FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile applications, and more particularly, to methods and systems for providing protection to ephemeral messages of a mobile application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the advancements in communications technology, in particular messaging, an increased number of people are switching to online mode of communicating messages. Recently, mobile applications, with additional features and services such as voice chatting, text messaging and other services such as games applications, news applications etc., have become prevalent in providing a convenient and useful means of communication. One of said additional features is ephemeral message. The ephemeral message is a message displayed on a user interface of the mobile application that is configured to automatically disappear from the user interface after a pre-determined time, wherein the pre¬determined time is either defined by the developers of the mobile application or by the user using the mobile application. Usually, the pre-determined time is based on the size or length of the message, wherein the pre-determined time is approximately the average time taken by a user to read the message. For instance, the user/developers of the mobile application may set a time period of 1 hour after which the ephemeral message automatically disappears from the user interface of the mobile application. Additionally, in the existing mobile applications, the ephemeral message automatically disappears from the user interface of the mobile application after 24 hours of uploading said ephemeral message.
Further, when an ephemeral message is uploaded on the user interface of the mobile application using a personal electronic device, the existing mobile applications fail to provide protection to the uploaded ephemeral message and restrict the recipients from doing any activity such as capturing a video or screenshot of the uploaded ephemeral message, thereby motivating the

recipients to misuse said captured video or screenshot of the uploaded ephemeral message. Thus, the users (senders) are unable to control the access of said uploaded ephemeral messages and thereby, prevent recipients from using the same in an undesired manner.
Therefore, in light of the aforementioned and other associated drawbacks inherent in the existing art, there exists a need of a proficient and secured mechanism for securing an ephemeral message from a recipient and thereby prevent any misuse of the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This section is provided to introduce certain objects and aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify the key features or the scope of the claimed subject matter.
In view of the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art systems, one object of the present invention is to provide system and method for securing an ephemeral message from a recipient. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method to restrict the recipient from capturing screenshots/recording videos of the ephemeral messages in order to prevent misuse of the uploaded ephemeral messages.
In view of these and other objects, one aspect of the present invention relates to a method for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device. The method comprises receiving at least one ephemeral content from a first user device, wherein the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and an associated parameter, and the associated parameter comprises at least one action defined for at least one activity of the at least one second user device; and processing the at least one ephemeral content, wherein said processing includes detecting the at least one activity of the at least one second user device, and generating an action report

for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device; and performing the at least one action on the at least one second user device, wherein the at least one action is performed based on the action report.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a server for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device. The server is configured to receive at least one ephemeral content from a first user device, wherein the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and an associated parameter, and the associated parameter comprises at least one action defined for at least one activity of the at least one second user device; and process the at least one ephemeral content, wherein said processing includes detecting the at least one activity of the at least one second user device, and generating an action report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device; and perform the at least one action on the at least one second user device, wherein the at least one action is performed based on the action report.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosed methods and systems in which like reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the different drawings. Components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Some drawings may indicate the components using block diagrams and may not represent the internal circuitry of each component. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that disclosure of such drawings includes disclosure of electrical components or circuitry commonly used to implement such components. The connections between the sub-components of a component have not been shown in the drawings for the sake of clarity, therefore, all sub-components shall be assumed to be connected to each other unless explicitly otherwise stated in the disclosure herein.

Figure 1 illustrates a general overview of the system for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
Figure 2 illustrates a method for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
The foregoing shall be more apparent and clear from the following more detailed explanation of the invention and the afore-mentioned drawings.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, various specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without these specific details or with additional details that may be obvious to a person skilled in the art. Several features described hereafter can each be used independently of one another or with any combination of other features. An individual feature may not address any of the problems discussed above or might address only some of the problems discussed above. Some of the problems discussed above might not be fully addressed by any of the features described herein.
The present invention relates to a system and a method for securing at least one ephemeral message, sent by at least one first user device (also referred to as sender's user device), from at least one second user device (also, referred to as recipient's user device), wherein the at least one first user device and the at least one second user device are connected to each other through a server. In particular, when the user uploads an ephemeral message on a social networking application present/stored in the first user device, the ephemeral message may be displayed on a user interface of a social networking application present/stored in the first user device. Further, the server receives the uploaded

ephemeral message along with associated parameter comprising an action defined for an activity of the second user device. In an embodiment, the server may notify the first user device in an event the second user device performs any activity on the ephemeral message. In an event the first user device wishes to secure the ephemeral message, the server processes the information received from the first user device to generate an action report for each of the activity performed on the second user device. Finally, the action is performed on the second user device, wherein the action is performed based on the action report. Thus, the present invention encompasses providing security to the ephemeral message uploaded by the user using first user device from the user using the second user device who may possess a risk of using the ephemeral message in an undesired manner.
As used herein, the "first user device" and the "second user device" refer to any electrical, electronic, electromechanical and computing device capable of sending and receiving messages, particularly, ephemeral messages. Further, said user devices may include, but not limited, to a mobile phone, a smartphone, laptop, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, general purpose computer, or any other computing device as may be obvious to a person skilled in the art. Furthermore, said user devices may also comprise an input means such as a keyboard, an operating system, a display interface, etc. Further, the first user device and the second user device may be configured to operate on an open source platform such as an Android operating system, Tizen, Firefox OS, Plasma Mobile, Sailfish OS, Ubuntu Touch and any other operating system as may be obvious to a person skilled in the art.
Further, the user using the first user device may refer to a sender capable of sending/uploading the ephemeral message, while the user using the second user device may refer to a receiver capable of receiving/viewing the ephemeral message

As used herein, the "social networking application" refers to a mobile or web application for social networking, whereby users can interact with each other by means of text, audio, video or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, the social networking application is considered to be an instant messaging application that provides various enhanced features such as viewing and sharing content/text etc., read news, play games, shop, make payments and any other features as may be obvious to a person skilled in the art. Said social networking application may be integrated/employed on any computing device, wherein said computing device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a smartphone, laptop, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, general purpose computer, or any other computing device as may be obvious to a person skilled in the art.
As used herein, the "ephemeral content" comprises at least one ephemeral message and an associated parameter.
As used herein, the "ephemeral message" refers to a message that the user (sender) uploads on the user interface of the social networking application installed/stored at the user device such that the ephemeral message automatically disappears from the user interface of the user (sender) and the recipients after a predetermined time, wherein the pre-determined time is either defined by the developers of the social networking application or by the user of the social networking application. Also, the ephemeral message is one of a pre¬existing ephemeral message and a dynamically created ephemeral message. In an embodiment, the ephemeral message is a part of a chat between the user (sender) and the recipient, while in another embodiment, the ephemeral message is a part of a group chat involving multiple users and multiple recipients. In yet another embodiment, the ephemeral message is displayed/uploaded on a timeline/status/stories tab of the mobile application, which may not become part of the chat and therefore is independent of the chats.

As used herein, the "associated parameter" comprises at least one action defined for at least one activity of the at least one second user device. Further, as used herein, the "action" comprises at least one of displaying the at least one ephemeral message, disabling a video feature of the at least one second user device; making the at least one ephemeral message illegible, disabling a screenshot of a user device of the at least one second user device, displaying an instant overlay on the user interface of the at least one second user device on each attempt of capturing the screenshot of the at least one ephemeral message and hiding the at least one ephemeral message. Furthermore, as used herein, the "activity of the at least one second user device" comprises attempt to save, edit, manipulate and copy the at least one ephemeral message.
As used herein, "connect", "configure" and its cognate terms, such as "connects", "connected" and "configured" may include a physical connection (such as a wired/wireless connection), a logical connection (such as through logical gates of semiconducting device), other suitable connections, or a combination of such connections, as may be obvious to a skilled person.
As used herein, "send", "transfer", "transmit", and their cognate terms like "sending", "sent", "transferring", "transmitting", "transferred", "transmitted", etc. include sending or transporting data or ephemeral content from one unit or component to another unit or component, wherein the token may or may not be modified before or after sending, transferring, transmitting.
Figure 1 illustrates a general overview of the system [100] for securing at least one ephemeral message from the second user device [104], in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, wherein the at least one ephemeral message is received from the first user device [102]. As shown in the figure 1, the system [100] comprises the first user device [102] and the second user device [104], wherein the first user device [102] and the second user device [106] communicate to each other through the server [106]. In an embodiment, the server [106] may be a cloud server. Further, all said devices are configured to

communicate with each other through a network entity, wherein the network entity may be wired or wireless and may correspond to a personal area network, a local area network, a metropolitan area network, a wide area network, the Internet, or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, the system [100] resides in the server [106], while in another embodiment, the system [100] resides in at least one of the first user device [102] and the second user device [104]. In yet another embodiment, the system [100] resides partly in said user devices [102, 104] and partly at the server [106].
The user (sender) using the first user device [102] is configured to transmit/upload/uplink the at least one ephemeral content on the user interface of the first user device [102], wherein the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and the associated parameter. Also, the associated parameter comprises the at least one action defined for at the least one activity of the at least one second user device [104].
Further, on receiving the at least one ephemeral content from the first user device [102], the server [106] is configured to notify the first user device [102] in an event the at least one ephemeral message is delivered to at least one third user device, wherein the at least one third user device is configured to operate in one of a closed source operating system (such as an iOS operating system) and an open source platform (such as an Android operating system, Tizen, Firefox OS, Plasma Mobile, Sailfish OS, Ubuntu). In an embodiment, the iOS user interface is based on multi-touch gestures and also, comprises multiple interface control elements such as sliders, switches, and buttons along with interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, etc. Also, the server [106] is configured to notify the first user device [102] in an event the second user device [104] performs any activity on the ephemeral message. In an event the user using the first user device [102] wishes to secure the at least one ephemeral message, the server [106] is configured to process the at least one ephemeral content. Said processing includes detecting the at least one activity of the at least one second user device [106] followed by generation of an action

report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [106]. Thus, when the at least one second user device [106] performs the at least one activity such as attempting to save, edit, manipulate and copy the at least one ephemeral message, the server [106] detects said at least one activity. Pursuant to detection of the at least one activity, the server [106] is configured to generate an action report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104], wherein said action report is based on the associated parameter and the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104]. Finally, based on the action report, the server [106] is then configured to perform the at least one action on the at least one second user device [106]. For instance, when a user (receiver), using the at least one second user device [104], attempts to capture a screenshot of the ephemeral message uploaded/transmitted by the at least first user device [102], the server [106] is configured to disable the screenshot feature of the at least one second user device [104], thereby preventing the use/save of said ephemeral message in undesired manner.
The system [100] further comprises at least one memory for storing at least one of the at least one ephemeral message of the first user device [102] and the associated parameters, wherein said storage is in the form of tables, schemas, or other elements as may be obvious to a person skilled in the art. Further, the at least one memory may be present in at least one of the first user device [102] and the server [106]. Furthermore, the at least one memory may include, but not limited to, a random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a secure digital (SD) card or any such memory as may be obvious to person skilled in the art.
Figure 2 illustrates a method for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device [104], in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The following method [200] includes detailed steps involved in securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device [104], wherein the method [200] may initiate at step 202

where the user using the first user device [102] is configured to transmit/upload/uplink the at least one ephemeral content on the user interface of the first user device [102], wherein the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and the associated parameter. Also, the associated parameter comprises the at least one action defined for at the least one activity of the at least one second user device [104]. Further, the at least one first user device [102] and the at least one second user device [104] are connected to each other through the server [106].
At step 204, the server is configured to receive the at least one ephemeral content uploaded/transmitted by the first user device [102].
At step 206, the server [106] is configured to notify the first user device [102] in an event the at least one ephemeral message is delivered to at least one third user device, wherein the at least one third user device is configured to operate in a closed source operating system.
At step 208, the server [106] is configured to notify the first user device [102] in an event the second user device [104] performs any activity on the ephemeral message. In an event the user using the first user device [102] wishes to secure the at least one ephemeral message, the method [200] leads to step 210. Alternatively, the method [200] terminates at step 216.
At step 210, the server [106] is configured to process the at least one ephemeral content. The server [106] is thus, configured to detect the at least one activity of the at least one second user device [106] i.e. when the at least one second user device [106] performs the at least one activity such as attempting to save, edit, manipulate and copy the at least one ephemeral message, the server [106] detects said at least one activity.
At step 212 and after accomplishment of step 210, the server [106] is configured to generate an action report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [106], wherein said action report is based on

the associated parameter and the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104].
At step 214, the server [106] is then configured to perform the at least one action on the at least one second user device [106], wherein the at least one action is performed based on the action report generated by the server [106]. The method [200] then terminates at step 216, where the at least one ephemeral message is secured from at least one second user device [104].
Various elements of the present invention as discussed above may be present in the form of a hardware or a software or a hardware-software combination for performing functions and/or operations for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device [104].
In an embodiment, the techniques described herein are implemented by one or more special-purpose computing devices that may be hard-wired to perform the techniques, or may include digital electronic devices such as one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are persistently programmed to perform the techniques, or may include one or more general purpose hardware processors programmed to perform the techniques pursuant to program instructions in firmware, memory, other storage, or a combination. Such special-purpose computing devices may also combine custom hard-wired logic, ASICs, or FPGAs with custom programming to accomplish the techniques.
Though a limited number of the first user device [102], the second user device [104], the third user device, server [106] and the components/sub systems therein, have been shown in the figures; however, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the system [100] of the present invention encompasses any number and varied types of said entities/elements, the first user device [102], the second user device [104], third user device [104], server [106] and the components/sub systems.

While the invention has been explained with reference to certain embodiments and examples, it will be appreciated that various changes can be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles of the present invention, and all such changes and embodiments are encompassed by the present invention.

We claim:
1. A method [200] for securing at least one ephemeral message from at
least one second user device [104], the method comprising:
- receiving at least one ephemeral content from a first user device
[102], wherein
the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and an associated parameter, and
the associated parameter comprises at least one action defined for at least one activity of the at least one second user device [104];
- processing the at least one ephemeral content, wherein said
processing includes
detecting the at least one activity of the at least one second user device [104], and
generating an action report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104]; and
- performing the at least one action on the at least one second user
device [104], wherein the at least one action is performed based
on the action report.
2. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, further comprising sending a
notification to the first user device [102] in an event the at least one
ephemeral message is delivered to at least one third user device, wherein
the at least one third user device is configured to operate in one of a
closed source operating system and an open source operating system.

3. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, further comprising notifying the at least one first user device [102] in an event the at least one second user device [104] performs the at least one activity on the at least one ephemeral message.
4. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one ephemeral message is one of a pre-existing ephemeral message and a dynamically created ephemeral message.
5. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, wherein the action comprises at least one of displaying the at least one ephemeral message, disabling a video feature of the at least one second user device [104]; making the at least one ephemeral message illegible, disabling a screenshot of a user device of the at least one second user device [104], displaying an instant overlay on the user interface of the at least one second user device [104] on each attempt of capturing the screenshot of the at least one ephemeral message and hiding the at least one ephemeral message.
6. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, wherein the activity of the at least one second user device [104] comprises attempt to save, edit, manipulate and copy the at least one ephemeral message.
7. The method [200] as claimed in claim 1, wherein the action report is generated based on the associated parameter and the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104].
8. A server [106] for securing at least one ephemeral message from at least one second user device, wherein the server [106] is configured to:
- receive at least one ephemeral content from a first user device [102], wherein
the at least one ephemeral content comprises the at least one ephemeral message and an associated parameter, and

the associated parameter comprises at least one action defined for at least one activity of the at least one second user device [104]; and
- process the at least one ephemeral content, wherein said
processing includes
detecting the at least one activity of the at least one second user device [104], and
generating an action report for each of the at least one activity performed on the at least one second user device [104]; and
- perform the at least one action on the at least one second user
device [104], wherein the at least one action is performed based
on the action report.
The server [106] as claimed in claim 8, further configured to send a notification to the first user device [102] in an event the at least one ephemeral message is delivered to at least one third user device, wherein the at least one third user device is configured to operate in one of a closed source operating system and an open source operating system.
The server [106] as claimed in claim 8, further configured to notify the at least one first user device [102] in an event the at least one second user device [104] performs the at least one activity on the at least one ephemeral message.