FACEBOOK, INC. (Menlo Park, CA)

Methods to notify entities of referenced in messaging groups. A device on the client side may receive notifications from an application for messaging. A notification could indicate that an entity reference to the user’s device is displayed in a group message thread. A number of users could be included in the group messaging thread as members. In a user interface for a messaging software, the user device might display a notification about the appearance of an entity’s reference in the group messaging thread.

In a messaging platform where users interact, they can communicate with one another by sending messages back and forth between each other. A single user may have a user account in the messaging platform. The account is an online identity, a location for messages, and helps coordinate the user’s access and use of the service. The user can connect to the messaging system via a variety of endpoints,including smartphones (e.g. phones, tablets) and desktop computers. web browsers, specialized messaging applications, and more.

This is a simplified summary in order to provide a fundamental understanding of some of the novel designs described herein. This is not an extensive overview, and it is not designed to pinpoint crucial elements or define the scope of this invention. In the beginning, certain concepts will be explained in a simplified format.

Many embodiments pertain towards methods of generating and utilizing reference to entities in messaging groups. Some embodiments are particularly directed to techniques for generating, communicating, and augmenting entity references in messaging groups.In one embodiment, for example, an apparatus may comprise a user interface component operative to predict an entity-reference invocation in a message thread display on a client device; suggest one or more entities for use in the entity-referenceinvocation in response to predicting the entity-reference invocation; and receive the entity-reference invocation, the entity-reference invocation comprising an entity reference; and a client messaging component operative to generate a message comprisingthe entity reference; and send the message to a messaging system.

Another possible embodiment is the client’s messaging component, which receives messages from a messaging service, and transmits it to a recipient client. The recipient client device is associated with a recipient user account. The message includes an entity reference, as well as the message is sent to an individual thread. A user interface component displays the augmentation component on the client’s device.

In another embodiment an apparatus might include an element for messaging that can receive an email from a reference client device in a messaging system, the message containing an entity reference, determine the user account that will receive the message; and then send an augmented entity reference to one or more client devices associated with the account of the user who received the message; and an entity reference component which is used to select an augmentation element associated with the entityreference. Finally, it generates an enhanced entity reference by enhancing the entity reference using the enhancement element.

Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Certain features that illustrate are described in this paper, along with the accompanying drawings in order to achieve the above mentioned as well as other goals. These features are indicative of the different ways theprinciples disclosed herein can be implemented and all the aspects and equivalents of them are intended to fall within the range of the subject matter claimed. The description below, examined in conjunction with the drawings, will reveal additional advantages and new features.

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