US 11,943,190 B2
Fork and return point selection for sidebar communication threads
Amer Aref Hassan, Kirkland, WA (US); and Wei-Chen Chen, Redmond, WA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Jun. 9, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/836,586.
Prior Publication US 2023/0403249 A1, Dec. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 51/216 (2022.01); G06F 3/0482 (2013.01)
CPC H04L 51/216 (2022.05) [G06F 3/0482 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of providing a sidebar thread for a communication, the method comprising:
using one or more processors of a communication server:
receiving a command, over a communication network, from a sender, to create a sidebar thread forked from a specified message of a first communication thread, the first communication thread between a first plurality of first communication thread participants including the sender, the sidebar thread being a thread between a second plurality of sidebar thread participants including the sender and a sidebar recipient, the command to create the sidebar thread including a first message, an address of a final recipient, and an address of the sidebar recipient;
responsive to receiving the command:
causing a notification of the sidebar thread to be sent over the communication network to the address of the sidebar recipient, the notification including the first message and a portion or a link to a portion of the first communication thread;
receiving an indication of a reply position in the first communication thread to post a reply;
determining an identifier of the first communication thread using a thread identifier field in a data structure of the specified message of the first communication thread;
searching a communication server data store to find a message data structure with a thread identifier field that matches the identifier of the first communication thread and that has a message index matching the reply position;
receiving an approval or a modification of the first message, over the communication network, from the sidebar recipient in the sidebar thread;
responsive to receiving the approval or the modification of the first message, automatically:
creating a communication message from an address of the sender addressed to the address of the final recipient by including the approved first message or the modification of the first message; and
posting the communication message to the final recipient from the address of the sender in the first communication thread as a reply to the message of the first communication thread corresponding to the found message data structure, the communication message addressed to the final recipient and including at least a portion of a message body field of the found message data structure.