CPC H04W 4/023 (2013.01) [H04W 4/08 (2013.01); H04W 8/005 (2013.01); H04W 8/183 (2013.01); H04W 12/02 (2013.01); H04W 48/14 (2013.01); H04W 76/14 (2018.02)] | 14 Claims |
1. A method for facilitating restricted discovery of a first user of an application, the method comprising a first proximity-based services server performing:
obtaining, from an application server, authorization to access first user resources for a first application hosted by the application server, wherein the first application is a social networking application;
in response to obtaining authorization to access the first user resources, communicating, to a first user device associated with the first user, a list of associates from the first user resources, wherein the first user and the associates are registered users of the first application, and wherein a connection between each of the associates and the first user is pre-established via the first application;
receiving, from the first user device, an indication of a set of associates selected from the list of associates by the first user, wherein each associate in the set of associates is permitted to discover the first user;
receiving, via a proximity-based services application executing on the first user device, a request for a proximity-based services code, wherein the proximity-based services code facilitates discovery of the first user device;
determining whether the first user is subscribed to proximity-based services associated with the first application;
in response to determining that the first user is subscribed to proximity-based services associated with the first application, allocating a first proximity-based services code for the first application to the first user, wherein the first proximity-based services code is associated with a validity duration during which the first proximity-based services code can be broadcast by the first user device; and
announcing, to a set of other proximity-based services servers, existence of the first proximity-based services code allocated for the first application to the first user until the validity duration expires.
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