US 12,316,689 B2
Automatically navigating between rooms within a virtual conferencing system
Maxwell Gale, New York, NY (US); Andrew Cheng-min Lin, Long Island City, NY (US); and Walton Lin, Chatham, NJ (US)
Assigned to Snap Inc., Santa Monica, CA (US)
Filed by Snap Inc., Santa Monica, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/390,546.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/168,049, filed on Mar. 30, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0321617 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 15/16 (2006.01); G06F 3/0482 (2013.01); H04L 65/1083 (2022.01); H04L 65/403 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 65/403 (2013.01) [G06F 3/0482 (2013.01); H04L 65/1083 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
providing for virtual conferencing between plural participants within a first room of plural rooms, the plural rooms being included within a virtual space for virtual conferencing, each room of the plural rooms having a respective design for background and elements within the room;
providing, for each of the plural participants in the first room, display of a participant video element which corresponds to the participant and which includes a user-selectable button, the user-selectable button for requesting that the participant automatically follow another participant with respect to navigating between the plural rooms;
providing, for each of the plural participants in the first room, display of a list of the plural rooms, the list of plural rooms representing all available rooms within the virtual space, each listed room within the list of plural rooms being user-selectable to navigate to the listed room in order to switch between the plural rooms;
receiving a first indication of a user selection, by a first participant of the plural participants, of the user-selectable button corresponding to a second participant of the plural participants;
receiving, in response to receiving the first indication, a second indication that the second participant authorizes automatically following the first participant with respect to navigating between the plural rooms;
in response to receiving the second indication,
storing the second indication, and
updating a follower list for the first participant to include the second participant, the follower list indicating names of the plural participants that automatically follow the first participant with respect to navigating between the plural rooms;
receiving a third indication of user input, provided by the first participant via the list of plural rooms, selecting a second room of the plural rooms; and
providing, based on the stored second indication and the third indication, for the second participant to automatically follow the first participant from the first room to the second room, the first room and the second room having different backgrounds and elements.