Indicating Advertised States Of Native Applications In Application Launcher

Abstract

A mobile computing device includes a computing processor that displays an indication in association with a native application icon to indicate that an advertised state of the native application can be accessed by pressing and holding the icon. The mobile computing device receives a user selection includes a press-and-hold of the native application icon. In response to the user selection, the mobile computing device displays a preview of the advertisement state adjacent to the icon. An application launcher is configured to launch the native application into the advertised state upon receiving a user selection that includes a press of the advertisement preview. The computing processor launches the native application into the advertised state via an access mechanism associated with the advertised state upon receiving a user selection of the advertisement preview.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A mobile computing device comprising:
 a transceiver;   a touchscreen display;   a sensor;   a memory that stores a native application installed on the mobile computing device and an application launcher that launches the native application; and   a computing processor that executes computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the computing processor, cause the computing processor to:
 display an icon corresponding with the native application via the application launcher, the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into a default state upon receiving a first user selection that comprises a press of the icon; 
 transmit an advertisement request via the transceiver, the advertisement request comprising an application identifier (ID) that identifies the native application; 
 receive an advertisement object in response to transmitting the advertisement request, the advertisement object comprising an advertisement that corresponds with an advertised state of the native application, the advertisement comprising an access mechanism to access the advertised state; 
 display an indication in association with the icon, the indication indicating that the advertised state of the native application can be accessed by pressing and holding the icon; 
 receive a second user selection comprising a press-and-hold of the icon; 
 in response to the second user selection, display the advertisement adjacent to the icon, the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into the advertised state upon receiving a third user selection that comprises a press of the advertisement; and 
 launch the native application into the advertised state via the access mechanism upon receiving the third user selection. 
   
     
     
         2 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein transmitting the advertisement request comprises:
 capturing contextual data that indicates a context of the mobile computing device and/or receiving a search query via a search box displayed by the application launcher; and   generating a data container to transport the contextual data and/or the search query.   
     
     
         3 . The mobile computing device of  claim 2 , wherein capturing the contextual data comprises retrieving: sensor measurements taken by the sensor, a search history comprising previous search queries, application IDs of native applications installed at the mobile computing device, application IDs of native applications that the mobile computing device is currently executing and/or information that the touchscreen display is currently displaying. 
     
     
         4 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein the access mechanism comprises: a uniform resource identifier (URI) that provides direct access to the advertised state; or a script or a macro that redirects the native application from the default state to the advertised state. 
     
     
         5 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the indication comprises:
 retrieving a symbol from the memory; and   overlaying the symbol onto the icon.   
     
     
         6 . The mobile computing device of  claim 5 , wherein the symbol comprises a text string or an image. 
     
     
         7 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the indication comprises:
 altering a formatting of the icon; and   rendering the formatted icon.   
     
     
         8 . The mobile computing device of  claim 7 , wherein altering the formatting of the icon comprises: thickening a border that surrounds the icon, changing a color of the icon, changing a refresh rate of the icon, changing a font of the icon and/or increasing a size of the icon. 
     
     
         9 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein launching the native application into the advertised state comprises invoking the access mechanism. 
     
     
         10 . The mobile computing device of  claim 1 , wherein launching the native application into the advertised state comprises launching the native application into the default state and using a script to automatically redirect the native application from the default state to the advertised state. 
     
     
         11 . The mobile computing device of  claim 10 , wherein the advertisement comprises a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement corresponding with a different advertised state. 
     
     
         12 . A mobile computing device comprising:
 a transceiver;   a touchscreen display;   a memory that stores a native application installed on the mobile computing device and an application launcher that launches the native application; and   a computing processor that executes computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the computing processor, cause the computing processor to:
 display a first application icon corresponding with a default state of the native application, the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into the default state upon receiving a user selection of the first application icon; 
 transmit an advertisement request via the transceiver, the advertisement request comprising an application identifier (ID) that identifies the native application; 
 receive an advertisement object in response to transmitting the advertisement request, the advertisement object comprising an advertisement that corresponds with an advertised state of the native application, the advertisement comprising an access mechanism to access the advertised state; 
 replace the first application icon with a folder icon corresponding with a folder, the folder comprising the first application icon and a second application icon, the second application icon corresponding with the advertised state of the native application and the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into the advertised state upon receiving a user selection of the second application icon; 
 display the first application icon and the second application icon in a window corresponding with the folder upon receiving a user selection of the folder icon; and 
 launch the native application into the advertised state upon receiving a user selection of the second application icon. 
   
     
     
         13 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein transmitting the advertisement request comprises retrieving the application ID from a data store in the memory. 
     
     
         14 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein replacing the first application icon with the folder icon comprises determining the folder icon. 
     
     
         15 . The mobile computing device of  claim 14 , wherein determining the folder icon comprises appending an indicator to the first application icon, the indicator indicating that the default state and the advertised state of the native application can be accessed by pressing the folder icon. 
     
     
         16 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the computing processor is further configured to launch the native application into the default state upon receiving a user selection of the first application icon. 
     
     
         17 . A computer-implemented method for launching a native application at a mobile computing device, the computer-implemented method comprising:
 displaying, at a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device, an icon corresponding with the native application via an application launcher being executed by a computing processor of the mobile computing device, the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into a default state upon receiving a first user selection that comprises a press of the icon;   transmitting an advertisement request via a transceiver of the mobile computing device, the advertisement request comprising an application identifier (ID) that identifies the native application;   receiving, via the transceiver, an advertisement object in response to transmitting the advertisement request, the advertisement object comprising an advertisement that corresponds with an advertised state of the native application, the advertisement comprising an access mechanism to access the advertised state;   displaying an indication in association with the icon, the indication indicating that the advertised state of the native application can be accessed by pressing and holding the icon;   receiving a second user selection via the touchscreen display, the second user selection comprising a press-and-hold of the icon;   in response to the second user selection, displaying the advertisement adjacent to the icon, the application launcher being configured to launch the native application into the advertised state upon receiving a third user selection that comprises a press of the advertisement; and   launching, by the computing processor, the native application into the advertised state via the access mechanism upon receiving the third user selection.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 17 , wherein transmitting the advertisement request comprises:
 capturing contextual data that indicates a context of the mobile computing device and/or receiving a search query via a search box displayed by the application launcher; and   generating a data container to transport to the contextual data and/or the search query.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 17 , wherein the advertisement comprises a plurality of advertisements; and wherein launching the native application comprises launching the native application into the advertised state corresponding with the selected advertisement. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 17 , wherein displaying the indication comprises retrieving a symbol from a memory of the mobile computing device and overlaying the symbol onto the icon. 
     
     
         21 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 17 , wherein displaying the indication comprises altering a formatting of the icon and rendering the formatted icon. 
     
     
         22 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 21 , wherein altering the formatting of the icon comprises:
 thickening a border that surrounds the icon;   changing a color of the icon;   changing a refresh rate of the icon;   changing a font of the icon; and/or   increasing a size of the icon.