Mobile application for priority communication

Abstract

The invention relates to a mobile application for priority communication. Mobile applications of embodiments can give calls and messages as well as broadcast messages and call priorities within a defined member group based on a pre-configured list instead of default phone settings.

Description

[0001] Cross-references

[0002] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application No. 17 / 504,859 filed on October 19, 2021, which is based on and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 094,521 filed on October 21, 2020. Technical Field

[0003] The present invention generally relates to mobile applications for priority communications and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to mobile applications capable of overriding default phone settings to give priority to calls and messages, and broadcast messages and calls within a defined group of members based on preconfigured lists. Background Art

[0004] Many people always carry mobile devices with them for communication. It is increasingly common for users of such mobile devices to always keep their devices in silent mode or do not disturb mode. This may cause the user to miss desired communications, such as communications from family members or other trusted contacts, and expected calls during certain time frames.

[0005] Sometimes users are part of a permanent group, such as a family, where the ability to communicate between members is always desired, regardless of each member's device settings. At other times, users are part of a temporary group, such as attendees of an event, where it is desired for the event organizer to be able to communicate with the attendees for the duration of the event, regardless of each attendee's device settings. For example, such events may include sporting events, workplace events / conferences, birthday parties, or natural disasters. Organizers of such events may need to communicate important information to attendees of the event, and may also wish to prevent attendees from receiving interrupted communications, such as phone calls, during the event.

[0006] Based on the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a mobile application that allows a user to communicate with another user's mobile device regardless of the settings of the mobile device.

[0007] It would also be desirable for the mobile application to allow such prioritized communications to occur only from the central user to the recipient users for the duration of the event.

[0008] It is also desirable for the mobile application to block all other communications to the recipient user for the duration of the event, and to provide a notification following any blocked communication event.

[0009] It is further desirable that mobile applications allow such prioritized communications to occur between certain group members at all times.

[0010] It is also desirable for the mobile application to notify the user if communications are expected during a specified time frame but are not received. Summary of the invention

[0011] Generally, in a first aspect, the present invention relates to a method for a mobile device to prioritize communications, the method comprising allowing an initiating user of a mobile device to communicate with one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user, regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communications. The method may also include allowing the initiating user to set a time frame for communications expected from the initiating user to the recipient user or a subset of one or more recipient users, and notifying the recipient user or a subset of one or more recipient users with whom communications are expected, the initiating user, or both the recipient user or a subset of one or more recipient users with whom communications are expected and the initiating user at the following times: after the time frame if no communications are received; before the time frame; or both after the time frame and before the time frame if communications are not received.

[0012] The communication may be a call, an audio message, a video message, or a text message. Multiple recipient user groups may be configured on the mobile device of the initiating user.

[0013] The method may also include providing an auto-answer feature that can allow one or more of the mobile devices to automatically answer the communication. The auto-answer feature can be configured to enable auto-answering for a specific contact. The method may also include providing an initiating user with a countdown to a time frame for the communication, and automatically activating the communication when the countdown is complete. The method may also include allowing the initiating user to pause the countdown.

[0014] Allowing an initiating user of a mobile device to communicate with one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user, regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communication, can be limited to a specific time interval. The method can also include displaying, at the end of the time interval, notifications or communication attempts from contacts outside of a preset contact group during the specific time interval.

[0015] In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a method for a mobile device to prioritize communications, the method comprising an initiating user of a mobile device communicating with one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user, regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communications, wherein the communication is a live, real-time, one-way communication from the initiating user to the recipient user. This may occur during an event where the initiating user is a member of an organization for the event. The communication may be a call, and the method may further comprise the recipient user's mobile device automatically answering the call. The method may further comprise automatically muting the recipient user's mobile device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] The devices and methods discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the scope.

[0017] Although the apparatus and methods have been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be noted that many modifications may be made to the details of construction and arrangement of the apparatus and components without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the apparatus and methods are not limited to the embodiments set forth herein for illustrative purposes.

[0018] In general, in a first aspect, the present invention is a mobile application for priority communications. The application is capable of overriding default phone settings to give priority to calls and messages from contacts on a preconfigured list. The application is capable of broadcasting messages and calls within a defined group of members. Specifically, the communication may be in any kind of text message format, including but not limited to text, audio recording(s), video recording(s), or any other text message content and / or call. An alternative feature may allow a user to set different alternative settings between or within different groups.

[0019] The application can provide a list of configured contacts, which can be phone numbers configured into one or more groups. For example, groups can include a family group, an office group, an executive group, a sports organization and sports team, two individuals, or any other desired group.

[0020] The application can provide one-way communication. This feature may be ideal for organizations or large-scale teams. The one-way communication feature can be used for events held by an organization or team that require effective communication of notifications for various situations, ranging from scheduled activities to emergencies. For example, the one-way communication feature can be used by sports teams, used in public sports events such as cycling or running, used in workplace events or meetings, used at birthday parties, or used during natural disasters. For the one-way communication feature, the application can provide a central user and multiple recipient users, and the central user facilitates all communications and acts as a moderator for the group or team. The one-way communication feature can allow the central user to broadcast communications to a group of contacts defined and / or configured by the central user, which can be real-time or pre-recorded, and can be in audio message format or text message format.

[0021] The application can allow the initiating user of an event with multiple participants to send a real-time, live voice call to be answered by the participant. If there are any participants who do not answer the call, the application can allow the call to be automatically answered and opened. This may be useful if there is a disaster in the participant's path that the participant is unaware of. Automatically answered one-way live calls can allow event organizers to constantly give updates via calls as a fast and effective way for participants to avoid impending danger. This may be better than pre-recorded and sent notifications because pre-recorded messages may not contain the latest conditions. In addition, live calls will not be delayed, while pre-recorded communications may be delayed. Therefore, due to the immediacy of the updates sent, live calls automatically answered by participants may be beneficial. During the duration of the event, consent from all participants and organizational users may be required. Participants and organizational users may need to install the application on their mobile communication devices. The application may need to mute the participant's microphone during the call, and may need to monitor other calls that the participant may receive in the live call. The application can allow participants to have the option of putting the active call of the organizational user on hold in order to participate in another call that the participant feels necessary to make.

[0022] The app may allow multiple groups to be configured. There may be overlap in individual contacts assigned between different groups. Settings and priorities may be different or the same for the same individual contact, depending on which group the contact is assigned to.

[0023] The application may allow the central user and the recipient user to replace their messages, calls and other notifications from external pre-configured contact groups or individually configured contacts for the entire duration of the event or within a desired time frame set by the central user. The central user is able to configure external pre-configured contact groups or individually configured contacts. In the case of the central user and the recipient user, the application may provide the auto-answer feature described below for externally configured contact groups and individually configured contacts that are expected to give the central user calls or messages via audio or text. This can be disabled within the desired time frame set by the central user. The application may allow the central user and the recipient user to customize the manner in which notifications from externally configured contact groups and individually configured contacts are delivered to the user immediately after the user's set time frame ends. The application may display missed notifications or speak notifications via text. If the expected notification from the expected configured contact is not received in the set time frame, the user may also be contacted immediately after the user's set time frame for the event ends, where both the expected notification and the expected configured contact must have been previously set by the user. The communications of the configured contacts may be monitored continuously or during a time frame that may be preset by the user.

[0024] As replacement introduces new priorities among the various users with which the central user is communicating, applications may require the central user to obtain permission for legal and privacy considerations. This permission may need to be granted at each event facilitated by the central user in order to ensure accurate and updated mutual agreements between the recipient user and the central user.

[0025] Each recipient user may or may not have the application installed on their mobile device. If the recipient user does not have the application installed, any agreements, consents and permissions may be confirmed by the recipient user through some contact method. Authorization may be valid for only one event, and may have to be re-authorized for each event thereafter, regardless of whether future events are repeated, in order to maintain the mutual agreement between the central user and the recipient user. Alternatively, authorization may be required once for any ongoing communication. If the recipient user does have the application installed on his mobile device, permission may be obtained by the recipient user at each event, or alternatively, once for any ongoing communication.

[0026] During use of the one-way communication feature, the application may allow voice announcements to be sent in real-time by the central user to the recipient user. The application may additionally or alternatively allow the central user to pre-record and store voice announcements. The application may allow the central user to manually send stored voice announcements at a time that the central user deems appropriate based on his or her schedule of events / programs. The application may additionally or alternatively send stored voice announcements at a scheduled time set by the central user.

[0027] The application may allow any user, whether a central user or a recipient user, to set a time frame in which notifications and / or broadcasts are disabled. In the case of a central user, the application may allow the central user to disable the auto-answer feature for configured contacts that are expected to give the central user a call or message within a time interval set by the central user. In the case of a central user and a recipient user, the application may allow the user to disable any broadcasts, including calls, audio messages, and text messages, that are expected to be received from certain configured contacts that were previously set by the user for a time interval set by the user. In all cases, at the end of the user-set time interval, the application may allow the user to be notified of any broadcasts received by the user during the set time interval, including calls, audio messages, and text messages. The application may allow the central user and the recipient user to customize the manner in which notifications for externally configured contact groups and individually configured contacts are delivered to the user immediately after the end of the user's set time frame. The application may display the missing notifications or speak the notifications via text. If the expected notification from the expected configured contact is not received in the set time frame, the application may also communicate with the user immediately after the end of the user's set time frame for the event, where both the expected notification and the expected configured contact must have been previously set by the user. Likewise, users can choose to have these notifications appear immediately via text after a set time interval, or appear immediately via text and be spoken aloud after a set time interval.

[0028] The application may additionally or alternatively provide two-way communication. This feature may be ideal for family-level communication. The two-way communication feature may provide the broadcast feature described above for one-way communication, but with the ability for all family users to respond and set preferences for each other. In other words, all family users may have the privileges described above for the central user.

[0029] The application can monitor incoming calls to the home user to identify if the call is from a configured contact. If so, the application can override the phone settings to ring the phone with a volume regardless of the mode the phone is in, such as do not disturb mode, silent mode, etc. The application can allow the user to set calls from a specific phone number that are expected within a specific time frame. The application can allow the user to set the priority of calls that override the configured contacts: the priority for override can be set between groups of configured contacts, i.e., one group takes precedence over another; the priority for override can be set for each configured contact within an existing group; and / or the priority for override can be set for each configured contact, regardless of whether they are in a group or not.

[0030] The application may allow calls from configured contacts to work in sync with their respective time parameters. The application may allow the user to set a time frame for when to expect certain calls or notifications from certain configured contacts. The application may provide a retrospective notification when no expected call or notification is received from a specific configured contact or member of a specific configured contact group within the time frame set by the user. The retrospective notification may occur at the end of the set time frame. The application may additionally or alternatively provide a proactive notification when the user-set time frame begins or a certain number of minutes before the time frame begins. The proactive notification may inform the user that they should expect a call or notification from a specific configured contact or member of a specific configured contact group within that time frame.

[0031] In the case of a notification to a recipient user regarding the absence of an expected call or notification within a set time frame, the time frame may be set by (one or more) users and may be unique to a configured contact or a group within a configured contact. A notification may be sent to an initiating user at a time specified by the recipient user in the user's default settings regarding the amount of time that the notification occurs before, during, or after a missed communication. The user may then customize the application to automatically send a notification to the user, which is considered to initiate a communication regarding a missed communication. The notification may be set by the recipient user to override the initiating user's phone ring settings, or alternatively, not to override the initiating user's phone ring settings, depending on how the recipient user configures the initiator's contacts for that particular time interval or event, or the default settings of the initiator's contacts regardless of the event, time interval, or group set for the initiator. In the case of a notification to an initiating user regarding the absence of an expected communication to a configured recipient user within a set time frame, the time frame may be set by (one or more) users and may be unique to a configured contact or a group with a configured contact. The notification may be sent to the recipient user at a time specified by the initiating user in the user's default settings regarding the amount of time that the notification occurs before, during, or after a missed communication. The user may then customize the application to automatically send a notification to the user that a communication regarding a missed communication is received. Depending on how the initiating user has configured the recipient user's contacts for that particular time interval or event, or the default settings of the recipient user's contacts regardless of the event, time interval, or group set for the recipient user, the notification may be set by the recipient user to override the recipient user's phone ring settings, or not override the recipient user's phone ring settings.

[0032] The app may offer an auto-answer feature that may allow the app to answer a call from a configured contact within a certain amount of time if the user does not attend to the call within that set time frame. The user may customize the time frame in which the phone rings until the app automatically answers. The app may obtain consent from the user to automatically answer the call, thereby avoiding any legal or privacy issues. Permission may need to be obtained from the phone carrier and / or operating system in order to enable certain features.

[0033] The auto-answer feature may also work in conjunction with a feature that allows time frames for anticipated calls or notifications, allowing the auto-answer feature to be activated for contacts of the initiating and / or receiving user, such that there may be additional or alternative push notifications from the auto-answer feature appearing for the receiving or initiating user, prompting the user to initiate an automatic communication previously set up by the receiving or initiating user for the initiating or receiving user.

[0034] The auto-answer feature may allow the user to set permissions to allow or not allow auto-answering. The application may be configured to allow auto-answering for specific contacts set by the user or for a contact group set by the user. The auto-answer feature may be set for communications that are expected from configured contacts or communications that need to be initiated by the user.

[0035] Retroactively, if the auto-answer feature of a contact or contact group is activated and a communication expected or optionally from the contact or contact group has not yet been initiated, the user who is considered to have initiated or is considered to have received the communication can get a push notification with a live readout of a countdown timer, which can be configured to be spoken through the speaker of the phone or its connected audio output source, or additionally or optionally, just a push notification that appears with the countdown timer. Once the countdown timer is completed, a call to the corresponding configured contact or contact group can be automatically activated. The countdown timer that appears as a push notification can be set by the user to indicate how long before or after an event in which a communication is expected or a communication needs to be initiated to the configured contact or contact group, a push notification that warns the user of an impending automatic communication and its method (i.e., call or text) can appear. Options for a push notification message with a live readout of a countdown timer to an automatic communication can include a pause option, which can resend the same push notification at a future time, which can be set by the user at the time of the pause or as a default pause time setting in the main settings of the application, and an option to change the method of the automatic communication from call to text or from text to call. This option may allow for changing an upcoming live automated communication, or alternatively, may change the communication mode for the same next automated communication notification while pausing the upcoming automated communication.

[0036] The application can be used with mobile phone devices and / or wearable devices, such as smart watches, fitness trackers, Google Glass, etc. or other mobile devices. In addition or alternatively, the application can be or can be used with desktop and / or web applications. For example, a central user organizing a large-scale event may need a more advanced web infrastructure to accommodate the large capacity of recipients and text and / or voice notifications that will need to be sent to those recipients in a predefined manner as set by the central user. Moreover, even though the use of desktop and web applications may be most suitable for large-scale events, any user, whether family, group, etc., can use desktop and web applications in the case where they want to manage their application profiles on desktop and / or web.

[0037] The application may allow the initiating user to set a reminder to remind the initiating user to call or text the recipient user, and the recipient user has no prior knowledge of the reminder because this is a temporary event, where the recipient user is not configured in any time interval, defined group or event on the initiating user's application or the recipient user's application. If the initiating user ignores or forgets to initiate the communication, the application may allow the initiating user to set it in a way that replaces the phone ringing settings on the initiating user's phone to notify the initiating user that the communication that should have been initiated has been missed. The notification can also be set as an active notification, where the sending and replacement of the initiating user's phone ringing settings are sent before the communication should occur. The automatic answer feature can be activated for this. The application may allow the recipient user to automatically receive a notification that tells the recipient user to expect to communicate from the initiating user in a certain time frame in the near future, and the recipient user may not know the intention of the initiating user to contact the recipient user because it is not a configured contact or does not have any assigned events, timer intervals or defined groups in the recipient user's application or the initiating user's application. The notification tells the recipient user of the initiating user's intent to communicate with the recipient user an amount of time before the time the initiating user plans to communicate with the recipient user, which can be set by the recipient user. If the time for the initiating user to communicate with the recipient user arrives and no communication takes place, the application can notify the recipient user. The application can be set to override the recipient user's phone ring settings for messages or calls made by the initiating user, and the application can be set to override the initiating user's phone ring settings made by the recipient user for that particular contact.

[0038] This feature may be beneficial because it makes sense in actually successfully conducting a communication planned by the initiating user but unknown to the receiving user. For relatively impromptu communications, where only the initiating user plans to communicate with the receiving user and the receiving user has no prior knowledge or expectation that the communication will occur, the communication has a higher probability of successfully occurring because even in the case where the initiating user does not take additional steps and make the receiving user aware of the initiating user's intention to communicate with the receiving user, the receiving user is still able to anticipate, prepare and plan accordingly to accommodate the communication from the initiating user, which will ultimately give a higher success rate for such communications of a one-party-known-but-unknown nature as opposed to the initiating user's back-and-forth failed attempts to contact the receiving user.

[0039] Although the apparatus and methods have been described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims, it is to be understood that other and further modifications besides those shown or suggested herein may be made within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for a mobile device to prioritize communications, the method comprising: allowing an originating user of the mobile device to communicate with one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user, regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communications; allowing the initiating user to set a time frame in which communications from the initiating user to the recipient users or a subset of one or more of the recipient users are expected; as well as Notifying the recipient user or a subset of one or more of the recipient users with which communication is expected, the initiating user, or both the recipient user or a subset of one or more of the recipient users with which communication is expected and the initiating user at the following time: after said time frame if no communication is received; before said time frame; or Both after the time frame and before the time frame if no communication is received.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication is a call, an audio message, a video message, or a text message.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein: A plurality of recipient user groups are configured on the mobile device of the initiating user.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an auto-answer feature capable of allowing one or more of the mobile devices to automatically answer the communication.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the auto-answer feature is configured to enable auto-answer for a particular contact.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: providing a countdown to the time frame for the communication to the initiating user; as well as Communications are automatically activated when the countdown is complete. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising allowing the initiating user to pause the countdown.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The initiating user of the mobile device is allowed to communicate with the one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communications from being limited to specific time intervals.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying, at the end of the time interval, notifications or communication attempts from contacts outside of a preset contact group during the specific time interval.

10. A method for a mobile device to prioritize communications, the method comprising: An initiating user of the mobile device is allowed to communicate with one or more other mobile devices used by a recipient user, regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communication, wherein the communication is live, real-time, one-way communication from the initiating user to the recipient user.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein: An initiating user of the mobile device is allowed to communicate with the one or more other mobile devices used by recipient users regardless of whether the other mobile devices have settings that prevent such communications from occurring during an event, wherein the initiating user is a member of an organization for the event.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a call, the method further comprising automatically answering the call by the mobile device of the recipient user.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically muting a mobile device of the recipient user.