US-12627613-B1 - Programmatic activation of an incognito mode for transmitting communications

US12627613B1US 12627613 B1US12627613 B1US 12627613B1US-12627613-B1

Abstract

Programmatic activation of an incognito mode for transmitting communications determines if a communication is schedule for sending at a later time. A request to send a communication to a second client device is received from a first client device. A determination whether an incognito mode is active is made. In response to determining that the incognito mode is active, one or more criteria are used to determine whether to delay sending the communication. In response to determining to delay the communication, the communication is scheduled to be sent to the second client device at a later time according to the one or more criteria.

Inventors

Alejandro Martin Paiuk

Assignees

ZOOM COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230908

Claims (20)

1 . A method, comprising: receiving, from a first client device, a request to send a communication to a second client device; determining whether an incognito mode is active, wherein, when the incognito mode is active, automatic scheduling of the communication for delayed transmission is authorized without further input from the first client device; in response to determining that the incognito mode is active, determining whether to delay the communication based on one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes at least one criteria directed to a user of the first client device; in response to determining to delay the communication, automatically scheduling to send the communication to the second client device at a later time according to the one or more criteria; and adding a random epsilon to the later time based on a setting defined by a user of the first client device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more criteria includes at least one of a status, a time zone, or a geographic location of a user of the second client device.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, from the first client device, an urgent request to send the communication to the second client device; and in response to receiving the urgent request, sending the communication to the second client device within a predefined time period.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more criteria includes at least one of a status of a user of the first client device, a number of recipients, or an optimal time for a user of the second client device to read the communication.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether at least one of the one or more criteria includes a predefined time period of a user of the second client device; and responsive to determining that at least one of the one or more criteria includes the predefined time period of the user of the second client device, setting the later time to a time within the predefined time period.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein an availability of the one or more criteria is based on a setting defined by a system administrator.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: activating the incognito mode based on a setting defined by at least one of a user of the first client device or a system administrator.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: activating the incognito mode by a user of the first client device.
9 . A non-transitory computer readable storage device including program instructions that, when executed by a processor of a first client device, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising: receiving, from the first client device, a request to send a communication to a second client device; determining whether an incognito mode is active, wherein, when the incognito mode is active, automatic scheduling of the communication for delayed transmission is authorized without further input from the first client device; in response to determining that the incognito mode is active, determining whether to delay the communication based on one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes at least one criteria directed to a user of the first client device; in response to determining to delay the communication, automatically scheduling to send the communication to the second client device, at a later time, according to the one or more criteria; and adding a random epsilon to the later time based on a setting defined by a user of the first client device.
10 . The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 9 , wherein determining to delay the communication comprises at least one of: determining a status of a user of the second client device; determining a time zone of the user of the second client device; or determining a geographic location of the user of the second client device.
11 . The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 9 , the operations further comprising: determining whether the communication is an urgent communication; and in response to a determination that the communication is an urgent communication, sending the communication to the second client device within a predefined time period.
12 . The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 9 , wherein the incognito mode is activated based on a setting defined by a user of the first client device.
13 . The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 9 , wherein scheduling to send the communication comprises: determining a number of recipients for the communication; generating a message corresponding to at least one of the number of recipients for the communication, wherein the at least one of the number of recipients is a user of the second client device; and setting a delivery time of the message to the user of the second client device based on a predefined time period.
14 . The non-transitory computer readable storage device of claim 9 , the operations further comprising: determining whether at least one of the one or more criteria are based on an optimal time for a user of the second client device to read the communication; and responsive to a determination that one or more criteria is based on the optimal time for the user of the second client device to read the communication, setting the later time to the optimal time.
15 . A system, comprising: a memory subsystem configured to store instructions; and processing circuitry configured to execute instructions to: receive, from a first client device, a request to send a communication to a second client device; determine whether an incognito mode is active, wherein, when the incognito mode is active, automatic scheduling of the communication for delayed transmission is authorized without further input from the first client device; in response to a determination that the incognito mode is active, determine whether to delay the communication based on one or more criteria, wherein the one or more criteria includes at least one criteria directed to a user of the first client device; in response to a determination to delay the communication, automatically schedule to send the communication to the second client device, at a later time, according to the one or more criteria; and add a random epsilon to the later time based on a setting defined by a user of the first client device.
16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein, to schedule to send the communication to the second client device, the processing circuitry is configured to execute the instructions to: determine a status of a user of the second client device; and in response to a determination that the status of the user of the second client device is inactive, set a delivery time of the communication to the second client device based on at least one of a time zone or a geographic location of the user of the second client device.
17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to execute the instructions to: send the communication to the second client device within a predefined time period, wherein the communication is an urgent communication.
18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to execute the instructions to: receive a system setting defined by a system administrator; and activate the incognito mode based on the system setting.
19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein, to determine to delay the communication, the processing circuitry is configured to execute the instructions to: determine a status of a user of the first client device; determine a number of recipients; or determine an optimal time for a user of the second client device to read the communication.
20 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to execute the instructions to: determine whether at least one of the one or more criteria are based on an optimal time for a user of the second client device to read the communication; and responsive to a determination that one or more criteria is based on the optimal time for the user of the second client device to read the communication, set the later time to the optimal time.

Description

FIELD This disclosure generally relates to an electronic communication system and, more specifically, to dynamically scheduling the sending and/or receiving of electronic communications based on criteria defined by or for the sender. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS This disclosure is best understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is emphasized that, according to common practice, the various features of the drawings are not to-scale. On the contrary, the dimensions of the various features are arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of an electronic computing and communications system. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example internal configuration of a computing device of an electronic computing and communications system. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a software platform implemented by an electronic computing and communications system. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example of a data flow for messaging software used for dynamic criteria-based communication scheduling. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example of messaging software for dynamically scheduling communications based on predefined criteria. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example of a technique 600 for dynamically scheduling communications based on predefined criteria. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Enterprise entities rely upon several modes of communication to support their operations, including telephone, email, internal messaging, and the like. These separate modes of communication have historically been implemented by service providers whose services are not integrated with one another. The disconnect between these services, in at least some cases, requires information to be manually passed by users from one service to the next. Furthermore, some services, such as telephony services, are traditionally delivered via on-premises solutions, meaning that remote workers and those who are generally increasingly mobile may be unable to rely upon them. One solution is by way of a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform, which includes several communications services integrated over a network, such as the Internet, to deliver a complete communication experience regardless of physical location. Many workers rely upon software services of a UCaaS or like software platform, for example, for communicating with co-workers and others. It is common for users to catch up on their work-related communications during non-business hours, such as over the weekend or late at night. However, not all recipients want to receive communications during their non-business hours, and, furthermore, many workers might not want their co-workers to know they are working during non-business hours. Additionally, users of communication software services, such as those provided by a UCaaS platform, may be located in geographically distinct locations. As such, such users could be located in different time zones in which their business hours are not aligned. Furthermore, sending business communication during non-business hours might be viewed as burdensome or unacceptable to the recipient or other users or, a user might want to hide the fact that they are available during non-business hours. To overcome this issue, conventional communication systems, such as email exchange clients, allow users to schedule a communication to be sent at a later time. However, each such communication must be scheduled manually by the user. Manually scheduling each communication is a time consuming and onerous process susceptible to, for example, omission and failure. That is, manually scheduling each communication may lead to misuse and errors by the user scheduling the communication. For example, the user may forget or not know that a recipient is in a different time zone. In another example, the user may mistakenly schedule a message to be received based on a miscalculation of the time zone of the recipient. In yet another example, the user may not know what the recipient's business hours are or what the optimal time for a recipient to receive a message is. Furthermore, if the user desires to send the communication to more than one recipient and each recipient is located in a different time zone, the user must send individual communications to each recipient and each communication will need to be manually scheduled. As such, conventional communication systems are not designed to or capable of properly addressing these problems, for example, because they do not provide users with the technical capabilities to alleviate the problem of automatically scheduling communications to be sent at a later time. Implementations of this disclosure address problems such as these by the programmatic activation of an incognito mode for transmitting communications using communications services of a software platform, such as a UCaaS platform. While the incognito mode is active, communications m