving a message from an application server, the message directed to the application on the mobile phone device, the message including state information;
• generating a response to the message based at least in part on the state information in the received message;
• and
• initiating transmission of the response over a network to the application server.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a hardware storage resource coupled to the processor, the hardware storage resource storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computer system to perform the operations of:
• receiving a message from an application server, the message directed to an application on the mobile phone device, the message including state information;
• generating a response to the message based at least in part on the state information in the received message;
• and
• initiating transmission of the response over a network to the application server to retrieve configuration information associated with a user of the mobile phone device to activate the application.

Computer-readable storage hardware having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, causes the processing device to perform operations of:

• receiving notification of a request transmitted from a user over a web connection to activate an application on a mobile phone device operated by the user, the request including:
• i) a unique mobile phone identifier value specifying how to contact the mobile phone device operated by the user, and ii) notification of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device;
• generating a message, the message including an application identifier specifying an identity of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device;
• and
• via the unique mobile phone identifier value and the application identifier, transmitting the message to the application on the mobile phone device to notify the application to retrieve configuration information associated with the user to activate the application.