Remote activation of mobile applications

摘要

According to one configuration, a user is able to activate an application on a mobile phone device without the user having to directly pressing an appropriate sequence of keys on the mobile phone device. For example, a user logs onto a web site to provide a phone number of the mobile phone device. Additionally, via input to the web site, the user also requests activation of a particular application on the mobile phone device. An application server receives notification of the request and generates a text-message to the application on the mobile phone device to initiate activation of the application. In response to receiving the text-message, the application on the mobile phone device initiates retrieval of appropriate configuration information associated with the user from the application server.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
subsequent to downloading of an application to a mobile phone device operated by a user, at an application server, receiving notification of a request transmitted over a web connection from the user operating an auxiliary computer device disparately located with respect to the mobile phone device, the request from the user at the auxiliary computer device indicating to activate the application on the mobile phone device, the request including: i) a unique mobile phone identifier value specifying how to contact the mobile phone device operated by the user, and ii) notification of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device; generating a message, the message including an application identifier specifying an identity of the application to be activated on the mobile phone device; and via the unique mobile phone identifier value and the application identifier, transmitting the message from the application server to the application on the mobile phone device; wherein the transmitted message includes state information provided by the application server; wherein the application applies a function to the state information to produce a unique value that is included in a response; the method further comprising: at the application server, receiving the response from the mobile phone device, the application server knowledgeable of the function that is used by the application to convert the state information into the unique value, the application server verifying that the unique value in the received message is correct; in response to detecting that the unique value in the received message is correct, mapping the unique value to configuration information; and forwarding the configuration information to the mobile phone device, the configuration information activating the application on the mobile phone device.