Patent Publication Number: US-2023155885-A1

Title: System and methods for alerting a user consuming media to the progress of others consuming media

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     A consumer may wish to consume media content in the company of friends, family, or other specified users, but may be unable to. In this situation, the consumer may wish to determine the progress their friends, family, or others made consuming the media content, so that the consumer can catch up to their progress consuming the media content. For instance, a wife may desire to catch up to her husband&#39;s progress in a particular show during the day in order to watch together from the same episode later in the evening. Additionally, the consumer may have trouble learning or remembering the progress point of friends, family, or others while the consumer is consuming the media content and may accidentally or unknowingly go past the users&#39; progress points. 
     SUMMARY 
     Systems and methods are provided herein for enabling a first user to set up an alert that will notify the first user when the first user has caught up to a second user&#39;s progress in consuming media. These systems and methods are used to ensure that the first user is informed, while he or she is consuming media, that he or she has caught up to the progress of a second user. By providing an alert while the first user is viewing media, the first user does not have to remember the progress of the second user while viewing the media, thus alleviating the first user from worrying he or she will pass the progress made by the second user without realizing he or she has done so. 
     In some aspects of the disclosure, control circuitry may receive a first selection, made by a first user of a media consumption application, of an identifier of a second user, where the media consumption application provides access to a variety of media. The media consumption application could be any user interface generated by control circuitry that facilitates access to media by the user. The identifier is associated with the second user and allows the control circuitry to determine the second user that the first user desires to select. For instance, a user may select an icon with an image of a sibling whose progress consuming media the user is interested in. The control circuitry in this case will detect a selection of an identifier corresponding to the sibling that is associated with the sibling. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry may receive a second selection, made by the first user, of an identifier of media, where the identifier corresponds to first media accessible through the media consumption application. The identifier is associated with the selected first media and allows the control circuitry to determine the first media that the first user desires to select. For example, a user may select a specific television series, “Seinfeld,” that he or she is interested in consuming. The control circuitry in this case will detect a user selection of an identifier corresponding to the series “Seinfeld” that is unique to the series. 
     In some embodiments, in response to receiving both the first selection and the second selection, control circuitry may monitor for access of the first media by the first user. Continuing with the selections made by the user in the previous examples, the control circuitry may store the unique media identifier associated with the series “Seinfeld” in a first data structure. The first data structure may contain profile information relating to the first user, such as media the first user has viewed, associated accounts, and account settings. The control circuitry may receive an indication that the first user is using the media consumption application to consume media with a second media identifier. In response to receiving this indication, the control circuitry may query the first data structure to determine if the media with the second media identifier currently consumed is the same as the first media identifier, corresponding to “Seinfeld,” stored in the first data structure. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry may detect, during the monitoring, that the first user is accessing the first media. For example, control circuitry may detect, based on the monitoring by the control circuitry, that the first user has accessed and is consuming an episode of “Seinfeld.” 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry may compare, while the first user is accessing the first media, a first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media with a second consumption progress of the second user with respect to the first media. Continuing with the “Seinfeld” example, the control circuitry may query a first data structure associated with the first user for the first consumption progress with respect to the series “Seinfeld,” and may determine that the first consumption progress of the first user corresponds to 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. The control circuitry may then query a second data structure associated with the sibling for the second consumption progress with respect to the series “Seinfeld” and may determine that the second consumption progress of the sibling corresponds to 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. The second data structure may contain profile information relating to the second user, such as media the second user has viewed, associated accounts, and account settings. The control circuitry may then compare the first consumption progress and the second consumption progress. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry may determine, based on the comparing, that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user. Continuing from the previous example, the control circuitry may compare the first consumption progress of the first user with the second consumption progress of the sibling for the show “Seinfeld.” For example, the control circuitry may determine by subtraction of the consumption progress of the first user from the consumption progress of the second user that the consumption progress in the series “Seinfeld” for the first user is 5 minutes away from the consumption progress in the series “Seinfeld” of the sibling. The control circuitry may then compare the result of the comparison with a threshold criterion, where the threshold criterion defines a range of the relative consumption progress of the first user with respect to the consumption progress of the second user that qualifies the first user&#39;s consumption progress as being caught up to the second user&#39;s consumption progress. If, for instance, the threshold criterion was that the first consumption progress of the first user and the second consumption progress of the second user are within 10 minutes of each other, then the control circuitry may determine the threshold condition is met, because the control circuitry determined the first user is 5 minutes away from the second user&#39;s progress and 5 minutes is less than the 10 minute threshold criterion. In response to a determination that the threshold condition is met, the control circuitry may determine that the first user has caught up to the second user. 
     In some embodiments, in response to the control circuitry determining that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user, control circuitry may generate for display an alert indicating the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, in response to the control circuitry determining that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of their sibling in the series “Seinfeld,” the control circuitry may pause, without further input from the first user, playback of the series “Seinfeld” currently being accessed by the first user, where control circuitry may generate for display the alert while the playback of “Seinfeld” is paused. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which: 
         FIG.  1    shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may be used to provide media guidance application listings and other media guidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  2    shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may be used to provide media guidance application listings, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  3    is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  4    is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  5    depicts an illustrative user equipment displaying a user interface of a media consumption application, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  6    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining whether a first user has caught up to the media consumption progress of a second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  7    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in receiving a first selection, made by a first user of a media consumption application, of an identifier of a second user, as well as receiving a second selection made by the first user, of a first media, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  8    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in monitoring and detecting for access of the first media by the first user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  9    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in comparing the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media with a second consumption progress of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; 
         FIG.  10    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining, based on the comparing, that the first user has caught up to the second consumption progress of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and 
         FIG.  11    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in generating for display an alert indicating the first user has caught up to the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Systems and methods are provided herein for enabling a first user to set up an alert that will notify the first user when the first user has caught up to a second user&#39;s progress in consuming media. These systems and methods are used to ensure that the first user is informed, while he or she is consuming media, that he or she has caught up to the progress of a second user. By providing an alert while the first user is viewing media, the first user does not have to remember the progress of the second user while viewing the media, thus alleviating the first user from worrying he or she will pass the progress made by the second user without realizing he or she has done so. 
     The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application. 
     Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above, for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance. 
     The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc. 
     With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speed wireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment devices on which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same content available through a television. Consequently, media guidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content available only through a television, for content available only through one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or for content available both through a television and one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Various devices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications are described in more detail below. 
     One of the functions of the media guidance application is to provide media guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any data related to content or data used in operating the guidance application. For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidance application settings, user preferences, user profile information, media listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental control ratings, critic&#39;s ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo data for broadcasters&#39; or providers&#39; logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locate desired content selections. 
       FIGS.  1 - 2    show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance data. The display screens shown in  FIGS.  1 - 2    may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While the displays of  FIGS.  1 - 2    are illustrated as full screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access content information by selecting a selectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user input interface or device. In response to the user&#39;s indication, the media guidance application may provide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria. 
       FIG.  1    shows illustrative grid of a program listings display  100  arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different types of content in a single display. Display  100  may include grid  102  with: (1) a column of channel/content type identifiers  104 , where each channel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers  106 , where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid  102  also includes cells of program listings, such as program listing  108 , where each listing provides the title of the program provided on the listing&#39;s associated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can select program listings by moving highlight region  110 . Information relating to the program listing selected by highlight region  110  may be provided in program information region  112 . Region  112  may include, for example, the program title, the program description, the time the program is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program&#39;s rating, and other desired information. 
     In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., content that is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipment devices at a predetermined time and is provided according to a schedule), the media guidance application also provides access to non-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device at any time and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linear programming may include content from different content sources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above or other storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include movies or any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content through an Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP). 
     Grid  102  may provide media guidance data for non-linear programming including on-demand listing  114 , recorded content listing  116 , and Internet content listing  118 . A display combining media guidance data for content from different types of content sources is sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may be displayed that are different than display  100  may be based on user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings  114 ,  116 , and  118  are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid  102  to indicate that selection of these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for these content types may be included directly in grid  102 . Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of the navigational icons  120 . (Pressing an arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similar manner as selecting navigational icons  120 .) 
     Display  100  may also include video region  122 , advertisement  124 , and options region  126 . Video region  122  may allow the user to view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will be available, or were available to the user. The content of video region  122  may correspond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed in grid  102 . Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the embodiments described herein. 
     Advertisement  124  may provide an advertisement for content that, depending on a viewer&#39;s access rights (e.g., for subscription programming), is currently available for viewing, will be available for viewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, and may correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listings in grid  102 . Advertisement  124  may also be for products or services related or unrelated to the content displayed in grid  102 . Advertisement  124  may be selectable and provide further information about content, provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing of content, a product, or a service, provide content relating to the advertisement, etc. Advertisement  124  may be targeted based on a user&#39;s profile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of display provided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases. 
     While advertisement  124  is shown as rectangular or banner shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and location in a guidance application display. For example, advertisement  124  may be provided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid  102 . This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. In addition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidance application display or embedded within a display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other types of content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a user equipment device having a guidance application, in a database connected to the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media servers), or on other storage means, or a combination of these locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application is discussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will be appreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the embodiments described herein. 
     Options region  126  may allow the user to access different types of content, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidance application features. Options region  126  may be part of display  100  (and other display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. The selectable options within options region  126  may concern features related to program listings in grid  102  or may include options available from a main menu display. Features related to program listings may include searching for other air times or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a main menu display may include search options, VOD options, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronization options, second screen device options, options to access various types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premium service, options to edit a user&#39;s profile, options to access a browse overlay, or other options. 
     The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user&#39;s preferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize displays and features to create a personalized “experience” with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may be created by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by the media guidance application monitoring user activity to determine various user preferences. Users may access their personalized guidance application by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application. Customization of the media guidance application may be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations may include varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g., only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail, electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desired customizations. 
     The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profile information or may automatically compile user profile information. The media guidance application may, for example, monitor the content the user accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the user accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that the media guidance application may access. As a result, a user can be provided with a unified guidance application experience across the user&#39;s different user equipment devices. This type of user experience is described in greater detail below in connection with  FIG.  4   . Additional personalized media guidance application features are described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. 
     Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown in  FIG.  2   . Video mosaic display  200  includes selectable options  202  for content information organized based on content type, genre, and/or other organization criteria. In display  200 , television listings option  204  is selected, thus providing listings  206 ,  208 ,  210 , and  212  as broadcast program listings. In display  200  the listings may provide graphical images including cover art, still images from the content, video clip previews, live video from the content, or other types of content that indicate to a user the content being described by the media guidance data in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also be accompanied by text to provide further information about the content associated with the listing. For example, listing  208  may include more than one portion, including media portion  214  and text portion  216 . Media portion  214  and/or text portion  216  may be selectable to view content in full-screen or to view information related to the content displayed in media portion  214  (e.g., to view listings for the channel that the video is displayed on). 
     The listings in display  200  are of different sizes (i.e., listing  206  is larger than listings  208 ,  210 , and  212 ), but if desired, all the listings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user or to emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider or based on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphically accentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     Users may access content and the media guidance application (and its display screens described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment devices.  FIG.  3    shows a generalized embodiment of illustrative user equipment device  300 . More specific implementations of user equipment devices are discussed below in connection with  FIG.  4   . User equipment device  300  may receive content and data via input/output (hereinafter “I/O”) path  302 . I/O path  302  may provide content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, content available over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), and/or other content) and data to control circuitry  304 , which includes processing circuitry  306  and storage  308 . Control circuitry  304  may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path  302 . I/O path  302  may connect control circuitry  304  (and specifically processing circuitry  306 ) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in  FIG.  3    to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. 
     Control circuitry  304  may be based on any suitable processing circuitry such as processing circuitry  306 . As referred to herein, processing circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments, processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage  308 ). Specifically, control circuitry  304  may be instructed by the media guidance application to perform the functions discussed above and below. For example, the media guidance application may provide instructions to control circuitry  304  to generate the media guidance displays. In some implementations, any action performed by control circuitry  304  may be based on instructions received from the media guidance application. 
     In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry  304  may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance application server or other networks or servers. The instructions for carrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on the guidance application server. Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths (which is described in more detail in connection with  FIG.  4   ). In addition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (described in more detail below). 
     Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage  308  that is part of control circuitry  304 . As referred to herein, the phrase “electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives, optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD) recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gaming consoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storage devices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage  308  may be used to store various types of content described herein as well as media guidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, described in relation to  FIG.  4   , may be used to supplement storage  308  or instead of storage  308 . 
     Control circuitry  304  may include video generating circuitry and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry  304  may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user equipment  300 . Circuitry  304  may also include digital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage  308  is provided as a separate device from user equipment  300 , the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage  308 . 
     A user may send instructions to control circuitry  304  using user input interface  310 . User input interface  310  may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display  312  may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of user equipment device  300 . For example, display  312  may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface  310  may be integrated with or combined with display  312 . Display  312  may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature poly silicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display  312  may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display  312  may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video card or graphics card may generate the output to the display  312 . The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be any processing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry  304 . The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry  304 . Speakers  314  may be provided as integrated with other elements of user equipment device  300  or may be stand-alone units. The audio component of videos and other content displayed on display  312  may be played through speakers  314 . In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers  314 . 
     The guidance application may be implemented using any suitable architecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application wholly-implemented on user equipment device  300 . In such an approach, instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage  308 ), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach). Control circuitry  304  may retrieve instructions of the application from storage  308  and process the instructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions, control circuitry  304  may determine what action to perform when input is received from user input interface  310 . For example, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed instructions when user input interface  310  indicates that an up/down button was selected. 
     In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on user equipment device  300  is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user equipment device  300 . In one example of a client-server based guidance application, control circuitry  304  runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For example, the remote server may store the instructions for the application in a storage device. The remote server may process the stored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry  304 ) and generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device may receive the displays generated by the remote server and may display the content of the displays locally on equipment device  300 . This way, the processing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device  300 . Equipment device  300  may receive inputs from the user via user input interface  310  and transmit those inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the corresponding displays. For example, equipment device  300  may transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an up/down button was selected via user input interface  310 . The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that input and generate a display of the application corresponding to the input (e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display is then transmitted to equipment device  300  for presentation to the user. 
     In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by control circuitry  304 ). In some embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry  304  as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry  304 . For example, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry  304 . In some of such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program. 
     User equipment device  300  of  FIG.  3    can be implemented in system  400  of  FIG.  4    as user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , wireless user communications device  406 , or any other type of user equipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to herein collectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may be substantially similar to user equipment devices described above. User equipment devices, on which a media guidance application may be implemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of a network of devices. Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and are discussed in more detail below. 
     A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system features described above in connection with  FIG.  3    may not be classified solely as user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , or a wireless user communications device  406 . For example, user television equipment  402  may, like some user computer equipment  404 , be Internet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while user computer equipment  404  may, like some television equipment  402 , include a tuner allowing for access to television programming. The media guidance application may have the same layout on various different types of user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For example, on user computer equipment  404 , the guidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless user communications devices  406 . 
     In system  400 , there is typically more than one of each type of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in  FIG.  4    to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize more than one type of user equipment device and also more than one of each type of user equipment device. 
     In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , wireless user communications device  406 ) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example, a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on the second screen device may be any suitable content that supplements the content presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured for interacting with other second screen devices or for interacting with a social network. The second screen device can be located in the same room as the first device, a different room from the first device but in the same house or building, or in a different building from the first device. 
     The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent media guidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming preferences that the guidance application utilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, and other desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channel as a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on their personal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as a favorite on the user&#39;s in-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the user&#39;s mobile devices, if desired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user, as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application. 
     The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network  414 . Namely, user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , and wireless user communications device  406  are coupled to communications network  414  via communications paths  408 ,  410 , and  412 , respectively. Communications network  414  may be one or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, or other types of communications network or combinations of communications networks. Paths  408 ,  410 , and  412  may separately or together include one or more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path  412  is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in  FIG.  4    it is a wireless path and paths  408  and  410  are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, if desired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in  FIG.  4    to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. 
     Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication paths, such as those described above in connection with paths  408 ,  410 , and  412 , as well as other short-range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly through an indirect path via communications network  414 . 
     System  400  includes content source  416  and media guidance data source  418  coupled to communications network  414  via communication paths  420  and  422 , respectively. Paths  420  and  422  may include any of the communication paths described above in connection with paths  408 ,  410 , and  412 . Communications with the content source  416  and media guidance data source  418  may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a single path in  FIG.  4    to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of content source  416  and media guidance data source  418 , but only one of each is shown in  FIG.  4    to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The different types of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, content source  416  and media guidance data source  418  may be integrated as one source device. Although communications between sources  416  and  418  with user equipment devices  402 ,  404 , and  406  are shown as through communications network  414 , in some embodiments, sources  416  and  418  may communicate directly with user equipment devices  402 ,  404 , and  406  via communication paths (not shown) such as those described above in connection with paths  408 ,  410 , and  412 . 
     Content source  416  may include one or more types of content distribution equipment including a television distribution facility, cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source  416  may be the originator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs for downloading, etc.). Content source  416  may include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Content source  416  may also include a remote media server used to store different types of content (including video content selected by a user), in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely stored content to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     Media guidance data source  418  may provide media guidance data, such as the media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels. 
     In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source  418  may be provided to users&#39; equipment using a client-server approach. For example, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from a server, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipment device. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing on the user&#39;s equipment may initiate sessions with source  418  to obtain guidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of date or when the user equipment device receives a request from the user to receive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specified period of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a request from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source  418  may provide user equipment devices  402 ,  404 , and  406  the media guidance application itself or software updates for the media guidance application. 
     In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data. For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical user activity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches, what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interacts with a social network, at what times the user interacts with a social network to post information, what types of content the user typically watches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. For example, the subscription data may identify to which sources or services a given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the given user has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g., whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user has added a premium level of services, whether the user has increased Internet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or the subscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period of more than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihood a given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, the media guidance application may process the viewer data with the subscription data using the model to generate a value or score that indicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score may indicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminate access to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the media guidance application may generate promotions and advertisements that entice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one to which the user will likely terminate access. 
     Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, the media guidance application may be implemented as software or a set of executable instructions which may be stored in storage  308 , and executed by control circuitry  304  of a user equipment device  300 . In some embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-server applications where only a client application resides on the user equipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. For example, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry  304  of user equipment device  300  and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source  418 ) running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data source  418 ), the media guidance application may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance application displays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipment devices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry of the media guidance data source  418  to transmit data for storage on the user equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate the guidance application displays. 
     Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices  402 ,  404 , and  406  may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT content delivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any user equipment device described above, to receive content that is transferred over the Internet, including any content described above, in addition to content received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP may not be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, or redistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets provided by the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers include YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IP packets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is a trademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu, LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively provide media guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or media guidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidance applications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications), or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored on the user equipment device. 
     Media guidance system  400  is intended to illustrate a number of approaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devices and sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each other for the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing other approaches for delivering content and providing media guidance. The following four approaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example of  FIG.  4   . 
     In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each other within a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with each other directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemes described above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications network  414 . Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate different user equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media guidance information or settings to be communicated between the different user equipment devices. For example, it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidance application settings on different user equipment devices within a home network, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types of user equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with each other to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content from user computer equipment to a portable video player or portable music player. 
     In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment by which they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobile devices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For example, users may access an online media guidance application on a website via a personal computer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidance application to control the user&#39;s in-home equipment. The online guide may control the user&#39;s equipment directly, or by communicating with a media guidance application on the user&#39;s in-home equipment. Various systems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where the user equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, is discussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issued Oct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
     In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outside a home can use their media guidance application to communicate directly with content source  416  to access content. Specifically, within a home, users of user television equipment  402  and user computer equipment  404  may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locate desirable content. Users may also access the media guidance application outside of the home using wireless user communications devices  406  to navigate among and locate desirable content. 
     In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloud computing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computing environment, various types of computing services for content sharing, storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networking sites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing and storage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloud can include a collection of server computing devices, which may be located centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-based services to various types of users and devices connected via a network such as the Internet via communications network  414 . These cloud resources may include one or more content sources  416  and one or more media guidance data sources  418 . In addition or in the alternative, the remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such as user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , and wireless user communications device  406 . For example, the other user equipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server. 
     The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, content sharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well as access to any content described above, for user equipment devices. Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing service providers, or through other providers of online services. For example, the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, a content sharing site, a social networking site, or other services via which user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others on connected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipment device to store content to the cloud and to receive content from the cloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-stored content. 
     A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders, digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing devices, to record content. The user can upload content to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, for example, from user computer equipment  404  or wireless user communications device  406  having content capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment  404 . The user equipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmission service on communications network  414 . In some embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipment devices can access the content directly from the user equipment device on which the user stored the content. 
     Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, for example, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktop application, a mobile application, and/or any combination of access applications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or the user equipment device may have some functionality without access to cloud resources. For example, some applications running on the user equipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while other applications may be stored and run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device can download content from multiple cloud resources for more efficient downloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloud resources for processing operations such as the processing operations performed by processing circuitry described in relation to  FIG.  3   . 
     As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as a result of. For example, a first action being performed in response to another action may include interstitial steps between the first action and the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly in response to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action being performed directly in response to another action may not include interstitial steps between the first action and the second action. 
       FIG.  5    depicts an illustrative user equipment displaying a user interface of a media consumption application, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.  FIG.  5    depicts user equipment  500 , which may be any of user television equipment  402 , user computer equipment  404 , and wireless user communications device  406 . Control circuitry  304  is installed on the user equipment  500  and executes media consumption application  502 , which may have any of the described capabilities of media guidance application  100 . Control circuitry  304  may generate for display a graphical user interface for media consumption application  502  on display  312 . Control circuitry  304  may generate for display time bar  504 , which may comprise any indication of progress of media control, such as a start time, an end time, scene indicators and other demarcations, and the like. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry  304 ) may receive a first selection, made by a first user of media consumption application  502  via user input interface  310 , of an identifier of a second user, where media consumption application  502  provides access to a variety of media. The identifier of a second user may consist of a string of characters that could be matched to metadata in a stored user profile in a data structure corresponding to the second user. The string of characters may refer to a name, birthdate, user handle (profile name), or any other identifying characteristic of the second user stored in the user profile for the second user. Control circuitry  304  may access, via communications network  414 , media guidance data source  418 , which contains a plurality of data structures associated with user profiles containing associated metadata, such as the user&#39;s name, handle, birthdate, etc. 
     For example, control circuitry  304  may access a three-dimensional matrix stored at media guidance data source  418 , where each user profile (i.e., a data structure corresponding to a user) is a two-dimensional slice of the stored matrix. Control circuitry  304  may determine the second user that the first user desires to select by comparing the string of characters to stored metadata in the data structure associated with the second user. 
     For instance, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection by the first user from user input interface  310  of an indication of a second user, such as his or her sibling, whose progress consuming media the first user is interested in. Control circuitry  304  may receive the selection of the identifier of the second user directly from the first user via user input interface  310 , or may receive the selection of the identifier of the second user from the first user selecting an option with an associated identifier. For instance, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection from the first user via user input interface  310  of a name of a second user that he or she is interested in, such as his or her sibling&#39;s name, “Joe,” or a user&#39;s handle “joe.12345.” As another example, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection of an identifier of the second user from the first user, via user input interface  310 , selecting an option that is associated with the second user, such as an icon with an image of Joe. Control circuitry  304  may associate an identifier of a second user with the icon and receive the selection of the identifier of the second user upon control circuitry  304  receiving a selection of the icon. 
     Control circuitry  304  may then determine the second user that the first user desired to select based on comparing the received first selection with an identifier corresponding to the second user, the sibling, stored in a data structure associated with the second user. The data structure may be located at a media guidance data source  418  and accessed by control circuitry  304  through a communications network  414 , as described above. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may receive a second selection, made by the first user, of an identifier of media, where the identifier corresponds to first media accessible through media consumption application  502 . The identifier of media may comprise a string of characters that could be matched to metadata in a stored user profile in the second data structure corresponding to the second user. The second data structure may contain metadata associated with media the user has consumed, progress the user has made consuming media, and information about the user. The string of characters could refer to a title, actor, studio name, or any other identifying characteristic of media. 
     Control circuitry  304  may access the second data structure located on media guidance data source  418 , which contains a plurality of user profiles with associated metadata, via communications network  414 , as described above. For instance, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection from a user of a first media, such as the program series “Seinfeld,” the first user is interested in. Control circuitry  304  in this case may receive a selection of an identifier corresponding to the first media, “Seinfeld,” such as the title of the show or an actor associated with the show, such as “Jerry Seinfeld.” Control circuitry  304  may receive the selection of the identifier of media in the same way as was described for receiving the selection of a second user above. Control circuitry  304  may then determine the first media that the first user desired to select based on comparing the received second selection with an identifier corresponding to the first media, “Seinfeld,” stored in the second data structure. 
     In some embodiments, in response to receiving both the first selection and the second selection, control circuitry  304  may monitor for access of the first media by the first user. For example, control circuitry  304  may store the media identifier associated with media  520  selected by the first user, the series “Seinfeld,” in a first data structure associated with the first user. The first data structure may be the same data structure as the data structure associated with the first user stored at media guidance data source  418 . Control circuitry may access media guidance data source  418  via communications network  414 . 
     For example, control circuitry  304  may store the selection of media  520  in an element of the first data structure that corresponds to a list of media the first user is interested in. Control circuitry  304  may receive indication that the first user is using media consumption application  502  to consume media with a second media identifier. For example, control circuitry  304  may receive an indication that the first user has logged in to an account associated with the first user and is accessing media. In response to receiving this indication, control circuitry  304  may query the first data structure to determine if the currently consumed media with the second media identifier is the same as the first media identifier, corresponding to “Seinfeld,” stored in the first data structure. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may detect, during the monitoring, that the first user is accessing media  520 . For example, control circuitry  304  may detect, based on the monitoring by the control circuitry, that the first user has accessed and is currently consuming the series “Seinfeld.” 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may compare, while the first user is accessing media  520 , the consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media with a consumption progress of the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may query a first data structure associated with the first user for the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media, the series “Seinfeld,” and may retrieve a value corresponding to the first consumption progress of the first user which could be, for instance, 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. Control circuitry  304  may then query a second data structure associated with the second user for the second consumption progress of the sibling with respect to the first media, the series “Seinfeld,” and may retrieve a value corresponding to the second consumption progress of the sibling which could be, for instance, 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. 
     Control circuitry  304  may query the data structure by executing a database query language script, such as SQL, utilizing the declarative “Select” command to access data in a particular table or expression. For example, control circuitry may query media guidance data source  418 , which may contain a plurality of data structures associated with users and may, for instance, be organized into a three-dimensional matrix. The three-dimensional matrix may be organized where the third dimension represents each user and where the first and second dimensions may be rows and columns of data associated with each user, such as user handle (profile name) and media that the user has accessed. In this example, the first and second data structures would correspond to the rows and columns with information associated with each user, such that an entry in a row or column may correspond to consumption progress for a user with respect to media  520 . 
     For example, if control circuitry wanted to receive the consumption progress of the first user with respect to media  520 , a query may be sent to media guidance data source  418  containing the coordinates corresponding to (“Joe,” row, col), where row and col represent the location of the media consumption progress for media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may then compare the first consumption progress and the second consumption progress by subtracting the first consumption progress from the second consumption progress. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may determine, based on the comparing, that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a comparison result of the first consumption progress of the first user with the second consumption progress of the second user for media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may then determine whether the comparison result indicates the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user. Control circuitry  304  may make the determination the first user has caught up based on comparison with an operant definition for what it means to be “caught up.” In the most general sense, “caught up” means that the first user is near the media consumption progress of the second user. More specifically, “caught up” may mean that the media consumption progress of the first user is within a certain threshold of the media consumption progress of the second user. As another example, “caught up” may mean the media consumption progress of the first user is at a point identical to the media consumption progress of the second user. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user based on a threshold criterion, where the threshold criterion defines a range of relative consumption progress of the first user with respect to consumption progress of the second user that qualifies the first user&#39;s consumption progress as being caught up to the second user&#39;s consumption progress. The threshold criterion may be that the first user has caught up to the same exact point as the second user consuming media or may be that the first user has gotten close to catching up to the second user, where “close” could mean the first user is a few minutes away. Additionally, the threshold criterion could mean that the first user has reached the credits of an episode (based on proximity to the end of the episode) of a series and the second user&#39;s progress is at the beginning of the next episode; the same process could be true of the first user reaching the same season as the second user and so on. The threshold criterion may be stored in storage  308  or anywhere accessible to control circuitry  304  via communications network  414 , such as media guidance data source  418 . 
     For example, control circuitry  304  may determine the consumption progress in media  520  of the first user is 5 minutes away from the consumption progress in media  520  of the second user. If, for instance, the threshold criterion is that the first consumption progress of the first user and the second consumption progress of the second user are within 10 minutes of each other, then control circuitry  304  may determine the threshold condition is met. 
     As another example, control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user&#39;s consumption progress is at the credits of episode 4 of media  520  (based on the consumption progress being near the end of the total progress for an episode) and the second user&#39;s consumption progress is at the beginning of episode 5. In this case, control circuitry may determine that the proximity of the first user to the end of the episode likely means the first user is watching credits for the episode and may determine the threshold criterion is met. In response to the threshold condition being met, control circuitry  304  may send a signal to graphics processing circuitry to generate for display an alert that the first user has caught up to the second user. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection from the first user, through user input interface  310 , of a given threshold criterion. For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display a plurality of selectable threshold criterion options and may receive from the user, via user input interface  310 , a third selection from the user of a given threshold criterion option of the plurality of selectable threshold criterion options that corresponds to the given threshold criterion, where control circuitry  304  uses the given threshold criterion when comparing the comparison result with the threshold criterion. Control circuitry  304  may generate for display options for the threshold criterion, for example: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, same episode, or same season. Control circuitry  304  may then receive, via user input interface  310 , a selection by the user of a given threshold criterion, for instance 5 minutes. Control circuitry  304  will use the given threshold criterion, 5 minutes, which is selected by the first user, as the threshold criterion when control circuitry  304  determines if the first user has caught up to the second user. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may synchronize information stored in data structures associated with specific users between media guidance data source  418  and storage  308 . Control circuitry  304  may periodically update metadata in storage  308  from media guidance data source  418  via communications network  414 . The periodic updating may be any number of discrete updates in a given timeframe, such as twice a day or twice an hour. 
     If an update time is missed due to lack of communications network  414  connectivity, control circuitry  304  may attempt to update and synchronize metadata associated with the user upon the return of access to communications network  414 . For example, control circuitry  304  may lose connection with media guidance data source  418  upon receiving a user selection of an “Airplane Mode,” where control circuitry  304  turns off communication functionality, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. If a regular update time is missed while in “Airplane Mode,” control circuitry  304  may attempt to update and synchronize metadata associated with the first user once control circuitry  304  receives an indication that “Airplane Mode” is off and access to communications network  414  is available. 
     Control circuitry  304  may update a data structure associated with the first user stored in storage  308  with metadata stored in a data structure associated with the first user at media guidance data source  418 . For example, control circuitry  304  may determine the media consumption progress of the first user and the second user for media  520  based on querying media guidance data source  418 , as described above. Control circuitry  304  may store these values in storage  308 , such that even without access to media guidance data source  418 , the first user can continue from their previous consumption progress consuming media  520  and control circuitry  304  can monitor for the first user catching up to the second user&#39;s consumption progress. 
     For instance, control circuitry  304  may update media consumption progress associated with the first user stored in storage  308  on the first user&#39;s mobile phone every morning at 9:00 am from media consumption progress stored in a database associated with the first user located at media guidance data source  418 . When control circuitry  304  loses network connectivity because the first user has boarded an airplane at 10:00 am one day, control circuitry  304  may retrieve from storage  308  media consumption progress that is up to date based on the 9:00 am synchronization and the first user can resume consuming media from wherever he or she left off. 
     Control circuitry  304  may additionally periodically update metadata in media guidance data source  418  from storage  308  via communications network  414 . Control circuitry  304  may update metadata stored in a data structure associated with the first user at media guidance data source  418  with metadata in a data structure associated with the first user stored in storage  308 . For instance, control circuitry  304  may update the consumption progress of the first user in a data structure associated with the first user at media guidance data source  418  with the progress the first user has made consuming media  520  while disconnected from media guidance data source  418 , perhaps while the first user is on an airplane. 
     For example, control circuitry  304  may monitor the media consumption progress of the first user with respect to media  520 , as described above. Control circuitry  304  may store this value in storage  308 , even without any access to media guidance data source  418 . Control circuitry  304  may update the media consumption progress of the first user in media guidance data source  418  periodically, or when access to media guidance data source  418  is available. For instance, control circuitry  304  may lose access to media guidance data source  418  while the first user is on an airplane consuming media  520 . Upon landing, control circuitry  304  may transmit the updated media consumption progress to media guidance data source  418  via communications network  414 , updating the value for the consumption progress of the first user consuming media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, in response to control circuitry  304  determining that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an alert  506  indicating the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, in response to control circuitry  304  determining that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of a second user in media  520 , control circuitry  304  generates for display alert  506 . Alert  506  is displayed on display  312  and conveys to the first user that they have caught up to the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an alert  506  that visually conveys that the first user has caught up to the second user. Additionally or in place of the visual alert  506 , control circuitry  304  may generate an audio alert to convey that the first user has caught up to the second user. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may execute a second application to determine the first user has caught up to the second user consuming media  520 . The second application may be provided by a third party provider that is not the provider of media consumption application  502 . Control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has caught up based on comparing the media consumption progress of the two users, as described above. Control circuitry  304  may access the media consumption progress in storage  308  or at media guidance data source  418  via communications network  414 . 
     In this instance, the determination by control circuitry  304  that the first user has caught up is not made by media consumption application  502  but by the second application, thus control circuitry  304  may not be able to render for display the alert  506  displayed in media consumption application  502  that the user has caught up. In this case, control circuitry  304  may transmit an alert that the first user has caught up to the second user to the first user&#39;s cellular telephone, computer, or other user equipment  500  that can receive communication. For example, control circuitry  304  may minimize media consumption application  502  and display the alert in a different window that was generated by control circuitry  304  executing the second application. As another example, control circuitry  304  may send a text message to the first user while the first user is consuming media  520  that the user has caught up to the second user&#39;s progress consuming media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, upon control circuitry  304  determining that the consumption progress of the first user has caught up to the second user with respect to media  520 , control circuitry  304  may pause playback of the currently consumed media  520  without input from the first user, while control circuitry  304  generates for display alert  506  that the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, in response to control circuitry  304  determining that the consumption progress of the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user in media  520 , control circuitry  304  may pause, without further input from the first user, playback of media  520  currently being consumed by the first user, where control circuitry  304  generates for display alert  506  while the playback of media  520  is paused. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with an option to pause playback  508  of the currently consumed first media. For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an option for the first user to pause playback  508  of the currently consumed media  520 . Upon receiving a selection of the option to pause playback  508  by the first user using user input interface  310 , control circuitry  304  may pause playback of media  520  while the first user decides whether they want to continue consuming media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with an option to transmit a communication  516  to the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an option for the first user to transmit a communication  516  to the second user that the first user has caught up to the second user with respect to consumption of media  520 . Upon receiving a selection of the option to transmit a communication  516  by the first user using user input interface  310 , control circuitry  304  may send the communication the first user has caught up to the second user with respect to consuming media  520  via communications network  414 . Control circuitry  304  may transmit the communication to the second user&#39;s computer, cellular telephone, television set, or other user equipment  500  that can receive the communication. For example, control circuitry  304  may transmit an alert to the second user&#39;s cellular telephone that the first user has caught up to his or her progress viewing “Seinfeld.” 
     In some embodiments, upon selection of the option to transmit a communication  516 , control circuitry  304  may additionally transmit other information relevant to the second user about the first user&#39;s consumption of media  520 . Other information may comprise an indication that the first user plans to stop consuming media  520  and plans to wait to consume more of media  520  until a future time. Control circuitry  304  may generate for display a field allowing user input via user input interface  310 , such as text, to customize the communication transmitted to the second user. Control circuitry  304  may receive the user input and transmit it as part of communication  516 . 
     Control circuitry  304  may additionally present options to notify multiple users, who may be part of a group, the first user has caught up to one or more of said users&#39; progress consuming media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may present an option to notify users who have not consumed media  520  if they are part of the specified group. For example, control circuitry  304  may determine that a family including a mother, father, and two children, are part of the group, “Joe&#39;s Family” based on metadata stored in data structures associated with each user, as described above. Control circuitry  304  may receive an indication that the mother is consuming media  520  and has caught up to the father, as described above. Control circuitry  304  may generate an option to notify all other users in the group, “Joe&#39;s Family” that the mother has caught up to the father&#39;s progress consuming media  520 . Alternatively or additionally, control circuitry  304  may generate an option to notify only other users in the group who have consumed media  520 , as determined from metadata of the user profiles for the four family members, that the mother has caught up to the father consuming media  520 . Alternatively or additionally, control circuitry  304  may generate an option to notify only the user, the father, whom the mother has caught up to consuming media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with an option to ignore  510  the alert  506 . For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an option for the first user to ignore  510  alert  506  for currently consumed media  520 . Upon receiving a selection by the first user using user input interface  310  of option to ignore  510 , control circuitry  304  may cease generating for display alert  506  so that the first user can continue consuming media  520  without alert  506  being displayed. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with social media information  512  for the second user. The social media information could be any information, such as status updates, photos, or posts, which could be obtained from a social media account associated with the second user (e.g. a Facebook account). For example, control circuitry  304  may retrieve from the second database associated with the second user social media account names, updates, or other information from the social media accounts of the second user. Control circuitry  304  may access the second data structure related to the second user at media guidance data source  418 , as is described above. Control circuitry  304  may then query and retrieve social media information corresponding to the second user, by querying for information stored in the data structure, as described above. Upon retrieval of the social media information, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with social media information for the second user  512 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with a selectable icon  514  associated with a second media, where the first user has not caught up to the media consumption progress of an other user. The other user could be the second user whom the first user has caught up to consuming media  520 , or a different third user. For example, control circuitry  304  may query a first data structure associated with the first user to identify a second media the first user has accessed. Control circuitry  304  may then query a second data structure associated with the second user to identify a third media the second user has accessed. Alternatively, control circuitry  304  may query a third data structure associated with the different third user to identify a third media the third user has accessed. For example, control circuitry  304  may query the data structure associated with an uncle, based on metadata associating the profile of the uncle with the first user, to identify a third media the uncle has accessed. The data structures associated with the first, second, or third users may be accessed via communications network  414  from media guidance data source  418  and are consistent with the data structures described above. 
     Control circuitry  304  may determine the second media to query based on metadata associated with the first media. For example, control circuitry  304  may determine from metadata stored in the first database that media  520  is closely related to a second media, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” because “Larry David” is listed as a writer and producer for both shows. Control circuitry  304  may query the second database for the media, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” before control circuitry  304  queries the second database for other media, because it is determined to be more relevant to what the first user is currently consuming based on metadata in the first database associated with both programs. 
     Control circuitry  304  may compare data of the second media and the third media, such as associated media identifiers, to determine whether they are the same media. In response to determining that the second media is the same as the third media, control circuitry  304  may determine if the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user with respect to the second media. 
     Control circuitry  304  may generate for display on alert  506  a selectable indication  514  that the first user has not caught up to the second user with respect to the second media. For instance, control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has caught up to a second user&#39;s progress consuming media  520 , but control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has not caught up to the progress of the second user consuming a second media, “House Of Cards.” Control circuitry  304  may generate for display a selectable icon  514  that the first user has not yet caught up to the second user consuming “House of Cards” with an alert  506  indicating that the first user has caught up to the second user consuming “Seinfeld.” Control circuitry  304  may detect selection of the selectable option, rendered and displayed on alert  506 , by the first user to begin consuming the media, “House of Cards.” In response to the selection, control circuitry  304  may generate for display content relating to “House of Cards” received from content source  416 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with a selectable icon  516  associated with a second media that has not been accessed by the first user, but has been accessed by an other user. The other user could be the second user whom the first user has caught up to consuming media  520 , or a different third user. For example, control circuitry  304  may query a second data structure associated with the second user to identify a second media the second user has accessed, in the same manner as is described above. Alternatively, control circuitry  304  may query a third data structure associated with the different third user to identify a second media the third user has accessed, as described above. Control circuitry  304  may determine the second media to query based on comparison of metadata associated with the first media and metadata associated with the second media. Control circuitry  304  may prioritize querying for second media similar to the first media, based on comparison of metadata associated with the first and second media, as described above. 
     Control circuitry  304  may then determine whether the first user has accessed the second media by querying a first data structure associated with the first user to determine if the first user has not accessed the second media. In response to determining that the first user has not accessed the second media, control circuitry  304  may retrieve media consumption progress for the second media from the second data structure, as was described above. Control circuitry  304  may determine whether a threshold criterion is met by the media consumption progress for the second media by the second user. 
     For instance, if control circuitry  304  determines a second user “Joe” has consumed two episodes of the first season of the second media, the program series “Breaking Bad,” which contains multiple seasons, the first user may be able to catch up. If the threshold criterion is defined as less than half of a program series has been watched, control circuitry  304  may determine in this case that the second media does fulfill the threshold criterion. In response to determining that the threshold criterion is met by the media consumption progress for the second media by the second user, control circuitry  304  may generate for display with the alert  506  a selectable option  516  for the first user to access the second media, “Breaking Bad,” where the selectable option  516  may be accompanied by an indicator of the media consumption progress by the second user of the second media. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  with an option  510  to continue consumption of media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may generate for display an option  510  to continue consumption of media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may receive a third selection from the first user of the option to continue consumption  510  of media  520 . In response to receiving the third selection, control circuitry  304  may transmit a notification to the second user to indicate that the first user has caught up to the second user and is continuing consumption of media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may send the alert that the first user has caught up to the second user with respect to consuming media  520  via communications network  414 . For example, control circuitry  304  may transmit the notification to a second user&#39;s computer, cellular telephone, television set, or other user equipment  500  that can receive the notification. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may generate for display selectable options for one or more users associated with a first user when control circuitry  304  determines that the first user is accessing media consumption application  502 . For example, control circuitry  304  may determine that a first user, a wife, is accessing media consumption application  502  as described above. Control circuitry  304  may generate for display a plurality of selectable options corresponding to individual users. Control circuitry  304  may determine which selectable options to generate for display based on accessing a data structure associated with the wife. For instance, control circuitry  304  may detect that the first user, a wife in a family, is accessing media consumption application  502 , as described above. Control circuitry  304  may then query a data structure in a database, as described above, to determine if the first user, the wife, has set any additional users for her account. Control circuitry  304  may then generate for display selectable user options based on information corresponding to the users retrieved from the wife&#39;s account. For example, control circuitry  304  may determine based on querying the data structure associated with the wife that the wife&#39;s account is associated with a husband and a child. In this instance, control circuitry may generate for display selectable options corresponding to the husband and the child. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may determine which options to generate based on receiving communication from nearby user devices. Control circuitry  304  may receive an indication through Bluetooth pairing, Bonjour protocol, or other means for relaying from a device information that a user is nearby and could be consuming media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may compare a signature received from a nearby user device with signatures stored in a data structure containing a plurality of users at media guidance data source  418  to determine a user the device corresponds to. In response to determining the user the device corresponds to, control circuitry  304  may generate for display a selectable option associated with the user. For instance, control circuitry  304  may determine that the husband is consuming media  520  with his wife based on receiving a Bluetooth pairing signature from his mobile telephone. Control circuitry  304  may then generate for display a selectable option corresponding to the husband. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may receive an indication from a user of a selection of one or more particular users consuming media  520  together. For example, control circuitry  304  may receive an indication, via user input interface  310 , that the wife is consuming media with both the husband and the child. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may retrieve the media consumption progress for media  520  of the selected one or more users from data structures associated with the selected one or more users. In response to receiving the selection of the husband and the child, control circuitry  304  may access data structures corresponding to the husband and the child and retrieve values corresponding to their consumption progress for a given media  520 , as described above. 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may update the media consumption progress for media  520  with respect to the users selected. For example, once the husband has been selected as consuming media  520 , control circuitry  304  may update the media consumption progress for the husband with respect to media  520  in addition to the media consumption progress of the wife with respect to media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may cease updating the media consumption progress of a user if control circuitry  304  detects he or she has stopped consuming media  520  and may store the value in the data structure associated with the user. For example, control circuitry  304  may detect that the husband has ceased consuming media  520  based on no longer receiving a Bluetooth pairing signature from his mobile telephone. Control circuitry  304  may cease updating the media consumption progress of media  520  for the husband and may store the value associated with the media consumption progress in a data structure associated with the husband. As another example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display a selectable option for each user currently consuming media  520 . Upon selection of the selectable option corresponding to the husband, control circuitry  304  determines that the husband is no longer consuming media  520 . 
     In some embodiments, control circuitry  304  may detect, at a later time, access of media  520  by one of the selected users. Control circuitry  304  may begin playback of media  520  based on the media consumption progress for media  520  stored in a data structure associated with the user, which was updated while the user was consuming media  520  with the first user. For example, control circuitry  304  may detect that the husband is accessing media at a time later than when he accessed media with his wife. Control circuitry  304  may begin playback of media  520  based on the media consumption progress stored in the data structure associated with the husband, which was updated while he was consuming media  520  with his wife, even though he was not the primary consumer, (i.e., logged in to his account) while consuming media  520 . 
       FIG.  6    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in determining if a first user has caught up to the media consumption progress of a second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  600  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to determine if a first user consuming media has caught up to the progress of a second user. 
     Process  600  begins at  602 , where control circuitry  304  may receive a first selection, made by a first user of media consumption application  502  executed by control circuitry  304 , of an identifier of a second user and a second selection made by the first user of an identifier of a first media. The identifier of a second user may consist of a string of characters that could be matched to metadata in a stored user profile in a data structure corresponding to the second user. The string of characters could refer to a name, birthdate, profile name, or any other identifying characteristic of the second user. The identifier of a first media may consist of a string of characters that could be matched to metadata in a stored user profile in a data structure corresponding to the second user. The string of characters could refer to a title, actor, studio name, or any other identifying characteristic of media. Control circuitry may access via communications network  414  the data structure which may contain metadata associated with media the user has consumed, progress the user has made consuming media, and information about the user. Control circuitry  304  may query, access, and retrieve data from a data structure as described in  FIG.  5   . For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection made by the first user of an identifier of a second user, “Joe,” and an identifier of a first media, “Seinfeld.” Control circuitry  304  may determine, through querying media guidance data source  418 , which contains data structures corresponding to a plurality of users, the identifier “Joe” corresponds to second user Joe, a sibling of the first user. In the same way, control circuitry  304  may determine that the identifier of a first media received, “Seinfeld,” corresponds to the media “Seinfeld” (i.e., media  520 ). 
     Process  600  may continue to  604 , where control circuitry  304  may monitor for access of the first media by the first user. For example, in response to receiving first user selections, the control circuitry may store the unique media identifier associated with the series “Seinfeld” in a first data structure. Control circuitry  304  may receive indication that the first user is using media consumption application  502  to consume media with a second media identifier. In response to receiving this indication, control circuitry  304  may query the first data structure to determine if the media with the second media identifier currently consumed is the same as the first media identifier, corresponding to media  520  stored in the data structure. 
     Process  600  may continue to  606 , where control circuitry  304  may detect that the first user is accessing the first media. For example, control circuitry  304  may detect, based on monitoring by control circuitry  304  that the first user has accessed and is consuming the series “Seinfeld.” If first user access of the first media is not detected, control circuitry  304  may continue to monitor for access of the first media by the first user. 
     Process  600  may continue to  608 , where control circuitry  304  may compare a first consumption progress of the first user with respect to media  520  with a second consumption progress of the second user with respect to media  520 . For example, control circuitry  304  may query a first data structure for the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media and retrieve a value corresponding to the first consumption progress of the first user which could be, for instance, 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. Control circuitry  304  may then query a second data structure for the second consumption progress of the second user with respect to the first media and retrieve a value corresponding to the second consumption progress of the second user which could be, for instance, 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. Control circuitry  304  may access and query the first data structure and the second data structure via communications network  414  on a media guidance data source  418 , as described above in  FIG.  5   . Control circuitry  304  may then compare the first consumption progress and the second consumption progress. For example, control circuitry  304  may compare the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to media  520  which could be, for instance, 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4 with the second consumption progress of the sibling with respect to the media  520  and which could be, for instance, 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4, by subtracting the first consumption progress from the second consumption progress. 
     Process  600  may continue to  610 , where control circuitry  304  may determine if the first user has caught up to the media consumption progress of the second user with respect to the first media. For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a comparison result of the first consumption progress of the first user with the second consumption progress of the second user. Control circuitry  304  may then determine whether the comparison result indicates the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user. 
     If control circuitry  304  determines that the first user has not caught up to the consumption progress of the second user, then process  600  may return to  608 , where control circuitry  304  may again compare the consumption progress of the first and second user. The control circuitry  304  makes the determination the first user has caught up based on comparison with an operant definition for what it means to be “caught up.” In the most general sense, “caught up” means that the first user is near the media consumption progress of the second user. More specifically, “caught up” may mean that the media consumption progress of the first user is within a certain threshold of the media consumption progress of the second user, such as being within 5 minutes of the second user. As another example, “caught up” may mean the media consumption progress of the first user is at a point identical to the media consumption progress of the second user. 
     Process  600  may continue to  612 , where control circuitry  304  may generate for display alert  506  indicating that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of the second user. For example, in response to control circuitry  304  determining that the first user has caught up to the consumption progress of a second user in consuming media  502 , alert  506  may be generated for display by control circuitry  304 . Control circuitry  304  generates for display alert  506 , which is displayed on display  312  and conveys to the first user visually that they have caught up to the second user, for instance with text stating, “You have caught up to Joe viewing “Seinfeld.” 
       FIG.  7    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in a process for receiving a first selection, made by a first user of a media consumption application, of an identifier of a second user, as well as receiving a second selection made by the first user, of a first media, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  700  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to receive the first selection and the second selection. 
     Process  700  begins at  702 , where control circuitry  304  may begin a process for receiving a first selection, made by a first user of a media consumption application, of an identifier of a second user and a second selection made by the first user, of a first media. Control circuitry  304  may execute  702  when  602  of process  600  begins. For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a selection of an identifier of a second user, “Joe,” and a selection of an identifier of a first media, “Seinfeld.” 
     Process  700  may continue to  704 , where control circuitry  304  may receive a first selection of an identifier of the second user. Control circuitry  304  may receive a selection of an identifier of the second user, as described in  FIG.  5 - 6   . For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a string of characters, “Joe,” as an identifier of a second user from the first user selection. 
     Process  700  may continue to  706 , where control circuitry  304  may compare the identifier of the second user with metadata in storage. For instance, control circuitry  304  may access a plurality of data structures associated with users from a media guidance data source  418 . The plurality of data structures associated with users may be stored in memory in data structures at media guidance data source  418 . Control circuitry  304  may search the plurality of data structures at media guidance data source  418  based on the received first identifier, “Joe,” of the second user to compare the identifier with metadata associated with the plurality of users. 
     Process  700  may continue to  708 , where control circuitry  304  may determine the second user the first user intended to select based on the comparison with metadata in storage. Control circuitry  304  may determine a match between the received identifier, “Joe,” and a given profile stored at media guidance data source  418 . In this case, control circuitry  304  determines the given profile corresponds to the second user, “Joe,” that the first user selected. 
     Process  700  may continue to  710 , where control circuitry  304  may receive a second selection of a first media identifier of the first media. Control circuitry  304  may receive a selection of an identifier of the first media, as described in  FIG.  5 - 6   . For example, control circuitry  304  may receive a string of characters, “Seinfeld,” as an identifier of a first media from the second user selection. 
     Process  700  may continue to  712 , where control circuitry  304  may compare the identifier of the first media with metadata in storage. For instance, control circuitry  304  may access a plurality of media from a media guidance data source  418 . The plurality of media may be stored in memory in a data structure at media guidance data source  418 . Control circuitry  304  may search the plurality of media at media guidance data source  418  based on the received second identifier, “Seinfeld,” of the first media to compare the identifier with metadata associated with the plurality of media in storage. 
     Process  700  may continue to  714 , where control circuitry  304  may determine the first media the first user intended to select based on the comparison with metadata in storage. Control circuitry  304  may determine a match between the received identifier, “Seinfeld,” and a given media stored at media guidance data source  418 . In this case, control circuitry  304  determines the given media corresponds to the first media, “Seinfeld,” that the first user selected. The receipt of the first and the second selection by control circuitry  304  may conclude processing of  602  of process  600 . 
       FIG.  8    is a flowchart of illustrative steps involved in a process for monitoring and detecting for access of the first media by the first user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  800  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to receive the first selection and the second selection. 
     Process  800  begins with  802 , where control circuitry  304  may begin a process for monitoring and detecting for access of the first media by the first user. For example, control circuitry  304  may begin a process for monitoring and detecting for access of “Seinfeld” (i.e., media  520 ) by the first user. Control circuitry  304  may execute  802  when  604  of process  600  begins. 
     Process  800  may continue to  804 , where control circuitry  304  determines whether the first user is using media consumption application  502 . For instance, control circuitry  304  may receive a command to execute and render for display media consumption application  502 . In this case, control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user is using the media consumption application. If control circuitry  304  determines the first user is not using the media consumption application, control circuitry  304  may continue to monitor for access of the media consumption application by the first user. 
     If control circuitry  304  determines the first user is using media consumption application  502 , process  800  may continue to  806 , where control circuitry may receive a second media identifier associated with a second media currently being consumed by the first user. Similar to receiving the identifiers associated with the first and second selections described above, control circuitry  304  may receive a second media identifier associated with a second media. The second media identifier may take the same general form as the first media identifier described above. For instance, the identifier of the second media received by control circuitry  304  could be a series of characters corresponding to the title of the second media, such as “Seinfeld.” 
     Process  800  may continue to  808 , where control circuitry  304  determines whether the second media identifier is the same as the first media identifier stored in the first data structure, as described above in  FIG.  5 - 6   . Briefly, the first media identifier may be stored in the first data structure, associated with the first user, located at media guidance data source  418 . Control circuitry  304  may access and compare the first media identifier with the second media identifier. Control circuitry  304  may then determine whether the media identifiers are the same. For instance, control circuitry  304  may determine that the characters corresponding to the first media identifier are the same as the characters corresponding to the second media identifier and as such the first user is consuming media  520 . This determination by control circuitry  304  may conclude processing of  604  of process  600  and begin processing of  606 . 
     If control circuitry  304  determines that the first media identifier is not the same as the second media identifier, control circuitry  304  determines the first user is not accessing the first media  812 . In this case, control circuitry  304  may return to step  804  to detect if the user is still using the media consumption application at some later time and determine if they are now consuming the first media. For instance, control circuitry  304  may detect that the first user may initially be consuming media that is not media  520 , but switches to consuming media  520  after some period of time. In this way, monitoring by control circuitry  304  for access to the media  520  may be periodic in that it checks the media the first user is consuming multiple times during one instance of the first user using the media consumption application. 
     If control circuitry  304  determines that the first media identifier is the same as the second media identifier, control circuitry  304  detects that the first user is accessing the first media. This determination by control circuitry  304  may conclude processing of  606  of process  600 . 
       FIG.  9    is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process for comparing the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media with a second consumption progress of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  900  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to receive the first selection and the second selection. 
     Process  900  begins with  902 , where control circuitry  304  may begin a process for comparing the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media with a second consumption progress of the second user with respect to the first media. For example, control circuitry  304  may compare the progress of the first user consuming media  520  with the progress of the first user&#39;s sibling “Joe” consuming media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may execute  902  when  608  of process  600  begins. 
     Process  900  may continue to  904 , where control circuitry  304  may retrieve, as a result of querying a first data structure associated with the first user, the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to the first media. Control circuitry  304  accessing, querying, and retrieving data from a data structure is described further in  FIG.  5 - 6   . For example, control circuitry  304  may query a first data structure for the first consumption progress of the first user with respect to media  520  and retrieve a value corresponding to the first consumption progress of the first user which could be, for instance, 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. The first data structure may be located at media guidance data source  418  and accessed by control circuitry  304  through a communications network  414 . 
     Process  900  may continue to  906 , where control circuitry  304  may retrieve, as a result of querying a second data structure associated with the second user, the second consumption progress of the second user with respect to the first media. Control circuitry accessing, querying, and retrieving data from a data structure is described further in  FIG.  5 - 6   . For example, control circuitry  304  may query a second data structure for the second consumption progress of the sibling “Joe” with respect to the media  520  and retrieve a value corresponding to the second consumption progress of the sibling which could be, for instance, 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. The second data structure may be located at a media guidance data source  418  and accessed by control circuitry  304  through a communications network  414 . 
     Process  900  may continue to  908 , where control circuitry  304  may analyze via subtraction of the first media consumption progress from the second media consumption progress, whether the first user is ahead of, equal to, or behind the second user with respect to consumption of the first media and return a relative progress result. Control circuitry  304  may calculate the relative progress result based on subtraction of one media consumption progress from another. For instance, control circuitry  304  may determine the first media consumption progress corresponds to 10 minutes into episode 5 of season 4 and the second media consumption progress corresponds to 15 minutes into episode 5 of season 4. 
     Control circuitry  304  may receive media consumption progress in any format that allows control circuitry  304  to subtract them. For instance, control circuitry may receive the above examples formatted into data objects with variables corresponding to “season,” “episode,” and “minutes.” Each of these variables may have an associated numerical value. Control circuitry  304  may then subtract the numerical value stored in the “season” variable for the first media consumption progress from the numerical value stored in the “season” variable for the second media consumption progress, and so on. In this way, control circuitry  304  may generate the relative progress result that the first media consumption progress is 5 minutes behind the second media consumption progress, indicating the first user is 5 minutes away from reaching the exact same progress as the second user. Control circuitry  304  may then return the relative progress result for use by  610  of process  600  in determining whether the first user has caught up to the second user. This determination by control circuitry  304  of the relative progress result may conclude processing of  608  of process  600 . 
       FIG.  10    is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process for determining, based on the comparing, that the first user has caught up to the second consumption progress of the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  1000  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to receive the first selection and the second selection. 
     Process  1000  begins with  1002 , where control circuitry  304  may begin a process for determining, based on the comparing, that the first user has caught up to the second consumption progress of the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has caught up to the second user, the sibling “Joe” consuming media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may execute  1002  when  610  of process  600  begins. 
     Process  1000  may continue to  1004 , where control circuitry  304  may receive the relative progress result indicating the relative progress of the media consumption of the first user with the media consumption progress of the second user for consuming the first media. Control circuitry  304  may receive the relative progress result generated in  608  of process  600 . The relative progress result contains information relating the consumption progress of the first user and the second user for a given first media, as described in process  900 . For example, control circuitry  304  may receive the relative progress result indicating that the first user is five minutes behind the second user consuming media  520 . 
     Process  1000  may continue to  1006 , where control circuitry  304  may determine whether the relative progress result meets a threshold criterion. Control circuitry  304  may compare the relative progress result with the threshold criterion. The threshold criterion could be based on any value or range of values. For example, the threshold criterion could be: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, same episode, or same season. For illustrative purposes, say the threshold criterion is 10 minutes. Control circuitry  304  may use the given threshold criterion, 5 minutes, as the threshold criterion when control circuitry  304  determines if the first user has caught up to the second user. Control circuitry  304  determines if the first user has caught up to the second user by comparing the relative progress result to the threshold criterion. For example, if the relative progress result indicates that the first user is 5 minutes behind the sibling Joe&#39;s consumption progress for media  520 , then control circuitry  304  may determine that the relative progress result does meet the threshold criterion. 
     If the relative progress result does not meet the threshold criterion, control circuitry  304  may end  610  of process  600  and return to  608  of process  600 . For example, if it is determined that the first user has not yet caught up to his or her sibling, but he or she is continuing to view media  520 , control circuitry  304  may continue to compare the consumption progress of the first user and the sibling. In this way, control circuitry  304  may check at future time points if the first user has caught up (based on fulfilling the threshold criterion) after consuming more of the first media. 
     If control circuitry  304  determines the relative progress result does meet the threshold criterion, process  1000  may continue to  1008 , where control circuitry  304  may trigger the alert to be generated for display that the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may send an indication to prepare for display and display the alert that the first user has caught up to the sibling with respect to consuming media  520 . This indication sent by control circuitry  304  may conclude processing of  610  of process  600 . 
       FIG.  11    is a flowchart of illustrative steps of a process for generating for display an alert indicating the first user has caught up to the second user, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, process  1100  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) to generate for display the alert  506  indicating the first user has caught up to the second user consuming media  520 . 
     Process  1100  begins with  1102 , where control circuitry  304  may begin a process for generating for display an alert indicating the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may generate for display an alert indicating the first user has caught up to the sibling with respect to consuming media  520 . Control circuitry  304  may execute  1102  when  612  of process  600  begins. 
     Process  1100  may continue to  1104 , where control circuitry  304  may receive an indication that the first user has caught up to the second user. Control circuitry  304  may determine that the first user has caught up to the second user as described in process  1000 . In response to this determination, control circuitry  304  may send an indication to render graphics for an alert indicating that the first user has caught up to the second user. 
     Process  1100  may continue to  1106 , where control circuitry  304  may render graphics for the alert that the first user has caught up to the second user. Control circuitry  304  receives the indication that the first user has caught up and renders the graphics corresponding to the alert for display. 
     Process  1100  may continue to  1108 , where control circuitry  304  may output on display  312  the alert that the first user has caught up to the second user. For example, control circuitry  304  may transmit the rendered alert for viewing by the first user on display  312 . This transmission of the alert for display sent by graphics circuitry may conclude processing of  612  of process  600 . 
     It should be noted that processes  600 - 1100  or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in  FIGS.  3 - 5   . For example, any of processes  600 - 1100  may be executed by control circuitry  304  ( FIG.  3   ) as instructed by control circuitry implemented on user equipment  402 ,  404 , and/or  406  ( FIG.  4   ) in order to generate for display an alert that the first user has caught up to the second user consuming with respect to consuming media. In addition, one or more steps of processes  600 - 1100  may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment. 
     It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of  FIGS.  6 - 11    may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps and descriptions described in relation to  FIGS.  6 - 11    may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed in any order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation to  FIGS.  3 - 5    could be used to perform one or more of the steps in  FIGS.  6 - 11   . 
     It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methods involved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer program product that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. For example, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memory device, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a random access memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette, having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should also be understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in the present invention may be executed using processing circuitry. For instance, monitoring for when a user accesses particular media may be performed by processing circuitry (e.g., by processing circuitry  306  of  FIG.  3   ). The processing circuitry, for instance, may be a general purpose processor, a customized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within user equipment  300 , media content source  416 , or media guidance data source  418 . For example, a data structure corresponding to a user profile, as described herein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage  308  of  FIG.  3   , or media guidance data source  418  of  FIG.  4   . Furthermore, processing circuitry, or a computer program, may update settings associated with a user, such as a register of media a particular user has recently consumed, updating the information stored within storage  308  of  FIG.  3    or media guidance data source  418  of  FIG.  4   . 
     The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and not limiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of the processes discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/or rearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departing from the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure is meant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow are meant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes. Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.