A PROCESS FOR CONTROLLING PUSH NOTIFICATION MESSAGES

Abstract

A process for controlling push notification messages on user’s smart devices comprising settings that allow user to choose from a standardized category of notifications and also control the volume, frequency, time and other aspects of receiving notifications for each app. The process also gives the app-developers & marketers a standard way to categorize their push notifications.

Specification

Description:FIELD
The present application relates to process & settings for user operated mobile devices to manage push notification messages.

BACKGROUND
Users of mobile devices, such as smart phones, digital watches, tablets and other portable or wearable devices often find push notifications useful for reminders, alerts or some valuable information. At the same time, due to non-judicious use of this technology by 3rd party application developers & marketers, users find these notifications to be annoyingly distracting, unwelcome and also irrelevant due to broadcasting.
Often many notifications just float around on lock screens or notification center only to be discarded with a swipe wasting customers time and marketers efforts. Users currently have option to either enable or disable notifications completely. So if turned off, all important notifications related to alerts, service notifications, etc are also disabled. In some cases, certain application specific notification settings are provided by some applications, but this is not implemented by all applications and different applications have different settings without any standardization.

SUMMARY
By using the process & settings defined in the detailed description, a user will be able to better control if they want to receive notifications. User will also be able to control various aspects related to notification messages comprising, what type or category of notifications they want to receive from an application, how many notifications they want to receive within a specified time period, how frequently they want to receive notifications within the specified time period, what time of day they want to receive the notifications.
The detailed description also describes how the device manufacturers or operating systems like iOS, Android and others can choose to share, with user consent, the user's App-specific push notification settings with the application developers & marketers to better calibrate their push notification based engagement with user. The teachings within this application, also gives marketers & app-developers a standard way to categorize their push notifications.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the following detailed portion of the present description, the teachings of the present application will be explained in more detail with reference to the example embodiments shown in the drawings, in which:

Fig 1 is a view of user's smart mobile phone screen showing one implementation layout of various app-specific push notification control settings that user can customize,

Fig 2 is a view showing how user's app-specific push notification settings are shared with the respective app and its app-server,

Fig 3 is a view showing how user's app-specific push notification settings are utilized by the respective app and its app-server to create relevant & meaningful engagement, and

Fig 4 is a top-level view showing enhancements that should be made in the push notification management module of the user device OS to implement the teachings of this application.


DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In the following detailed description, the process & settings for controlling push notification messages according to the teachings for this application in the form of a smart mobile phone will be described with the help of drawings. It should be noted that although only a smart mobile phone is used for explanation, the teachings for this application can also be used for any other devices such as portable laptop browsers, desktop browsers, PDAs, smart watches, smart wearable devices, tablets and other smart electronic devices offering access to information. The use of words app or apps is commonly understood to refer to application programs used within any smart electronic devices. In the illustration below, the teachings for this application will be described with a 3rd party app, they are equally applicable to application programs that come from OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) or application programs that come as a part of operating system (OS).

Fig 1 illustrates a user 200 operating / using a smart mobile phone 201 with a touch-based display screen 202. The touch-based display screen 202 shows notification settings page 203 for a particular 3rd party app 204. Each 3rd party app 204, OEM app or apps that come packaged with operating system have their own notification settings page 203 to control notifications for that specific app. Fig 1 also shows a high-level control setting 205 labelled here as Allow Notifications, that lets user 200 control whether they want to receive notifications from that 3rd party app 204 or not.

Fig 1 also shows how various notifications can be grouped in different push notification categories 206 comprising of 'Important & Time Sensitive Notifications', 'Location Based Notifications', 'Service Notifications', 'News & Updates Notifications', 'Content Notifications', 'Promotional Notifications', 'Other Notifications'. Each push notification category 206 has its own control setting 207 to enable or disable that type of notification from that particular 3rd party app 204.

Some example notification types within each push notification category 206 are as following, 'Important & Time Sensitive Notifications' can comprise Financial transactions update, OTPs, Traffic app notification for upcoming travel, weather app notifications, Order confirmation, Meeting reminder, To do list activity, Breaking news, User reminders for bill payments, User alerts like doctor appointments, etc. which should be delivered immediately. 'Service Notifications' can comprise Status updates for services requested by user, Package delivery status, App updates, Welcome notifications, Account updates like KYC or nominee updation, User feedback on services, Subscription renewal, User updates, etc. 'Location Based Notifications' can comprise any Geolocation based notifications that should be delivered real time as these are based on users current location. 'News & Updates Notifications' can comprise Local & world news, Sports news, Weekly weather updates, Upcoming podcasts, Upcoming concerts, Upcoming events, etc. 'Content Notifications' can comprise Chat replies, New emails, Social media updates like friend requests, comments, likes, etc. 'Promotional Notifications' can comprise Smart selling notifications, Limited time deals, Cross-sell & up-sell notifications, New product launch, Discount codes, Abandoned shopping cart, etc.

It should be noted that while the user 200 can control what type of push notification categories 206 they want to get and the quantity & frequency, it is up to the judgement of the 3rd party app developers & marketers to classify their content appropriately. For instance, a sports news can be classified as 'Important & Time Sensitive Notifications' or 'News & Updates Notifications' based on the content it wishes to communicate with user 200. Some sports news may be critical while others may be generic. It's up to the 3rd party app developers, marketers or concerned people to classify the push notifications appropriately and send to user 200. Whether or not that notification will be shown to user 200 will completely depend on the status of app-specific push notification settings 210 at that time.

Fig 1 shows how, with the teachings of this application, a user 200 gets more control to set other control parameters 208 comprising of 'Number of notifications' they want to receive, 'Frequency of notifications' within a set period, 'Preferred time' to receive notifications for each push notification category 206 for each 3rd party app 204. User 200 can also set parameter values 209 for each control parameter 208 within a reasonable range.

User 200 should be able to set or alter settings for high-level control setting 205, control setting 207, parameter values 209 during first installation of the app on user 200 device, reinstallation of the app or anytime during the usage of the app. The user 200 initiated change in high-level control setting 205, control setting 207, parameter values 209 should be enforced immediately or within a reasonable time like 00:00 hrs next day or within 24 hours by the user 200 device operating system or the operating system's push notification management module 212.

As per the teachings of this application, default values or settings can be made for high-level control setting 205 or control setting 207 to be enabled or disabled by default. Also, parameter values 209 can also be assigned default values within a reasonable range. For example, incase of 'Important & Time Sensitive Notifications', only parameter value 209 for control parameter 208 'Number of notifications' can be taken from the user 200. Other control parameter 208 'Frequency of notifications', 'Preferred time' can be assigned default parameter values 209 like 'Immediate', 'Real time' respectively as these are important & time sensitive notifications as suggested by the name of the push notification category 206. Default values or settings can also be used for high-level control setting 205, control setting 207, parameter values 209 in case user 200 forgets or decides not to customize the push notification settings for different apps. Implementations of the teachings from this application can also be made with only the push notification categories 206 and their control setting 207 being visible to the user 200 and some or all control parameters 208 being assigned default parameter values 209 in the background with user 200 being able to alter them if required.

As per the teachings of this application, regular reminder must be given to user 200 by the smart mobile phone 201 operating system or push notification management module 212 to review push notification settings for different apps.

Fig 2 illustrates how a user 200 smart mobile phone 201, or other devices mentioned above, supported by operating system or push notification management module 212, can share the app-specific push notification settings 210 with the respective 3rd party app 204 and its 3rd party application server 211. This app-specific push notification settings 210 is shared with user 200 consent.

Fig 3 illustrates how 3rd party app 204 and 3rd party application server 211, managed by their developers & marketers, can utilize the user 200 specific app-specific push notification settings 210 to create relevant and meaningful engagement with user 200.

Fig 4 illustrates at an overview or broad level the enhancements that should be made to user 200 device operating system or the push notification management module 212 to implement the teachings of this application. It comprises mechanisms to keep track of counters measuring parameter values 209 and control setting 207, blocking push notifications if counters exceed the user 200 defined parameter values 209, allowing push notifications to be shown to user 200 if counter value is within the user 200 defined parameter values 209 range.

The various aspects of what is described above can be used alone or in various combinations. It should be noted that the teachings of this application is not limited to the use in smart mobile phones, but can be equally well applied in smart watches, tablets, wearable devices, media players, browsers, laptops, PDA and the like. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the process & settings of the teachings of the present application. For example, rather than having app-specific push notification control settings, an implementation can also be made with device-specific push notification categorization & control settings. Another example of variation in implementation of the teachings of this application includes, implementing user's app-specific notification settings at a device-level or user-ID level encompassing multiple devices. It should also be noted that different implementations of this application may use different naming conventions or names for various notification categories & settings described above.

The teaching of the present application has numerous advantages. Different implementations may yield one or more of the following advantages. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list and there may be other advantages which are not described herein. For example, one advantage of the teachings of this application is it provides more control in the hands of customer / user to manage how they want to receive push notifications. It is yet another advantage of this invention that it provides standardized control mechanisms to user irrespective of the 3rd part app. It is another advantage of the present invention that it helps marketers & app developers to create a more relevant and meaningful engagement experience with their users through push notifications. It is yet another advantage of the present invention that it will help avoid unwelcome & unnecessary push notifications thereby saving time, effort and money.

Although the teachings of the present application have been described in detail for purpose of illustration, it is understood that such detail is solely for that purpose, and variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the teaching of this application. For example, the process has been described with seven (7) push notification categories, but it is understood that more categories can be added. Further each push notification category 206 may be given identification codes for standardization. Further, the process has been described with three (3) control parameters, more control parameters can be added to give customer / user more refined control over push notification management.

Features described in the preceding description may be used in combinations other than the combinations explicitly described.

Whilst endeavouring in the foregoing specification to draw attention to those features of the invention believed to be of particular importance it should be understood that the Applicant claims protection in respect of any patentable feature or combination of features hereinbefore referred to and/or shown in the drawings whether or not particular emphasis has been placed thereon.

The term "comprising" as used in the claims does not exclude other elements or steps. The term "a" or "an" as used in the claims does not exclude a plurality. A unit or other means may fulfill the function of several units or means recited in the claims.
, C , Claims:CLAIMS
1. A process for controlling push notification messages on user smart devices, comprising:
Selecting from a set of push notification categories and
Assigning values to control parameters of each push notification category.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the push notification categories comprise of 'Important & Time Sensitive Notifications', 'Location Based Notifications', 'Service Notifications', 'News & Updates Notifications', 'Content Notifications', 'Promotional Notifications', 'Other Notifications'.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the control parameters of each push notification category comprises of 'Number of notifications', 'Frequency of notifications', 'Preferred time'.

4. The process of claim 3, wherein the value for control parameter 'Number of notifications' comprises a range from 0 to 1440 push notifications in time period ranging from seconds to a month.

5. The process of claim 3, wherein the value for control parameter 'Frequency of notifications' comprises a range from 0 to 59 in time period ranging from seconds to a month.

6. The process of claim 3, wherein the value for control parameter 'Preferred time' ranges from 00:00 hrs to 23:59 hrs.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein user/ customer consent is taken to share their app-specific push notification settings.

8. The process of claim 7, wherein users app-specific push notification settings are shared by user device OS or push notification management module of OS with 3rd party app or 3rd party application server.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein enhancements are made to user device OS or push notification management module of OS comprising of a mechanism to track values of control parameters and a mechanism to allow / block push notifications as per user defined values of control parameters.

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