Whatsapp Inc.

Yahoo! Inc.

Erik James Reed

Michael B Donohue

Brian Lange Acton

Jan Boris Koum

Dima Stukalov

Ehren Andrew Kret

Claudiu Dan Gheorghe

Udi Manber

Manpreet Singh

Madhu Yarlagadda

Jamshid Mahdavi

Ramkumar Ramani

Igor Gashinsky

Andrew R Volk

Michael Christian

David Apgar

Leif Hedstrom

Nitzan Katz

Ryan Troll

Eugene Gladyshev

A system, apparatus, graphical user interface and methods are provided for conducting electronic voice communications with status notifications. A user of a first portable device executing a communication application selects a multi-function control that automatically initiates an audio recording, which is automatically sent toward another participant of an active communication session when the control is released. The same multi-function control may be used to transmit a textual message. A representation of the recording is displayed on the user's device, with an indicator that changes appearance when the other participant plays the recording. In addition, when one user initiates an audio recording that will be automatically sent to another user, the other user's device is advised of the initiation of recording and displays that status for the other user.

Voice communications with real-time status notifications

Techniques to perform the dynamic configuration of load-balanced relay operations are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus may comprise a first load balancer component, a second load balancer component, a first relay server component, a second relay server component, and a persistent shared-memory storage component. The apparatus may be operative to perform the dynamic configuration of load-balanced relay operations for a two-tier relay system using persistent shared-memory storage in which a session identifier received from client devices is used to coordinate the activities of the relay server components based on information shared via the persistent shared-memory storage component. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Techniques to perform the dynamic configuration of load-balanced relay operations

A system, apparatus, and methods are provided for supporting automated recall of a message (e.g., a chat message) from an originator's device, or at least media that accompanied the message. An original message may convey one or more media files that are temporarily stored on a system or apparatus that hosts the communication application used to create, send, and receive messages. The media files may be lost in transit because of failure of a system component, failure of a storage device, purging of the files before they are retrieved by a recipient, or for some other reason. When the recipient's device receives an error in response to an attempt to retrieve the media file(s), it automatically initiates a recall request that is returned to the originating device. If the message and media are still available on the device, an abbreviated version of the message is re-sent, with the media.

Automated message recall from a sender's device

A system, apparatus, and methods are provided for establishing and supporting a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) call from one computing/communication device to another. The system receives a call offer from a caller, forwards it to the callee, and identifies to each party multiple candidate relay entities for relaying their digitized voice communications. Each device binds with one or all relays, and either or both of them select one of the relays to use in a relay mode of operation of the call, if necessary. One or more of the relays inform the devices of their external network addresses, and each device passes its (internal and external) addresses to each other, through the system. The devices attempt to establish a direct connection to conduct their call in a peer-to-peer mode of operation, but may dynamically switch between peer-to-peer and relay modes as necessary.

Establishing and maintaining a VOIP call

An apparatus may include a messaging server component operative to determine a sharing event for a data item, the sharing event associated with a source client device with a local storage of the data item. The apparatus may request that the source client device upload the data item to a destination storage device in response to a determination that network storage of the data item is scheduled for relocation from a source storage device to the destination storage device. The apparatus may include a storage management component operative to determine that the network storage of the data item is scheduled for relocation from a source storage device to a destination storage device and de-schedule the relocation of the data item.

Techniques to replicate data using uploads from messaging clients

Techniques are described for directing connections between clients and the closest web server. Authoritative DNS resolvers of a network are placed at edges of the network. Using anycast, the authoritative DNS resolvers advertise routes of their destination netblock to the Internet. A request from a client to connect to the network is routed, based upon BGP tables, to the closest particular authoritative DNS resolver. Once the request is received, a response is sent to the client with the IP address of the closest web server. The closest web server is determined through in-network health check measurements, with the authoritative DNS resolvers dynamically selecting IP addresses closest to themselves. Routing protocols that directed the packet to the closest authoritative DNS resolver also dictate the route of subsequent traffic to the network. Thus, the closest web server selected by the authoritative DNS resolver is also the closest web server to the client.

Mapless global server load balancing of network traffic using anycast routing

Growing community of inventors

Dublin, CA, United States of America

Erik James Reed