Apple just patented some advanced stalking features for the iPhone

Have you ever wanted to track a friend’s location in real time? If the answer is yes then you’ll be pleased to know that Apple has patented some advanced stalking features that may eventually make their way to the iPhone. Known as Track My Friends, this feature would enable iPhone users to track the location of their friends in real time and would build upon the company’s existing Find My Friends tool.

Apple has been awarded a series of new patents that potentially hint at features that could one day make their way onto the iPhone. The company recently filed and was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday for a Track My Friends feature that could one day let iPhone users monitor other people’s locations in real time. The feature would build off of Apple’s existing Find My Friends tool — which reveals a user’s exact location at a given time — and allow them to see the paths their friends traveled to get there. According to the patent, an iPhone could have a “location system which determines a current position of the device” and have the ability to “track the location of the device over time and display a path representing motion of the device.” A visual representation of their journey could be seen by others or even heard via spoken message.