Apple, the company behind some of the most popular technology in the world, is working on a way to bring all of its users a little closer together by letting users know if another user is free to talk or not before they even have to give them a call.
A patent published on Thursday titled "Methods to determine availability of user based on mobile phone status" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes the process behind Apple's next venture into productivity for its iPhone users.
The idea behind the proposed invention would be to let users know when someone at the other end of a phone call or text message will be in a position to receive it or not. A frequent problem with all cell phones is calling someone only to be greeted by a voice mailbox. Sometimes people are in a dead zone or have just turned their phone to Airplane mode. For whatever reason a user will be unavailable, Apple wants to ensure that people are able to tell quickly and avoid wasting time letting the call ring out.
To accomplish this, the iPhone would talk to Apple on the backend to report its status and call preferences, according to CNET. Things like signal strength, battery life, location and mode would all be sent to Apple's servers. From there a person trying to make a call would see all of this status information and be able to decide then and there if he or she wants to complete the call or not.
In essence, the phone will work very similarly to how Instant Messengers work where people can see your current status before deciding whether or not to contact you. Users can be away, available, offline or online.
While the immediate knee-jerk reaction to such a feature is a feeling of concern for one's privacy, it is likely that Apple, if this project ever hits the market for consumers, will include a way to simply turn this off if users didn't want anyone with an iPhone to know their location or availability.
