United States
Patent Application Publication
JOHNSTON et al.
Pub. No.: US 2016/0323723 Al
Pub. Date: Nov. 3, 2016

**20 Granted Mobile Chatbot Patent Claims:**

What is claimed:

1. A system for communicating with a plurality of mobile devices from a single mobile device, the system comprising:
– a processor of the single mobile device;
– a memory coupled to the processor;
– a mobile application component including processor-executable instructions stored in the memory and operable on the processor to:

– store source information of a received incoming message to one or more groups, based on a content of the incoming message, the one or more groups stored in the memory of the single mobile device;
– select an outgoing message from a plurality of outgoing messages stored in the memory of the single mobile device for each of the one or more groups; and
– automatically send a communication including the outgoing message from the single mobile device to the plurality of mobile devices, the plurality of mobile devices associated to at least one group of the one or more groups, according to a user-defined rule associated with the at least one group.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a natural language interpreter arranged to determine the content of the incoming message, the natural language interpreter arranged to learn based on machine learning techniques and incoming response messages to sent communications.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an administrative component stored in the memory and operable on the processor to allow a user to determine and/or adjust the one or more groups, the plurality of outgoing messages, and/or one or more user-defined rules.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an administrative component stored in the memory and operable on the processor to allow a user to determine and/or adjust one or more settings associated with storing the source information, selecting the outgoing message, and/or sending the communication.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions are operable on the processor to include a mobile device associated with a source of the incoming message in communications sent to the one or more groups, based on the content of the incoming message.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions are operable on the processor to exclude a mobile device associated with a source of the incoming message from communications sent to the one or more groups, based on the content of the incoming message.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor-executable instructions are operable on the processor to remove the source information from the memory of the single mobile device when the content of the incoming message indicates an opt-out from any further communications.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor-executable instructions are operable on the processor to automatically send another communication from the single mobile device to the plurality of mobile devices based on a predetermined time duration since sending a previous communication, a keyword included in the incoming message, and/or the occurrence of a predetermined day.

9. A mobile device, comprising:
– a processor;
– a memory coupled to the processor;
– a mobile application component including processor-executable instructions stored in the memory and operable on the processor to:
– analyze an incoming message for source information and content; and
– when the source information of the incoming message indicates an executive entity and a predetermined code is present in the content, automatically forward the incoming message to a plurality of mobile devices, the plurality of mobile devices associated to at least one group of a plurality of groups stored in the memory, according to a predetermined rule associated with the at least one group and/or the content of the incoming message.

10. A method of operating a mobile device to communicate with a plurality of other mobile devices, based on instructions stored in a memory of the mobile device and operable on a processor of the mobile device, the method comprising:
– receiving an incoming message at the mobile device;
– storing a source of the incoming message to one or more groups, based on a content of the incoming message, the one or more groups stored in the memory of the mobile device;
– selecting an outgoing message from a plurality of outgoing messages stored in the memory of the mobile device for each of the one or more groups; and
– automatically sending a communication including the outgoing message to members of at least one group of the one or more groups, according to a user-defined rule associated with the at least one group.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing contact information and group categorization information associated with the source of the incoming message in the memory of the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising using a natural language interpreter to determine the content of the incoming message.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically sending a communication including a reply to the incoming message, to the source of the incoming message, based on the content of the incoming message.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically ceasing to send communications to the source of the incoming message based on the content of the incoming message.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising sub-categorizing the source of the incoming message into one or more sub-groups, and sending a communication to members of the one or more sub-groups, based on user-defined rules associated with the one or more sub-groups.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising adjusting the storing, the selecting, the sending, and/or the user-defined rule at the mobile device via a mobile application stored in the memory of the mobile device, wherein the instructions are provided at least in part by the mobile application stored in the memory of the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising forwarding the incoming message to members of at least one group of the one or more groups based on the content of the incoming message and/or the source of the incoming message.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically sending another communication to the members of the at least one group of the one or more groups based on at least one of: a user-selected time duration since sending the communication, a day of the week, a day of the month, an appointment date, and a special event.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising automatically sending another communication to the source of the incoming message, at a predetermined date and/or time, based on a keyword included in the incoming message.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication comprises at least one of a text message, a multimedia messaging service (MMS) message, an enhanced messaging service (EMS) message, or a short message service (SMS) message.