14 DAY TRIAL // Originally discovered in iOS 4.3 SDK betas earlier this year, a Find My Friends feature has seemingly been confirmed in a major iPhone 5 info leak today. The function is tied to another previously rumored (and now confirmed) function - Assistant.
In accordance with Apple’s announcements in June, iOS 5 will debut this fall alongside iCloud, the replacement for MobileMe.
The mobile OS powering iPhones, iPod touch players, and iPads brings to the table a huge set of features that should make every iDevice owner proud of their choice.
One function that is reportedly tied to an enhanced A5 chip that will only be present in the iPhone 5 is Assistant.
Forged from Apple’s acquisition of Siri, Assistant will allow users to speak to their iPhone, and expect action and verbal answers as if it were a real person (more or less).
An adjacent function of Assistant will be the ability to find out where your friends are by just asking your iPhone.
Described as just another compelling feature relating to Assistant, “Find my Friends” is alive and kicking, according to the people at 9to5mac.
It is believed Apple has been waiting to see the Assistant integration in order to release it into the wild. Although it will most likely not require Assistant to work, it will leverage it beautifully, according to today’s leak.
For example, if someone wants to know where I am, they can say where’s Filip and Assistant will immediately pinpoint my location (provided that I have switched off my privacy settings) and tell them where I’m hanging out.
The information will be displayed on screen in map view, with other relevant details also being displayed.
Although Apple’s Find My Friends is already available in the form of Google’s Latitude feature, the Assistant integration will take Apple’s service far beyond Google’s.