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US 8,909,714 B2Granted
Electronic mail delay adaptation
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsSharad Agarwal, Venkata N. Padmanabhan, Rajatish Mukherjee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A electronic communication system that can detect and adapt to delays in delivery of e-mail messages. The system may adapt to delays by using mechanisms other than the initially intended path to convey the information intended for delivery by e-mail. A possible adaptation is reprioritization of an e-mail message that is found to be experiencing a delay.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a recipient device, a notification from a notification server that an individual electronic mail message has been sent to the recipient device by a sending device, the notification being separate from the individual electronic mail message and received by the recipient device before the recipient device receives the individual electronic mail message;
- after the notification is received by the recipient device and before the individual electronic mail message is received by the recipient device:
- detecting that the individual electronic mail message is delayed using the notification by determining that a threshold amount of time has passed after receipt of the notification without receiving the delayed individual electronic mail message,
- responsive to detecting the delayed individual electronic mail message, providing an option to reprioritize the delayed individual electronic mail message relative to queued electronic mail messages that are queued at an e-mail server, and
- when the option to reprioritize the delayed individual electronic mail message is chosen, communicating an individual reprioritization request from the recipient device to the e-mail server to change a delivery priority of the delayed individual electronic mail message relative to the queued electronic mail messages that are queued at the e-mail server;
- and
- limiting a number of reprioritization requests that the recipient device makes to the e-mail server for multiple different emails in a given interval of time.
4 more elements
One or more computer-readable memory devices or storage devices comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
- receiving, by a recipient device, a notification from a notification server that an individual electronic mail message has been sent to the recipient device by a sending device, the notification being separate from the individual electronic mail message and received by the recipient device before the recipient device receives the individual electronic mail message;
- and
- before the individual electronic mail message is received by the recipient device:
- after receiving the notification, delaying a threshold amount of time before providing an option to reprioritize the individual electronic mail message, and
- when the option to reprioritize the individual electronic mail message is chosen, communicating an individual reprioritization request from the recipient device to an e-mail server to change a delivery priority of the individual electronic mail message relative to queued electronic mail messages that are queued at the e-mail server.
2 more elements
A recipient device comprising:
- executable instructions configured to:
- receive, from a notification server, a notification that an individual electronic mail message has been sent to the recipient device by a sending device, the notification being separate from the individual electronic mail message and received by the recipient device before the recipient device receives the individual electronic mail message;
- after the notification is received by the recipient device and before the individual electronic mail message is received by the recipient device:
- use the notification to detect that the individual electronic mail message is delayed,
- responsive to detection of the delayed individual electronic mail message, provide an option to reprioritize the delayed individual electronic mail message relative to queued electronic mail messages that are queued at an e-mail server, and
- when the option to reprioritize the delayed individual electronic mail message is chosen, communicate an individual reprioritization request from the recipient device to the e-mail server to change a delivery priority of the delayed individual electronic mail message relative to the queued electronic mail messages that are queued at the e-mail server;
- and
- at least one hardware processor configured to execute the instructions.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.