Find My Friends (called "Find Friends" on the

SpringBoard A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type. Springboards are commonly fixed by a hinge at one end (so they can be flipped up when not in use), and ...

) was a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

tracking app and service for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

devices developed by

Apple Inc Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

. Both

Find My iPhone Find My iPhone (known as Find My Mac in macOS) was an app and service provided by Apple Inc. that allowed remote locating of iOS devices, Mac computers, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Find My iPhone was enhanced and merged into the app Find My in iO ...

and Find My Friends were combined into the app

Find My Find My is an asset tracking app and service provided by Apple Inc. that enables users to track the location of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS devices, AirPods, AirTags and a number of supported third-party accessories through a connected iCloud acc ...

in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 in 2019.

Overview

The app allowed a person approved by the user, who also had to have an Apple device, to access the

GPS location Geodetic coordinates are a type of curvilinear coordinate system, curvilinear orthogonal coordinate system used in geodesy based on a ''reference ellipsoid''. They include geodetic latitude (north/south) , ''longitude'' (east/west) , and ellipsoi ...

of the user's Apple mobile device. The app could be used to track children, family, and friends, besides others such as employees, without them being notified that they are being tracked. The app could also track the location of a person as a safety measure. The Find My Friends app enabled a person approved by a user to follow and track them with their iOS device(s). Users could also share their location with people they choose. According to Apple, there was a maximum of 100 trackers ("friends"). The tracker could also receive notifications when the user left or arrived at a new place. Location was determined using GPS in the iOS device when Location Services were turned on. The apps required that the device's Location Services be turned on for the app. Modified software allowed notifications to appear when a user requested a tracker to see where they are or was turned on through the message application. It could also be accepted through Facebook sharing options. The feature could be turned on and off at any time. Like many iOS applications that used Location Services, parental controls were available. Find My Friends synchronized with other applications such as

Maps A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

and

Contacts Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...

. The app was supported on the iPhone, iPod Touch,

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

, Apple Watch, or on iCloud.com on Windows. A friend's location could be viewed in OS X 10.10 as well, by clicking "Details" in the top right corner of the Messages App.

Privacy considerations

The app raised potential

privacy issues The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...

arising from the tracking of a user's exact location, without users being notified that they are being tracked. Several safety features allowed a user to share their location only with people they choose and turn off the permission at any time. "Friends" could only track users who had accepted their access request. The user could remove them from access at any time or only make the tracking temporary. Another way to turn the tracking off was to turn Location Services off. This was done by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services, selecting the app in the list and selecting the "Never" option. Tracking could be turned back on by selecting the "While Using the App" option. Location services and hence location tracking did not operate when a device was in "

Airplane mode Airplane mode (also known as aeroplane mode, flight mode, offline mode, or standalone mode) is a setting available on smartphones and other portable devices. When activated, this mode suspends the device's radio-frequency (RF) signal transmis ...

History

Find My Friends was announced on October 4, 2011, the day before Steve Jobs’ death, and released on October 12, 2011, several hours before the actual release of

iOS 5 iOS 5 is the fifth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 4. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6, 2011, and was released on October 12, 201 ...

iOS 6 iOS 6 is the sixth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc, being the successor to iOS 5. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 11, 2012, and was released on September 19, 2 ...

added location-based alerts to notify the user when a device arrived at a set location. In October 2015, Find My Friends was added to iCloud.com to view the location of friends. Prior to

iOS 9 iOS 9 is the ninth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 8. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8, 2015, and was released on September 16, ...

, the app could downloaded from the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

free of charge. With the launch of iOS 9 (released in September 2015), the app was bundled and installed by default; it could not be uninstalled. iOS 11 added the ability for uninstallation. As of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, Find My Friends was discontinued with its function merged with

for

and Find My Mac for macOS into a new app called

References

{{iOS IOS IOS software Internet geolocation Satellite navigation software Discontinued software

Overview

Privacy considerations

History

See also

References