Social messaging hub system

Abstract

A social messaging hub provides communication services for a data enabled device having Internet network access capabilities such as a portable media player, personal digital assistant, a Wi-Fi mobile platform, a tablet computer, portable e-Reader, a personal computer, a laptop and a netbook computer. The social messaging hub communicates with the data enabled device over the Internet or cellular data networks, and interfaces with a message infrastructure including mobile carriers, message aggregators, message exchanges and various specialized social messaging services. Messages may originate in or be delivered to other users' mobile telephones or in similarly equipped and provisioned IP data enabled devices. The social messaging hub can provide a predetermined auto-reply response and retain messages for a timed duration in a message retention queue when requested by a user. Messages may be viewed with a data enabled device application at various zoom levels.

1 . A computer-implemented method for controlling reception of SMS messages to be delivered to a data enabled device, the method comprising:
 registering the data enabled device with a social messaging hub with a unique identifier;   receiving a message from a message source through a message service directed to a user's data enabled device registered with the unique identifier obtained from the message source;   providing the message using an inbound service;   establishing a connection between a data enabled device and the inbound service;   receiving a request to suspend message delivery and retain messages on the social messaging hub;   providing a predetermined auto-reply response to an originator of the message; and   retaining the messages in a message retention queue on the social messaging hub.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising providing a graphical user interface (GUI) on an application operating on the data enabled device to allow selection of one of the predetermined auto-reply responses. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising providing a GUI on the application to allow setting of a timer to control the duration of a delivery suspension and retention of the messages in a message retention queue. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the timer setting GUI displays the timer status and allows resetting the timer duration and canceling the timer. 
     
     
         5 . A computer-implemented method to communicate with a microblogging service comprising:
 affecting message delivery of messages between the microblogging service and a data enabled device registered on a social messaging hub via SMS text messages; and   wherein the message delivery is independent of national country borders and carrier network.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the microblogging service is Twitter;
 wherein the source of the message is Twitter, the message is a Tweet; and   further comprising operating a Twitter service coupled through a Twitter API on the social messaging hub to receive Tweets.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising providing a set of commands through a application on the data enabled phone to control a user's Twitter preferences. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein selecting a subset of the commands affects SMS notifications delivered to the data enabled device from the social messaging hub. 
     
     
         9 . A method to collect in-app analytics during an application registration process comprising:
 collecting application touch points from an application graphical user interface;   sending the application touch points for collection on an analytics interface on a social messaging hub;   delivering the collected application touch points to a third party data analysis platform; and   wherein the application touch points include touch point collected during a user registration process.   
     
     
         10 . A computer-implemented method in which a data enabled device initiates execution of
 software instructions comprising:
 initiating display of at least one SMS message according to a first zoom level; and 
 in response to receiving command input to zoom the at least one SMS message initiating display of the at least one SMS message according to a second zoom level, the second zoom level being different than the first zoom level. 
   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10 , wherein the command input is a touch input directed to the at least one SMS message on a communication bubble screen. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10  further comprising displaying scroll bars such that a user has the ability to vertically scroll to read the entire at least one SMS message if the at least one SMS message content does not fit in this screen. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10  further comprising in response to receiving a second command input returning display of the at least one SMS message according to the first zoom level. 
     
     
         14 . A computer-implemented method of  claim 10 , wherein in data enabled device initiates execution of software instructions further comprising:
 initiating display of a plurality of SMS messages according to a first zoom level; and   in response to receiving command input to zoom the messages initiating display of the plurality of messages according to the second zoom level, the second zoom level being different than the first zoom level.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14 , wherein the command input is an acceleration input provided by shaking the data enabled device. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14  further comprising displaying scroll bars such that the user has the ability to vertically scroll to read the plurality of SMS messages if the content of the plurality of SMS messages does not fit in this screen. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14  further comprising in response to receiving a second acceleration command input returning display of the plurality of SMS messages according to the first zoom level. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 14  further comprising in response to receiving a command input comprising a touch input directed to any one of the plurality of SMS messages returning display of the plurality of SMS messages according to the first zoom level. 
     
     
         19 . A social messaging hub for Short Message Service/Multimedia Messaging Service/Enhanced Messaging Service (SMS/MMS/EMS) communications comprising:
 an SMS provider;   an inbound service coupled to the SMS provider;   a database coupled to the inbound service and a web server;   a Hub application operating on the web server and comprising a plurality of message services;   a message retention queue for delaying delivery of SMS messages; and   a timer for controlling message retention.   
     
     
         20 . The social messaging hub of  claim 19 , further comprising an application analytics interface for delivering user application touch points to a third party data analysis platform. 
     
     
         21 . The social messaging hub of  claim 20 , wherein the user application touch points include touch points collected during a user registration process.