Apple said to be unifying Find My Friends & Find My iPhone, developing Tile-style tracker

Apple is reportedly working to merge Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into a single app, and even compete with Tile by launching a new object-tracking tag.

The combined app should be based on Marzipan — letting it work on both iOS and macOS — and share the same features as its predecessors. It's also expected incorporate a new "Find Network" feature however, similar to Tile's Bluetooth-based tracking system. This would let people follow Apple hardware without Wi-Fi or even a cellular connection.

The Tile parallels may be very direct, as Apple is allegedly interested in tracking non-Apple devices as well by way of a "tag" product with the codename "B389." This could be attached to any item, and linked to a person's iCloud account by holding it next to an iPhone. This would then trigger notifications when the tag gets too far from the iPhone, with optional geofences so an item can be left in place, and the ability to share object locations with others.

Tags should moreover include contact information, such that when marked as lost and scanned by another Apple device, the original owner will receive an alert.

The claims stem from anonymous development sources cited by 9to5Mac.

Apple and Tile have become relatively close partners. Most famously Tile was one of the first companies to support Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12, for instance letting people say "find my keys" or "find my scooter" to make a tracker ring.

It's unknown if Apple plans to license Tile's technology to avoid any potential lawsuits. Theoretically Apple could simply buy Tile outright, much like it bought Beddit to acquire its sleep-monitoring technology.

18 Comments

wood1208 2932 comments · 10 Years

About 5 years ago

For God's sake, please put "Back, < arrow" on top left of "New Message" screen and save the unsent new text message as draft if returns to previous Messages screen. Learn from Android text App, Google's Message App.

Metriacanthosaurus 880 comments · 8 Years

wood1208 said:

For God's sake, please put "Back, < arrow" on top left of "New Message" screen and save the unsent new text message as draft if returns to previous Messages screen. Learn from Android text App, Google's Message App.

Interesting feature request that I can't say I have ever once found necessary. Probably because I don't start "New Message" very often at all...every message I send is in a conversation that already exists.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

I tried the original Tile. It works off Bluetooth and wasn't a great solution. Hopefully the tech has improved since then—I know BT has improved—but I was so turned off by Tile's first foray that even their mention now makes me question how good this could be, even from Apple.

I'd even be OK with devices to be placed around the house and yard so that the BT signal could be received by them and a much better distance map created than what is currently offered by iBeacons.

wood1208 said:

For God's sake, please put "Back, < arrow" on top left of "New Message" screen and save the unsent new text message as draft if returns to previous Messages screen. Learn from Android text App, Google's Message App.

Why would you jack a new thread about an unrelated feature and product to say this?

eightzero 3145 comments · 14 Years

Soli said:

I tried the original Tile. It works off Bluetooth and wasn't a great solution. Hopefully the tech has improved since then—I know BT has improved—but I was so turned off by Tile's first foray that even their mention now makes me question how good this could be, even from Apple.

I'd even be OK with devices to be placed around the house and yard so that the BT signal could be received by them and a much better distance map created than what is currently offered by iBeacons.

I too tried a BT tracker system. It was a complete mess, and I simply threw it out after a couple weeks of false alarms, non-functionality. I've seen Tile sales, and given the limitations of BT I've decided to pass. Unlikely any wifi, gps, or LTE function can work given the power requirements. Neat idea, but my expectations are low.

hmurchison 11823 comments · 23 Years

Most of Tile's patents seem to have been filed quite recently and I'm unsure of whether they've actually litigated against them.

https://patents.justia.com/assignee/tile-inc

Apple may license Tile technology but it's unclear if Tile's patents would withstand prior art challenges.