Find My Friends App Becomes Native in iOS 9

Apple’s Find My Friends application allows iOS users to rapidly locate contact. The sought friends have to own an Apple device, equipped with a GPS connection and have the Share Location setting turned ON. Technology does the rest of the job and contacts, added as friends within this app, are easily detected and pinpointed on the map. This app is particularly useful for parents that wish to control the presence of their children at specific locations, or for helping tourists reunite while sightseeing during trips.

Find Friends can be downloaded, free of charge, from the App Store. But Apple’s plans are to integrate it as stock software, with the public release of iOS 9, coming this fall. Our beta testing of the 9th iOS generation, shows the app as native and available on your iPhone’s or iPad’s, home screen, after the upload. As all other built-in applications, Find Friends can’t be deleted. You’re only able to hide it withing a sub-folder, if you don’t use it too often.

Find My Friends iOS 9 Widget
Another addition that directly impacts this app, in the newest iOS generation is the Find Friends widget, which can be displayed in the Today view of the Notification Center. This info module is added and used as all other iOS widgets.
It’s in fact the second new built-in widget in iOS 9, to the Batteries glance.
When the Find My Friends widget is active, your iPhone will automatically display your available contacts’ location, within the Notification Center view.

Find My Friends Setup
Whether you install this application from the App Store, or you’re already running iOS 9 beta on your device, you have to perform a short configuration of Find My Friends before you’re ready to go. So, open the app and “Allow” the software to access your location while you use it. This way the tool will know where you’re located and can accurately determine how far away your contacts are.

On the Find Friends home screen tap on yourself (“Me” tab) to configure your profile. Make sure that Share My Location is toggled ON, or your friends won’t be able to receive info about your position. Label your location to provide extended details. You can pick from the ones available like: Home, Work, School, Gym, None or Add Custom Label. When you finish tweaking your options, tap Done, in the top-right corner.

To add friends rapidly, tap on Friend Suggestions, on the app’s home screen. Your iCloud contacts will be searched and acquaintances that already use this tool are displayed. You can also invite an iOS contact to install and use Find My Friends, by tapping the Add button, available in the top-right corner. Tap the contact’s name in the “To:” field and you’ll be prompted to choose from the email addresses available on file. You’ll be able to follow your friend, once he accepts your request.