You probably think that the “Pull to Refresh” feature on various apps like Twitter and Facebook came into being via Apple iOS apps. Well, you are probably wrong.
While you might see this feature in many apps, it isn’t present in any of the core iOS apps, which proves Apple doesn’t have the patent for this feature (Ouch!). So who actually first patented this feature?
Well, the patent application titled “User Interface Mechanics” was in the name of inventor of the called Tweetie, Loren Brichter. Tweetie is now acquired by Twitter, which means they have the upper hand now.
So now Twitter is trying to patent the feature under its name and it is not just limited to the refresh feature rather anything that issues a command on pulling down a menu.
Here’s the patent explanation:
Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for providing enhanced user interface mechanics are presented. In one arrangement, a scrollable list of content items may be displayed. Input associated with a scroll command may be received. Then, based on the scroll command, a scrollable refresh trigger may be displayed. Subsequently, the scrollable list of content items may be refreshed in response to determining, based on the scroll command, that the scrollable refresh trigger has been activated. In at least one instance, it may be determined that the scrollable refresh trigger has been activated in response to determining that the scroll command was completed while the scrollable refresh trigger was fully displayed.Via