Unified Calendar Invite Interface Across Messaging Services
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Calendar invitations sent across different messaging services often result in poor user experiences, as users are forced to exit their messaging service application and open a separate calendar app to manage and respond to invites, leading to inconvenience and inconsistency in handling invites from various providers.
Innovation Solution
A unified interface for managing calendar invites is provided, which extracts relevant information from the invite and allows users to accept or decline through a single interface, ensuring that the calendars of both the organizer and invitees are properly updated, regardless of the originating service, by using a message management service that parses and processes invites from various formats and sends appropriate responses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users handle calendar invites through native messaging service applications, then the handling is seamless and integrated, but this only works for users of the same messaging service, not for users of different messaging services
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a calendar application as an intermediary between different messaging services and the calendar management system. This calendar app receives calendar invite files from various messaging services, parses them, and presents a unified interface for users to respond. The intermediary handles the complexity of different service formats, allowing users to manage invites from multiple services through a single consistent interface without needing to switch between messaging service apps.
2Adaptability or versatility
If users are forced to exit the messaging service application and open a calendar application to manage invites, then compatibility with different messaging services is achieved, but user convenience deteriorates due to app switching
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of handling calendar invites from multiple messaging services into a single calendar application interface. Instead of requiring users to switch between messaging service apps and calendar apps, the calendar app consolidates invite management capabilities, allowing users to view, respond to, and manage invites from different services in one place, thereby eliminating the time loss from app switching.
3Ease of operation
If different messaging service applications handle calendar invites independently, then each service maintains its own functionality, but a unified user experience across services cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The calendar application is designed with universal functionality to handle calendar invites from multiple different messaging services through a single interface. It can parse and process invite files from various services, present them in a unified format, and manage responses consistently. This multi-functional approach reduces the number of different interfaces users need to learn and switch between, while maintaining the ability to handle service-specific formats internally.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the present invention improve the calendar invite experience by providing a unified interface for managing calendar invites, regardless of the originating calendar service/messaging provider. When a calendar invite is received, the relevant information (date, time, location, etc.) is parsed from the invite and presented to the user through a calendar invite user interface. The calendar invite user interface can include selectable icons or links allowing a user to accept/decline an invite. Invites are often sent in ICS files or as accept/decline links. Based on the user action, the appropriate message can be returned so that the calendars of the invitees and the organizer can be properly updated.