Anonymous sidebar method and system

A method of establishing an anonymous sidebar during an ongoing push-to-talk (PTT) session in which session participants communicate with each other through a PTT server, wherein each participant has a private handle representing the participant, the method comprising:

• at the PTT server, identifying a subset of the participants that subscribe to anonymous sidebar service, at least in part by referring to profile data indicating which participants subscribe to anonymous sidebar service;
• the PTT server communicating with each participant of the subset to confirm or update the private handle of the session participant;
• during the PTT session, providing from the PTT server to each of participant of the subset a specification stating the private handle of each other participant of the subset;
• during the PTT session, receiving at the PTT server, from a given one of the participants of the subset, a sidebar-request, the sidebar-request designating one or more private handles selected by the given session participant from the specification provided to the given session participant;
• during the PTT session, in response to the sidebar-request, the PTT server correlating each designated private handle with a respective participant, and the PTT server segregating (i) communications between the given session participant and each respective participant from (ii) remaining communications of the ongoing PTT session, thereby establishing the anonymous sidebar.

A push-to-talk (PTT) server comprising:

• a network communication interface for sending and receiving communications on a packet-switched network;
• a processor;
• data storage;
• program logic stored in the data storage and executable by the processor, during an ongoing PTT session being hosted by the PTT server, to carry out functions including:
• (a) identifying participants of the PTT session that subscribe to anonymous sidebar service, at least in part by referring to profile data that indicates which participants subscribe to anonymous sidebar service,
• (b) transmitting to each of identified participant of the PTT session a list specifying a private handle respectively of each other identified participant,
• (c) receiving from a given one of the identified participants a sidebar-request that designates one or more private handles selected by the given participant from the transmitted list, and
• (d) responsive to the request, correlating each designated private handle with a respective one of the identified participants, and setting up a sidebar between the given participant and each respective participant.