Apple invention would let you check the status of another iPhone user

A newly published patent application outlines a method to check the availability of any iPhone user you want to call.

Apple has envisioned a way to see whether a fellow iPhone user is free to talk before you even complete the call.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent appropriately called "Methods to determine availability of user based on mobile phone status," describes just that process.

How many times do you call someone only to get dumped into voice mail? Maybe the person isn't available or is in a dead zone or has just turned on Airplane mode. Apple's proposed invention seeks to eliminate that uncertainty by alerting you to the person's status right off the bat.

To accomplish this feat, a person's iPhone would talk to Apple on the backend to report its status and call preferences. Such settings as location, signal strength, battery life, and mode (Normal, Airplane, or Vibration) would be sent to Apple's servers. A fellow iPhone user who attempts to call that person would see the status of the callee's phone on the screen and can then decide whether to complete the call.

(Credit: Apple/USPTO)

In essence, your phone would borrow a key feature from instant messaging in which you can see if someone is online, offline, free, or busy.

As Apple describes it in typical patent language: