JP7590475B2 - Methods and devices for restricting application use - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to the field of data processing, and more particularly to a method and a terminal for restricting the use of applications.

With the widespread use of mobile terminals, such as mobile phones with mobile communication functions, tablet computers, portable devices (such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and MP4 players), and wearable devices (such as smart bands, smart watches, and smart glasses), people's lives have become more convenient. In particular, various applications (APPs, also called Applications) on mobile terminals make life more enjoyable. However, users can become engrossed in them, which can affect normal work and learning, leading to negative effects such as "mobile phone addiction." Therefore, the use of applications needs to be restricted.

In the prior art, a visitor mode or a child mode may be set in the operating system layer of a mobile terminal, so that some applications are invisible in this mode and therefore cannot be used. However, the inventors recognize that this restriction is a single form, is not flexible enough, and does not fully function the capacity of human-computer interaction between the mobile terminal and the user. Thus, the mobile terminal processes transactions with very low efficiency. In the single application layer, a "study mode" may be set, i.e., the user is prohibited from exiting the application for a certain period of time. The form of the two methods is single, so diverse management of applications cannot be realized.

To overcome the management deficiencies of the prior art in application usage on mobile terminals, embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a terminal for restricting application usage, and provide users with a diverse and personalized application management method.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for restricting usage of an application, the method comprising:
The method includes the steps of: presetting usage restriction conditions for an application, the usage restriction conditions including time, geographical location, network conditions, and user attributes of the mobile terminal; acquiring a current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction conditions when an input operation of a user is received; and restricting the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the usage restriction conditions, or using the application normally when the operating environment does not satisfy the usage restriction conditions.

The usage restriction conditions are specifically some conditions set so that the mobile terminal performs a specific process to execute an application in some special cases. The application usage restriction conditions include, but are not limited to, time, geographical location, user attributes, and network conditions for restricting the use of the application, and these conditions may be randomly combined. The usage restriction conditions are user-specified application usage restriction conditions and/or system default application usage restriction conditions of the mobile terminal. When the user-specified usage restriction conditions conflict with the system default usage restriction conditions, that is, when both the user and the system make settings for the same usage restriction conditions, the user-specified conditions take precedence. The user may directly perform a setting operation of the application. For example, the user performs an operation on the icon of the application on the display screen of the mobile terminal. Alternatively, the user may perform a setting operation on an independent setting interface. For example, the user restricts the usage conditions of the application individually or in batches for a setting interface including an application list. The system default restriction conditions of the mobile terminal include default restriction conditions at the time of delivery and/or restriction conditions set by analyzing user operation habits. The user operation habits include the frequency of use, the time of use, the geographic location of use, the network conditions of use, the user identity of use, etc. The mobile terminal analyzes the user operation habits by collecting statistics to obtain the usage rules of the application or several applications by the user, and then sets the application usage restriction conditions.

Regarding the first aspect, in a first implementation of the first aspect, when the usage restriction condition includes the geographical location and time of the mobile terminal, the step of acquiring the current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction condition specifically includes a step of acquiring the geographical location of the mobile terminal using a positioning module of the mobile terminal, and a step of acquiring the system time of the mobile terminal by calling a function.

Regarding the first aspect and the first implementation of the first aspect, in a second implementation of the first aspect, the step of restricting use of the application when the operating environment satisfies a usage restriction condition is specifically a step of restricting use of the application when the acquired geographical location and the acquired system time match the geographical location and time in the usage restriction condition.

Regarding the first aspect, in a third implementation of the first aspect, when the usage restriction conditions include the time and network conditions of the mobile terminal, the step of acquiring the current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction conditions specifically includes the step of acquiring the system time and network conditions of the mobile terminal by calling a function.

Regarding the first aspect and the third implementation of the first aspect, in the fourth implementation of the first aspect, the step of restricting the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the usage restriction condition is specifically a step of restricting the use of the application when the acquired system time and the acquired network conditions match the time and network conditions in the usage restriction condition.

Regarding the first aspect, in the fifth implementation of the first aspect, the quantity of applications for which the application usage restriction condition is specific is not limited, and includes one or one type of application or all applications. That is, the usage restriction condition may be set for a single application, and the usage restriction condition may be set for multiple applications. The type of application is multiple applications having similar attributes such as source, purpose, identifier, and user usage habits. Common application types are, for example, a system application type, a learning and work type, an entertainment type, and a social contact type. The classification rules are pre-set when the device is shipped, user-specified, updated using a network, or set using a combination thereof. The classification rules may be activated by default, may be activated by regular (e.g., periodic) or irregular (e.g., random) user triggering, may be triggered and activated using a network command, or may be activated using a combination thereof.

Regarding the first aspect, in the sixth implementation of the first aspect, restricting the use of an application means temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application, i.e., accepting a user's touch operation but not immediately launching the application, which includes, but is not limited to, (1) temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application, i.e., accepting a user's touch operation but not immediately launching the application, including delaying or prohibiting the launch of the application, and (2) prohibiting system notifications for the application, i.e., not displaying message notifications for the application while the use of the application is restricted. The launch delay means temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application when a user's operation to launch the application for the first time is detected, but launching the application after a specific condition is met.

With respect to the first aspect and the sixth implementation of the first aspect, in the seventh implementation of the first aspect, prohibiting the launch of the application further includes at least one of: locking the application for a period of time, hiding the application icon, changing the position of the application icon, launching the application only after touching and holding or firmly pressing the application icon is accepted, launching the application only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, disappearing the icon only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, uninstalling the application after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, dimming or turning off the screen after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, or locking/powering off/restarting the mobile terminal after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted.

With respect to the first aspect and the sixth implementation of the first aspect, in the eighth implementation of the first aspect, delaying the launch of the application further includes at least one of: locking the application for a period of time; hiding the application icon; changing the position of the application icon; launching the application only after touching and holding or firmly pressing the application icon is accepted; launching the application only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted; disappearing the icon only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted; uninstalling the application after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted; dimming or turning off the screen after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted; locking/powering off/restarting the mobile device after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted

Regarding the first aspect, in a ninth implementation of the first aspect, the icon of an application whose use is restricted is displayed differently from the normal display state, for example, the icon is deformed, the icon is discolored, a restriction mark is added (e.g., a locking mark), the icon disappears, or the icon is moved to a specific location. After the usage restriction condition is removed, i.e., after the usage restriction condition is no longer satisfied, the icon of the application is restored to the normal display state.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal including a touch screen, one or more processors, a memory, and one or more programs. The one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors. The one or more programs include instructions. The instructions are used to perform the following operations: presetting a usage restriction condition for an application, the usage restriction condition including a time, a geographical location, a network condition, and a user attribute of the mobile terminal; obtaining a current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction condition upon receiving an input operation from a user; and restricting the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the usage restriction condition, or using the application normally when the operating environment does not satisfy the usage restriction condition. The specific method is the same as the method in the first aspect.

In a possible implementation, optionally, the terminal may further include one or more of the following components: a GPS module, an RF circuit, a WiFi module, a speaker, a microphone, a sensor, a power source, a camera, or a Bluetooth (registered trademark) module.

According to a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a mobile terminal for restricting the use of an application, the mobile terminal including a detection unit, a determination unit, a storage unit, and an execution unit, and when a user's input operation is detected, the detection unit acquires a current operating environment corresponding to a use restriction condition and transmits the condition of the operating environment to the determination unit, the determination unit compares the received condition of the operating environment with a pre-set use restriction condition stored in the storage unit, and when the operating environment satisfies the use restriction condition, the determination unit transmits an execution command to the execution unit to restrict use, and the execution unit restricts use of the application in accordance with the execution command received from the determination unit, or when the operating environment does not satisfy the use restriction condition, the determination unit transmits an execution command to the execution unit not to restrict use, and the execution unit does not restrict use of the application.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a storage medium configured to store computer software instructions used to implement the method of the first aspect.

In the above solution, the embodiment of the present invention provides a flexible and diverse application management policy for users of mobile terminals, so that the shortcomings of monolithic and inflexible in the prior art are overcome, the user's self-control ability is improved, better user usage habits are developed, and users are prevented from becoming dependent or even addicted to mobile terminals. Therefore, this is of great social significance.

2 is a flowchart of a method for restricting the use of applications on a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a schematic hardware diagram of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a user selecting pre-set conditions according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a schematic diagram of a direct desktop setting method in user-defined settings according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an independent interface configuration method in a user-defined configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an independent interface configuration method in a user-defined configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of selecting another response method for usage restriction according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a usage restriction in which the response method is to lock according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a usage restriction in which the response method is to move the location of an icon according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a usage restriction where a response method according to an embodiment of the present invention provides a system prompt; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a usage restriction where a response method according to an embodiment of the present invention provides a system prompt; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an icon display method during usage restriction according to an embodiment of the present invention; 1 is a schematic diagram of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments.

The mobile terminal described in the embodiments of the present invention includes, but is not limited to, mobile phones with mobile communication capabilities, tablet computers, handheld devices (such as PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and MP4 players), and wearable devices (such as smart bands, smart watches, and smart glasses), and the operating systems installed on the mobile terminal include, but are not limited to, iOS (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark), Microsoft (registered trademark), DOS, Unix, Linux, or another operating system. The mobile terminal in the embodiments of the present invention includes a touch screen, a display controller, a graphical user interface, one or more processors, memory, and one or more modules, programs, or instruction sets stored in the memory and configured to perform multiple functions. Optionally, in some embodiments, the mobile terminal further includes one or more of the following components: a GPS module, an RF circuit, a WiFi module, a speaker, a microphone, a sensor, a power source, a camera, or a Bluetooth (registered trademark) module. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a computer-operated user interface that is displayed in a graphical format. The GPS module determines the geographic location of the mobile terminal and provides the information so that it can be used in various applications. It should be understood that the GPS module in this specification, as configured to determine the geographic location, may be replaced with another positioning system, for example, GLONASS, Galileo, or BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.

A touch operation may be completed by touching the touch screen using a suitable part or object, such as a finger or a stylus. The touch screen includes a touch-sensitive surface and a display. The touch-sensitive surface is configured to perform various operations related to touch detection, such as determining whether there is a touch (e.g., to detect a finger press event), determining whether there is a touch operation, tracking movement across the entire touch-sensitive surface (e.g., to detect one or more finger drag events), and determining whether the touch ends (e.g., to detect a finger release or touch break event). Determining the movement of the touch point may include determining the rate of change (value), velocity (value and direction), and/or acceleration (change in value and/or direction) of the touch point, the movement of the touch point being indicated by a series of touch data. These operations may apply to single-point touch (e.g., one-finger touch) or multiple simultaneous touches (e.g., "multipoint touch"/multi-finger touch).

The display controller receives and/or transmits electrical signals from/to the touch screen. The display displays visual output to the user, including text, graphs, icons, video, and any combination thereof. In some embodiments, some or all of the visual outputs may correspond to user interface objects. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology or Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology or another display technology may be used for the display. Touch detection technologies include, but are not limited to, capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies. It should be noted that a touch screen should be understood broadly as a touch input device. The touch-sensitive surface may be integrated with the display or may be disposed separately as an independent touch input device to connect to the system. For example, coordination between mouse movement and mouse presses on a touch panel (with or without pressing or holding one or more keyboards), user movements, gentle tapping, dragging, rolling, etc., stylus input, device movement, voice commands, detected eye movements, biometric feature input, and/or any combination thereof may be used as touch input devices. In the following embodiments, finger input (e.g., single finger touch, single finger gentle tap gesture, and single finger flick gesture) is primarily referred to, but it should be understood that in some embodiments, one or more finger inputs may be replaced with input from another touch input device (e.g., stylus input).

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, a user gesture is flexible and may be tapping, double tapping, drawing a circle, drawing a line, a single finger touch, a multi-finger touch, and the like. One skilled in the art will appreciate that a particular gesture may be flexibly selected as long as essentially the same effect can be achieved. As used herein, unless otherwise specified, a user gesture is flexible and may be performed at a location or area on the touch-sensitive surface, on or near an area of an application interface element displayed on the display, on an empty area on the display where no application interface elements are displayed, on an area of a feature setting displayed on the display, and the like. One skilled in the art will appreciate that a particular location or area on the touch-sensitive surface where a gesture is performed may be flexibly selected as long as essentially the same effect can be achieved.

A mobile terminal device typically supports multiple applications, such as one or more of the following applications: drawing applications, presentation applications, word processing applications, web page creation applications, disc editing applications, spreadsheets, gaming applications, telephony applications, video conferencing applications, email applications, instant messaging applications, athletic support applications, photo management applications, digital camera applications, digital video camera applications, network browsing applications, digital music player applications, or digital video player applications.

Various applications that may be executed on the device may use at least one common physical user interface device, such as a touch-sensitive surface. One or more features of the touch-sensitive surface and corresponding information displayed on the device may be adjusted and/or changed from application to application and/or adjusted and/or changed in corresponding applications. In this manner, the common physical architecture of the device (e.g., the touch-sensitive surface) can support a variety of applications by using a user interface that is intuitive and clear to the user.

Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for restricting the use of an application on a mobile terminal. The method specifically includes the following steps:

S101. The mobile terminal pre-sets usage restriction conditions for the application, and the usage restriction conditions include the geographical location of the mobile terminal, time, user attributes, and network conditions.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the presetting may be setting usage restriction conditions for the application by the mobile terminal in response to a received user input, or may be a default setting of the mobile terminal. This is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

The usage restriction conditions are specifically some conditions set so that the mobile terminal performs certain processing to execute the application in some special cases. The application usage restriction conditions include, but are not limited to, time, geographic location, user attributes, and network conditions to restrict the use of the application. These conditions may be randomly combined, that is, the preset usage restriction conditions include at least one of the following conditions: time, geographic location, user attributes, or network conditions. Specific examples of usage restriction conditions include: (1) time, (2) geographic location, (3) user attributes, (4) network conditions, (5) time and geographic location, (6) time and user attributes, (7) time and network conditions, (8) geographic location and user attributes, (9) geographic location and network conditions, (10) user attributes and network conditions, (11) time, geographic location, and user attributes, (12) time, geographic location, and network conditions, (13) time, user attributes, and network conditions, (14) geographic location, user attributes, and network conditions, and (15) time, geographic location, user attributes, and network conditions.

The system default restriction conditions of the mobile terminal include default restriction conditions at the time of delivery and/or restriction conditions set by analyzing user operation habits. The user operation habits include frequency of use, time of use, geographic location of use, network conditions of use, user identity of use, etc. The mobile terminal obtains the usage rules of an application or several applications by a user, and then analyzes the user operation habits by statistics collection using components such as a processor to set application usage restriction conditions. For example, the use of a call application may be restricted during sleep time according to a timetable in which an alarm is set by a user to avoid interference from phone ringtones.

S102. When a user input operation is accepted, the current operating environment according to the usage restriction conditions is obtained.

The user input operation is an operation in which a user sends a command to a mobile terminal using an input device, and includes voice input, image input, key input, touch input, etc., and specifically includes, for example, unlocking a mobile terminal, brightening a screen, touching a key, touching a screen, tapping an application icon, and sending a command using physiological characteristics such as voice recognition, face recognition, and fingerprint recognition. In some embodiments of the present invention, tapping an application icon is used as an example, but it should be noted that other input operations should also be included. For example, when a user unlocks a mobile terminal or presses the home key of a mobile phone to brighten the screen when crossing a road, the method may be used to determine whether an application can be used normally.

Acquiring the current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction conditions means acquiring the system's application usage restriction conditions when the mobile terminal detects a user's input operation, and acquiring the corresponding conditions according to the usage restriction conditions when the user's input operation is accepted. For example, if the application usage restriction conditions are the time and geographic location at which the system accepts the user's input operation, the time and geographic location conditions of the current user input operating environment are acquired.

Time, network conditions, and user attributes may be ascertained by calling system functions, and geographic location may be obtained by using a GPS positioning module.

S103. Restrict the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the usage restriction conditions, or use the application normally when the operating environment does not satisfy the usage restriction conditions.

The processor compares the conditions in the usage restriction conditions with the corresponding conditions in the user input operating environment one by one. If all the conditions in the user input operating environment meet the requirements of the corresponding usage restriction conditions, the user input operating environment meets the usage restriction conditions, and the use of the application is restricted. If one or more conditions do not meet the requirements, the user input operating conditions do not meet the usage restriction conditions, and the application is used normally. For example, there are two usage restriction conditions for an application, time and geographic location, where the time condition is 8:00-10:00, and the geographic location condition is home. However, when the user performs a touch operation, the time corresponding to the operating environment is 9:30, and the geographic location condition is school. After the comparison, it is found that the time condition of the user operation meets the requirements, but the geographic location condition does not meet the requirements, and therefore the application is used normally.

When a user-specified usage restriction condition conflicts with a system default usage restriction condition, i.e., when both the user and the system make settings for the same usage restriction condition, the user-specified condition takes precedence. For example, the use of an application is restricted to WiFi network conditions by the system default, but a condition set by the user for the same application is that the use of the application is not restricted to WiFi network conditions. When a user's touch operation is detected and the network condition is WiFi, a comparison is made according to the user-specified condition and the use of the application is not restricted. That is, the application is used normally after the user's touch operation.

S103 was originally intended to determine whether the application can be used normally in the current operating environment, and it can be seen that the conditions for the determination can therefore be flexibly described. For example, S103 could be described as "when the operating environment does not meet the normal conditions of use, restrict the use of the application, or when the operating environment meets the normal conditions of use, use the application normally." The essence is the same.

Figure 2 is a schematic hardware diagram of a mobile terminal.

The components of the mobile terminal 2000 will now be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2, using a mobile phone as an example. It should be understood that the mobile terminal 2000 is merely one example of a mobile terminal and may include more or fewer components than those shown in the figure, may include a combination of two or more components, or may include components that are configured or arranged differently. The various components shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and may include one or more signal processors and/or application specific integrated circuits.

The input unit 2010 may be configured to receive input numeric or character information and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the mobile terminal 2000. Specifically, the input unit 2010 may include a touch panel 2011 and another input device 2012. The touch panel 2011, also called a touch screen, can collect a user's operation on or near the touch panel 2011 (e.g., a user's operation on or near the touch panel 2011 using any suitable object or accessory such as a finger or a stylus) and drive a corresponding connected device according to a pre-set program. Optionally, the touch panel 2011 may include two parts: a touch detection device and a touch controller. The touch detection device detects the user's touch direction, detects a signal obtained by the touch operation, and transmits the signal to the touch controller. The touch controller can receive touch information from the touch detection device, convert the touch information into touch point coordinates, transmit the touch point coordinates to the processor 2020, and receive and execute instructions transmitted by the processor 2020. Furthermore, the touch panel 2011 is implemented using multiple types such as resistive, capacitive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave. The input unit 2010 includes another input device 2012 in addition to the touch panel 2011. Specifically, the other input device 2012 may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a physical keyboard, a function key (volume adjustment key or on/off key), a trackball, a mouse, or a joystick.

The memory 2030 is configured to store software programs and modules, and the processor 2020 executes various functional applications and data processing of the mobile terminal 2000 by executing the software programs and modules stored in the memory 2030. The memory 2030 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area. The program storage area may store an operating system and applications required by at least one function (e.g., a sound playback function or an image playback function), and the data storage area may store data (such as voice data or an address book) created according to the use of the mobile terminal 2000. In addition, the memory 2030 includes a high-speed random access memory and further includes a non-volatile memory such as at least one magnetic disk storage component, a flash memory component, or another volatile solid-state storage component.

The display unit 2040 may be configured to display information input by or provided to a user, and various menus of the mobile terminal 2000. The display unit 2040 may include a display panel 2041. Optionally, the display panel 2041 may be configured using an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode), or the like. Furthermore, the touch panel 2011 may cover the display panel 2041. Upon detecting a touch operation on or near the touch panel 2011, the touch panel 2011 transmits the touch operation to the processor 2020 to determine the type of the touch event, and then the processor 2020 provides a corresponding visual output on the display panel 2041 according to the type of the touch event. In FIG. 2, the touch panel 2011 and the display panel 2041 are used as two independent components to realize the input/output functions of the mobile terminal 2000. However, in some embodiments, the touch panel 2011 and the display panel 2041 are integrated to realize the input/output functions of the mobile terminal 2000.

Optionally, the RF circuitry 2070 may be configured to receive and transmit information or receive and transmit signals in call processing, in particular, to receive downlink information of a base station and then transmit the downlink information to the processor 2020 for processing, and further to transmit associated uplink data to the base station. In general, the RF circuitry includes, but is not limited to, an antenna, at least one amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier, low noise amplifier), or a duplexer. In addition, the RF circuitry 2070 further communicates with a network and another device by wireless communication. Any communication standard or protocol may be used for wireless communication, including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wide Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), email, or short message service (SMS).

Optionally, the mobile terminal 2000 may further include sensors 2050 such as a light sensor, a motion sensor, and another sensor. Specifically, the light sensor may include an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor. The ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness of the display panel 2041 according to the brightness of the ambient light, and the proximity sensor may turn off the display panel 2041 and/or the backlight when the mobile terminal 2000 is moved to the ear. As a motion sensor, the acceleration sensor may detect acceleration values in each direction (usually in three axial directions) and detect the value and direction of gravity when the acceleration sensor is stationary, and may be used for applications to recognize the attitude of the mobile phone (e.g., landscape/portrait switching, related games, magnetometer attitude calibration), functions related to vibration recognition (such as pedometer and knock), and the like. Optionally, other sensors such as a gyroscope, barometer, hygrometer, thermometer, and infrared sensor that may be disposed on the mobile terminal 2000 will not be described in detail herein.

Optionally, the audio frequency circuit 2060, the speaker 2061 and the microphone 2062 may provide an audio interface between the user and the mobile terminal 2000. The audio frequency circuit 2060 may transmit an electrical signal converted from the received audio data to the speaker 2061, which converts the electrical signal into an audio signal for output. Furthermore, the microphone 2062 converts the collected audio signal into an electrical signal, and when the audio frequency circuit 2060 receives the electrical signal, it converts the electrical signal into audio data and outputs it to the processor 2020 for processing, which then transmits the audio data to another mobile phone, for example using the RF circuit 2070, or outputs the audio data to the memory 2030 for further processing.

Optionally, the mobile terminal 2000 may further include a camera, a Bluetooth (registered trademark) module, etc., not shown, but detailed description of which is omitted in this specification.

Referring to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a user selecting a pre-set use restriction condition on the mobile terminal 2000 according to a user input. The user's finger 301 taps the touch panel 2011 for selection. The system default condition of the mobile terminal may be enabled or disabled, and personal and user-defined settings may be made for the use restriction condition by tapping the user-specified condition field. When the system default condition is enabled and the user also performs a personal setting for the use restriction condition, the user-specified condition has a higher priority. That is, when the system default condition conflicts with a user-specified condition for the same user operation condition, the mobile terminal 2000 compares the user operation condition with the personal user-specified condition to determine whether to restrict the use of the application. For example, for an application, in the system default use restriction condition, the time condition is 8:00-9:00 and the geographic location condition is school, and in the user-specified use restriction condition, the time condition is 8:00-9:00 and the geographic location condition is home, and the two types of conditions are contradictory to each other. When a user touches and taps an application icon, the user's input operating environment conditions are compared to the user-specified usage restriction conditions to determine whether to restrict use of the application.

The preset use restriction conditions are stored in the memory of the mobile terminal for comparison with the user operation conditions. When the user operation conditions meet the preset use restriction conditions, the use of the application is restricted, otherwise the application is launched. Restricting the use of the application means temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application, i.e., accepting the user's touch operation but not immediately launching the application, which includes, but is not limited to, (1) temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application, i.e., accepting the user's touch operation but not immediately launching the application, including delaying or prohibiting the launch of the application, and (2) prohibiting system notifications for the application, i.e., not displaying message notifications for the application during the application use restriction. The launch delay means temporarily not executing the operation to launch the application when a user's operation to launch the application for the first time is detected, but launching the application after a certain condition is met. The startup delay is to start an application after a certain condition is met, for example, to start an application after waiting 10 seconds, or to start an application after it is detected that a user has tapped the application icon five times in succession, or to start an application after it is detected that a user has dragged the application icon along a predetermined track. In another example, the preset usage restriction condition is to restrict the use of the application in a WiFi network condition. When the mobile terminal detects a touch operation by a user to start an application and the network condition is WiFi, the mobile terminal restricts the use of the application, i.e., the mobile terminal temporarily does not perform the operation to start the application.

It should be noted that the quantity of applications for which the application usage limiting conditions are specific is not limited and may include one or a type of application or all applications. That is, the usage of one application may be limited or the usage of a batch of applications may be limited. That is, the same usage limiting conditions are set for one type of application or all applications.

A type of application is a number of applications that have similar attributes, such as source, purpose, identifier, and user usage habits. Common application types are, for example, a system application type, a learning and work type, an entertainment type, and a social contact type. The rules for determining whether an application is of the same type, in other words, the rules for classifying applications, are flexible. The classification rules may be preset when the device is shipped, may be user-specified, may be updated using the network, or may be set using a combination thereof. The classification rules may be activated by default, may be activated by regular (e.g., periodic) or irregular (e.g., random) triggering by the user, may be activated by triggering using a network command, or may be activated using a combination thereof. Applications of the same type include, but are not limited to, any one or more combinations of the following applications:
applications from the same or similar source (e.g., two applications are pre-installed applications at the factory, two applications are downloaded from the same application store or the same type of application store, or two applications are developed by the same developer or the same type of developer);
applications with the same or similar purpose (e.g., two applications are video applications, two applications are fitness applications, or two applications are financial applications);
Applications with the same or similar type of identifier (e.g., two applications are identified as gaming applications, the most frequently downloaded applications, the most frequently downloaded applications in a particular period, or the most frequently downloaded applications in a particular area in an application store); or Applications with the same or similar user usage habits (e.g., two applications are applications where the user's usage time falls within a certain range (e.g., used more than 1000 times), two applications are applications used for a certain period or frequently used by a user (e.g., used more than 50 times in the last month), two applications are applications used or frequently used by a user in a certain area, or two applications are applications accessed by a user using the same registration information).

When setting the usage restriction conditions of an application, the user may perform a setting operation directly on the application. For example, the user performs the operation directly on the icon of the application on the display screen of the mobile terminal. Alternatively, the user may perform the setting operation on a separate setting interface. For example, the user restricts the usage conditions of the applications individually or in batches on a setting interface including an application list. It should be noted that there can be various ways to directly perform the operation on the icon of the application, so long as the setting option for restricting the usage of the application can pop up, and the operation action can be touching and holding the icon, double tapping the icon, performing sliding in various directions (including directions such as up, down, left, right, etc.), performing dragging, shaking, filling, box selection, etc.

Referring to FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch screen 2011, and there are several applications (APPs) on the display screen of the mobile terminal 2000. The user's finger 301 may perform a touch operation to set a usage restriction condition for a specific app, which is shown as app 401 in the figure. In the example of touching and holding an icon, after the user's finger 301 touches and holds the icon of app 401, setting options 402 pop up, for example, "Locked for 1 hour", "Locked for 2 hours", and "Define lock time". The user's finger 301 may tap the corresponding setting option, which results in a usage restriction condition being set for app 401, i.e., app 401 being locked and unavailable for a certain period of time.

5A and 5B, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch screen 2011 and an independent setting interface for restricting the use of applications. All applications on the mobile terminal 2000 are displayed in an application list. For each application, the user's finger 301 may tap the corresponding application setting option to perform a usage restriction setting operation. In the example of FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, after tapping the setting option for Facebook, the user's finger 301 may set the usage restriction conditions for Facebook, for example, according to location, network conditions, time, etc. Although not shown, the settings may be further performed in batches for one type of application. Details are not described in this specification.

Optionally, another response method may be added to restrict the use of the application. The other response method refers to the feedback that the mobile terminal system gives to the user when the mobile terminal system does not launch the restricted application, and the feedback methods are hardly exhaustive, and some typical methods include, but are not limited to, locking the application for a period of time, hiding the application icon, changing the position of the application icon, launching the application only after touching and holding or pressing the application icon is accepted, launching the application only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, disappearing the icon only after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, uninstalling the application after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, dimming or turning off the screen after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted, and locking/powering off/restarting the mobile terminal after tapping the application icon at least twice is accepted. In this specification, tapping at least twice means tapping multiple times consecutively within a certain period of time. The specific length of this period depends on the settings of the mobile terminal system. Touching and holding refers to not immediately moving off the screen, but continuing to touch for a period of time after the screen is tapped, for example, 3 or 5 seconds. Pressing hard refers to tapping the screen with a force that exceeds a certain threshold. Additionally, a system prompt may be provided. These feedback methods may be used in combination or repeatedly until the usage restriction condition is lifted, i.e., until the execution of these feedback methods ends after the usage restriction condition is no longer met. In the case of delayed launch, the application launch operation is performed after the execution of the feedback method ends. In the case of prohibited launch, the use of the application is prohibited even after the execution of the feedback method ends.

Referring to FIG. 6, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch screen 2011 configured to display an interface for selecting another response method. After the option to prohibit launch or the option to delay launch, another response method may be added, and the user's finger 301 may select the corresponding response method by tapping. For example, in the figure, the response methods for prohibiting launch include not displaying the icon, displaying the icon in gray, uninstalling the app after tapping the icon five times in succession, the icon disappears after tapping, tapping the icon until the application is unlocked, and the response methods added for delaying launch include launching the app only after tapping five times, pressing required for all operations, moving the icon randomly by tapping, and tapping the icon until the application is unlocked. It should be understood that the response method options are flexible and diverse and are not limited to the options shown in the figure.

Referring to FIG. 7, the mobile terminal 2000 has a touch screen 2011, and there are several applications (APPs) on the display screen of the mobile terminal 2000. When the app 401 is in a usage restriction state and the response method enabled by the user is to lock the application for a certain period of time, when the user's finger 301 taps the icon of the app 401, the mobile terminal 2000 temporarily does not perform the application startup operation, attaches a lock mark 701 to the icon of the app 401 to indicate that the additional response method to the usage restriction is to lock the app 401 for a certain period of time, and ends the execution of the additional response method after the usage restriction condition is not met.

Referring to FIG. 8, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch screen 2011, and there are several applications (APPs) on the display screen of the mobile terminal 2000. If the app 401 is in a usage restriction state and the response method enabled by the user is to move the position of the application icon, when the user's finger 301 taps the icon of the app 401, the mobile terminal 2000 temporarily does not execute the application startup operation and moves the icon of the app 401 to a specific location. The movement path may indicate a change in the display coordinates of the icon, and the change rule may be random or preset. The position of the icon of the illustrated app 401 moves from the third row, second column to the fourth row, fourth column. After the icon movement, if it is detected that the user has tapped the new display position of the icon of the app 401, the icon 401 may be further moved to restrict the startup of the app 401, and the execution of the additional response method is terminated after the usage restriction condition is not satisfied.

The system prompts provided may include, but are not limited to, forms such as text, images, audio, and video, and may be specifically implemented using hardware such as a display and speaker. The prompts may use any suitable form. In addition to visual notifications on a display, the prompts may include audio forms (e.g., beeps and ringtones), audiovisual forms, and/or physical forms (e.g., active reminders and LED reminders). Those skilled in the art may envision other types of notifications within the scope of the present invention.

9A and 9B, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch screen 2011, and there are several applications (APPs) on the display screen of the mobile terminal 2000. If the app 401 is in a restricted state and the response method enabled by the user is to provide a system prompt, when the user's finger 301 taps the icon of the app 401, the mobile terminal 2000 temporarily does not execute the application startup operation and provides a system prompt box 901/902. In the left diagram, the mobile terminal 2000 knows that the user is near a road and moving to the other side of the road by positioning using the GPS module, and the app 401 is in a restricted state in the current operating condition. In this case, when it is detected that the user's finger 301 taps the icon of the app 401, the system prompt box 901 is provided to prompt the user to concentrate on crossing the road, or an alarm is sounded, and the startup of the app 401 is temporarily not executed. In the diagram on the right, the mobile terminal 2000 detects that the user is a student, the current system time is during class time, and that in this state, the use of the app 401 is restricted. In this case, when it is detected that the user's finger 301 has tapped the icon of the app 401, a system prompt box 902 is provided to encourage the user to concentrate on studying, and the operation to launch the app 401 is temporarily not executed.

Optionally, when the use of an application is restricted, the icon of the application may differ from its normal display state, the icon may be deformed (e.g., the outline of the icon changes, a different outline is added, the outline becomes thicker, the outline becomes dashed, or the outline disappears), the icon may be discolored (e.g., the icon may become gray or dimmed or may change to a different color, the outline may change to a different color), a restriction mark may be added (e.g., a locking mark or a restriction graphic stamp may be added), the icon may disappear (e.g., the icon may be temporarily hidden), or the icon may be moved to a specific location (e.g., the icon may be moved to a dedicated restricted use icon folder). After the use restriction condition is removed, i.e. after the use restriction condition is no longer met, the icon of the application may be restored to its normal display state.

Referring to FIG. 10, the mobile terminal 2000 includes a touch panel 2011, and several applications (APPs) are present on the display screen of the mobile terminal 2000. When the app 401 is in a restricted state, the icon of the app 401 may differ from the icon in a normal display state. A deformation effect is added to the icon of the app 401 in the figure to indicate that the app 401 is in a restricted state in the current state.

Further, referring to FIG. 11, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal including a touch screen 111, one or more processors 112, a memory 113, a plurality of applications, and one or more programs. The one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors. The one or more programs include instructions. The instructions are used to perform the following operations: an operation of presetting a usage restriction condition for an application, the usage restriction condition including a time, a geographical location, a network condition, and a user attribute of the mobile terminal; an operation of obtaining a current operating environment corresponding to the usage restriction condition upon receiving an input operation from a user; and an operation of restricting the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the usage restriction condition, or an operation of using the application normally when the operating environment does not satisfy the usage restriction condition. The specific method is the same as the above-mentioned method of restricting the use of the application.

Optionally, the terminal may further include one or more of the following components: a GPS module, an RF circuit, a WiFi module, a speaker, a microphone, a sensor, a power source, a camera, or a Bluetooth module.

Also, referring to FIG. 12, another embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal including a detection unit 121, a determination unit 122, a storage unit 123, and an execution unit 124. The storage unit 123 is configured to store a preset use restriction condition. After receiving an input operation from a user, the detection unit 121 transmits a current operation environment condition to the determination unit 122. The determination unit 122 compares the received user operation environment condition with the preset use restriction condition stored in the storage unit 123. If the user operation environment condition satisfies the preset use restriction condition, the determination unit 122 transmits an execution command to the execution unit 124 for performing the use restriction, and the execution unit 124 restricts the use of the application according to the execution command received from the determination unit 122. If the user operation condition does not satisfy the preset use restriction condition, the execution unit 124 transmits an execution command not to perform the use restriction to the execution unit 124, and the execution unit 124 does not restrict the use of the application.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the present invention provides a storage medium storing computer software instructions, the instructions being used to perform the following operations: presetting use restriction conditions for an application, the use restriction conditions including time, geographical location, network conditions and user attributes of the mobile terminal; obtaining a current operating environment corresponding to the use restriction conditions when a user input operation is accepted; and restricting the use of the application when the operating environment satisfies the use restriction conditions, or using the application normally when the operating environment does not satisfy the use restriction conditions. The specific method is the same as the above-mentioned method of restricting the use of an application on a mobile terminal.

The term "and/or" as used herein should be understood to indicate and include any or all possible combinations of one or more items in the associated listed item. It should be further understood that the terms "comprise" and/or "comprise" as used herein specify the presence of features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components together with the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or combinations thereof that are not excluded.

Terms such as "first" and "second" may be used to describe various elements herein, but it should be understood that the elements should not be limited by the terms. These terms are merely used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first contact may be called a second contact, and similarly, a second contact may be named a first contact, without departing from the scope of the present invention. Although both the first contact and the second contact are contacts, the first contact and the second contact are not the same. In some scenarios, the first contact and the second contact may be the same contact.

The terms used in the description of the present invention herein are merely for the purpose of describing particular embodiments and are not intended to limit the present invention. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "one," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Depending on the context, the term "when" as used herein may be interpreted as meaning "when" or "after" or "in response to determining" or "in response to detecting." Similarly, depending on the context, the phrase "when it is determined that" or "when (a specified condition or event) is detected" may be interpreted as meaning "when it is determined that" or "in response to determining" or "when (a specified condition or event) is detected" or "in response to detecting (a specified condition or event)."

In combination with the examples described in the embodiments disclosed herein, those skilled in the art can understand that the units, algorithms, and method steps may be implemented by a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether a function is performed by hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to go beyond the scope of the present invention.

Units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separated, and parts shown as units may or may not be physical units, and may be in a single location or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the objectives of the solutions of the embodiments of the present invention. The unit division is merely a logical functional division, and may be other divisions in actual implementation. The mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections shown or discussed may be implemented by using some interfaces. Indirect couplings or communication connections between devices or units may be implemented in electronic, mechanical or other forms. Furthermore, the functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, may exist physically alone, or two or more units may be integrated.

Those skilled in the art may understand that all or part of the steps of the method embodiments may be implemented by a program that instructs associated hardware. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When the program runs, the steps of the method embodiments are executed. The storage medium includes any medium capable of storing program code, such as a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc.

The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present invention and does not limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Equivalent modifications and replacements that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention are considered to fall within the scope of protection of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention belongs to the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims (8)

1. A method for restricting use of an application, the method comprising:
displaying a first interface, the first interface being a settings interface;
receiving, in the first interface, a first operation for presetting use limit conditions for a plurality of applications, the use limit conditions being related to time;
restricting use of the plurality of applications when the usage restriction condition is satisfied;
displaying a second interface, the second interface being different from the first interface;
receiving, in the second interface, a second operation for releasing a usage restriction condition among the usage restriction conditions for a target application of the plurality of applications, the second operation being set in a third interface;
canceling the usage restriction condition for the target application in response to the second operation;
and retaining the usage restriction conditions for other applications of the plurality of applications other than the usage restriction conditions for the target application. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of applications are applications having the same attributes, or the plurality of applications are applications belonging to the same type. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of restricting the use of the plurality of applications includes a step of prohibiting the launch of the plurality of applications or a step of delaying the launch of the plurality of applications. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of prohibiting the launch of the applications further includes a step of hiding icons of the plurality of applications. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of delaying the launch of the applications further comprises the steps of: launching the applications after multiple consecutive taps by a user are received, or locking or powering off the terminal after at least two taps on icons of the applications by the user are received, or changing the position of the icons of the applications. The method of claim 1, wherein the display state of each icon of the plurality of applications whose use is restricted is different from a normal display state. A terminal comprising a touch screen, one or more processors, a memory, and one or more programs, the one or more programs being stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors, and configured to cause the terminal to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6. A computer program that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.

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