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Pre-notification system in Instant Messaging services like “away”, “busy”, “do not disturb” etc helps a lot before knocking someone. And now it seems like that pre-notification system has attracted Apple to deploy the service in its system. Lately, Apple Insider has reported that Apple has patented a file in United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) where the company describes it is building a system in which a caller will be able to check another user’s iPhone’s status like whether the user is available to talk or not, before placing a call.

According to Apple Insider, Apple has patented for a system to set essentially an “Away/Available/Busy” style status for receiving phone calls on a smartphone device, while updating status intelligently and automatically utilizing data gathered about the device and its settings. This means, users would be able to display a status to his/her contacts like Skype and IM services that would indicate whether he/she is available to receive a call or not.

In fact, the system would take into account user preferences, determine what information it can share as set by a user, and filter inbound calls against a phone’s contact list to help preserve privacy before sharing any information. At the same time, it could do things like send the inbound caller information about whether the user has the ringer turned on or set to vibrate, current location of the user, the strength of their current signal and their device’s remaining battery life.

However, the patent is not so much about letting a user set their own universal status for all inbound calls, but instead about letting them set and forget preferences around just how much they’re willing to share and with who, and letting the automated system do the rest.

Source: Apple Insider

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