Apple patent involves information display in Messages sessions

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20180191646) for a “method and apparatus for displaying information during an instant messaging session.” It involves the Messages app on macOS and iOS devices.

In most messaging apps, instant messages are commonly all displayed in serial fashion, usually scrolling the user’s screen from top to bottom. Commonly, each message is preceded by a label, such as BobbyD211 and Fred1432 in FIG. 1, indicating the identity of the author of the message. So far, users have relied on these labels, or other limited indicia, to locate and identify messages from a particular party. 

Apple says that he presentation of each message in substantially similar format makes it difficult to readily determine the authorship of one or more previous messages. Likewise, it’s difficult to go back and quickly locate a previous message without reading through many previous messages. Apple wants to improve the process.

Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “A method and an apparatus are provided for controlling a graphical user interface to display information related to a communication session. Information relating to data produced by a first participant to the communication session is displayed on a first display unit, wherein the information produced by the first participant is displayed at a first position on the first display unit. 

“Data is received from a second participant to the communication session, and information relating to the data received from the second participant is displayed on the first display unit, wherein the information received from the second participant is displayed at a second position on the first display unit. The first and second positions are horizontally spaced apart.”

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.

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