Patents by Inventor Nicholas Richard Allen

Nicholas Richard Allen has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11317240
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining that geolocation data from a computing device corresponds to a geo-fence associated with a plurality of galleries and providing user-selectable gallery information comprising indicia for each of the plurality of galleries corresponding to the geo-fence to the computing device. The systems and methods further provide for receiving a first message comprising a photograph as the background for the message in response to a second message in a first gallery of the plurality of galleries, and adding the first message to the first gallery associated with a selection of the indicia for the first gallery in the plurality of galleries of the of user-selectable gallery information. The first message is accessible by other computing devices accessing the gallery information to view the first message comprising the photograph as the background of the first message.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Robert Cornelius Murphy, Evan Spiegel
  • Publication number: 20220121332
    Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting content that depicts one or more stories are provided. Content that depicts one or more stories is received from a first client device. The content that depicts the one or more stories is grouped into an edition being used to represent the one or more stories. A discovery page that enables selection of the edition is generated. Presentation of the discovery page is caused on a second client device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2022
    Publication date: April 21, 2022
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Nicholas James Bell, Andrew Cooper, Chamal Samaranayake, William Wu
  • Publication number: 20220060848
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for receiving, at a first computing device, a request from a user to activate a new media collection, sending, by the first computing device, the request to a server computer for activation of the new media collection, receiving, by the first computing device, confirmation that the new media collection was activated, receiving, at the first computing device, a plurality of content messages associated with the new media collection, receiving, at the first computing device, from the user, a selection of the plurality of content messages to be included in the new media collection, sending, to the server computer, an indication of the selection of the content messages to be included in the new media collection, wherein the server computer causes the selection of content messages to be included in the new media collection and displayed in response to a request from at least a second computing device to view the new media collection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2021
    Publication date: February 24, 2022
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Maria Pavlovskaia, Amer Shahnawaz, Jianchao Yang
  • Patent number: 11258749
    Abstract: A messaging server system receives a message creation input from a first client device that is associated with a first user registered with the messaging server system. The messaging server system determines, based on an entity graph representing connections between a plurality of users registered with the messaging server system, that the first user is within a threshold degree of connection with a second that initiated a group story in relation to a specified event. The messaging server system determines, based on location data received from the first client device, that the first client device was located within a geo-fence surrounding a geographic location of the specified event during a predetermined event window, the geo-fence and event window having been designated by the second user, and causes the first client device to present a user interface element, that enables the first user to submit content to the group story.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Jacob Andreou, Evan Spiegel
  • Patent number: 11249617
    Abstract: Systems and methods for presenting content that depicts one or more stories are provided. Content that depicts one or more stories is received from a first client device. The content that depicts the one or more stories is grouped into an edition being used to represent the one or more stories. A discovery page that enables selection of the edition is generated. Presentation of the discovery page is caused on a second client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Nicholas James Bell, Andrew Cooper, Chamal Samaranayake, William Wu
  • Publication number: 20220038416
    Abstract: Methods, devices, systems, and computer readable media with instructions for group text communications between multiple devices, along with communication of associated data and automatic deletion of communications, are described. One embodiment involves generating a first ephemeral group chat, receiving a first ephemeral chat message, associated with one or more deletion triggers, and transmitting the first ephemeral message and receiving, from at least the second client device, chat monitoring information comprising first deletion trigger information. In various embodiments, coordinated presentation and deletion of ephemeral chat messages are managed in a variety of ways.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 9, 2021
    Publication date: February 3, 2022
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Jonathan Dale Brody, Chamal Samaranayake, William Wu
  • Patent number: 11216869
    Abstract: A system and method for a media filter publication application are described. The media filter publication application receives a content item and a selected geolocation, generates a media filter based on the content item and the selected geolocation, and supplies the media filter to a client device located at the selected geolocation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Timothy Michael Sehn, William Wu
  • Patent number: 11197123
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for receiving, at a first computing device, a user-provided request to activate a new media collection, sending, by the first computing device, the request to a server computer to activate the new media collection, receiving, by the first computing device, confirmation that the new media collection was activated, receiving, at the first computing device, a plurality of content messages associated with the new media collection, receiving, at the first computing device, a user-provided selection of the plurality of content messages for inclusion in the new media collection, sending, to the server computer, an indication of the selection of the content messages for inclusion in the new media collection, wherein the server computer causes the selection of content messages to be included in the new media collection and displayed responsive to a request from at least a second computing device to view the new media collection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Maria Pavlovskaia, Amer Shahnawaz, Jianchao Yang
  • Patent number: 11119628
    Abstract: Systems, devices, media, and methods are presented for dynamic presentation and management of messages within a graphical user interface by presenting content icons, monitoring consumption status of the presented content represented by the content icons, transferring a content item from a first set of content to a second set of content, and causing presentation of the content item as part of the second set of content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Newar Choukeir
  • Publication number: 20210266277
    Abstract: Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure improve the functionality of electronic messaging and imaging software and systems by generating and displaying media overlays with avatars of different users. For example, media overlays can be generated by the system and displayed in conjunction with media content (e.g., images and/or video) generated by an image-capturing device (e.g., a digital camera).
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 7, 2021
    Publication date: August 26, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Dorian Franklin Baldwin, Jacob Edward Blackstock, David James Kennedy, Shahan Panth, Timothy Jordan Garcia
  • Patent number: 11088987
    Abstract: Methods, devices, systems, and computer readable media with instructions for group text communications between multiple devices, along with communication of associated data and automatic deletion of communications, are described. One embodiment involves generating a first ephemeral group chat, receiving a first ephemeral chat message, associated with one or more deletion triggers, and transmitting the first ephemeral message; and receiving, from at least the second client device, chat monitoring information comprising first deletion trigger information. In various embodiments, coordinated presentation and deletion of ephemeral chat messages are managed in a variety of ways.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Jonathan Brody, Chamal Samaranayake, William Wu
  • Publication number: 20210191966
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for receiving, at a server computer, a plurality of content messages from a plurality of content sources, each content message comprising media content and associated with a predetermined media collection, for each of the plurality of content messages received, analyzing each of the plurality of content messages to determine a quality score for each of the plurality of content messages, and storing each of the plurality of content messages in a database along with the quality score for each of the plurality of content messages.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Maria Pavlovskaia, Amer Shahnawaz, Jianchao Yang
  • Patent number: 11023514
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for receiving, at a server computer, a plurality of content messages from a plurality of content sources, each content message comprising media content and associated with a predetermined media collection, for each of the plurality of content messages received, analyzing each of the plurality of content messages to determine a quality score for each of the plurality of content messages, and storing each of the plurality of content messages in a database along with the quality score for each of the plurality of content messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Maria Pavlovskaia, Amer Shahnawaz, Jianchao Yang
  • Patent number: 11012398
    Abstract: A server maintains a gallery of ephemeral messages. Each ephemeral message is posted to the gallery by a user for viewing by recipients via recipient devices. In response to a gallery view request from any of the recipient devices, the ephemeral messages in the gallery are displayed on the requesting device in automated sequence, each message being displayed for a respective display duration before display of the next message in the gallery. A user interface via which the gallery is viewable includes indicia with respect to the number of screenshots taken with respect to messages in the gallery during online viewing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Donald Giovannini, Chiayi Lin, Robert Cornelius Murphy, Evan Spiegel
  • Publication number: 20210092087
    Abstract: A messaging server system receives a message creation input from a first client device that is associated with a first user registered with the messaging server system. The messaging server system determines, based on an entity graph representing connections between a plurality of users registered with the messaging server system, that the first user is within a threshold degree of connection with a second that initiated a group story in relation to a specified event. The messaging server system determines, based on location data received from the first client device, that the first client device was located within a geo-fence surrounding a geographic location of the specified event during a predetermined event window, the geo-fence and event window having been designated by the second user, and causes the first client device to present a user interface element, that enables the first user to submit content to the group story.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2020
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Jacob Andreou, Evan Spiegel
  • Patent number: 10938758
    Abstract: Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure improve the functionality of electronic messaging and imaging software and systems by generating and displaying media overlays with avatars of different users. For example, media overlays can be generated by the system and displayed in conjunction with media content (e.g., images and/or video) generated by an image-capturing device (e.g., a digital camera).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Dorian Franklin Baldwin, Jacob Edward Blackstock, David James Kennedy, Shahan Panth, Timothy Jordan Garcia
  • Publication number: 20210014636
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for receiving, at a first computing device, a request from a user to activate a new media collection, sending, by the first computing device, the request to a server computer for activation of the new media collection, receiving, by the first computing device, confirmation that the new media collection was activated, receiving, at the first computing device, a plurality of content messages associated with the new media collection, receiving, at the first computing device, from the user, a selection of the plurality of content messages to be included in the new media collection, sending, to the server computer, an indication of the selection of the content messages to be included in the new media collection, wherein the server computer causes the selection of content messages to be included in the new media collection and displayed in response to a request from at least a second computing device to view the new media collection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Publication date: January 14, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang, Maria Pavlovskaia, Amer Shahnawaz, Jianchao Yang
  • Publication number: 20210014238
    Abstract: A system includes a communication module that receives a request to post content to an event gallery associated with an event. The request in turn includes geo-location data for a device sending the content, and identification data identifying the device or a user of the device. The system further has an event gallery module to perform a first authorization operation that includes determining that the geo-location data corresponds to a geo-location fence associated with an event. The event gallery module also performs a second authorization operation that includes using the identification data to verify an attribute of the user. Finally, based on the first and second authorization operations, the event gallery module may selectively authorize the device to post the content to the event gallery.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Publication date: January 14, 2021
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang
  • Patent number: 10893055
    Abstract: A system includes a communication module that receives a request to post content to an event gallery associated with an event. The request in turn includes geo-location data for a device sending the content, and identification data identifying the device or a user of the device. The system further has an event gallery module to perform a first authorization operation that includes determining that the geo-location data corresponds to a geo-location fence associated with an event. The event gallery module also performs a second authorization operation that includes using the identification data to verify an attribute of the user. Finally, based on the first and second authorization operations, the event gallery module may selectively authorize the device to post the content to the event gallery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Sheldon Chang
  • Patent number: 10887269
    Abstract: A messaging server system receives a message creation input from a first client device that is associated with a first user registered with the messaging server system. The messaging server system determines, based on an entity graph representing connections between a plurality of users registered with the messaging server system, that the first user is within a threshold degree of connection with a second that initiated a group story in relation to a specified event. The messaging server system determines, based on location data received from the first client device, that the first client device was located within a geo-fence surrounding a geographic location of the specified event during a predetermined event window, the geo-fence and event window having been designated by the second user, and causes the first client device to present a user interface element that enables the first user to submit content to the group story.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Snap Inc.
    Inventors: Nicholas Richard Allen, Jacob Andreou, Evan Spiegel