While the diminutively iconic and feature rich iPhone offers touch-screen functionality, Web browsing, wireless connectivity, music and video playback -- and is even a telephone -- it lacks an instant messaging application, one of the most popular communication outlets enjoyed by today’s expansive online community.
Does Apple patent suggest upcoming instant messaging for the iPhone? Credit: Apple.
Well, that deficiency might soon be a thing of the past if a newly unearthed patent filing is anything to go by.
AppleInsider reports that the real-time text chat patent (pictured) is an indication that Apple is moving to lay the foundations for instant messaging features on the iPhone and potentially other similar touch-screen devices.
Filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office in March of this year, Apple’s application outlines an interface that is closely aligned with the iPhone’s current SMS text messaging but also differs in key areas.
While usage is similar in certain respects to the iPhone’s SMS feature, i.e., the same bubble-style chat interface, the patent suggests incoming messages would appear typed directly into another chat bubble while quick user responses would be augmented via lists of predictive word suggestions. Users will also be able to view prior chat history and delete old conversations from that history.
The notion that Apple’s filing is aimed at a universal messaging system is bolstered somewhat by the patent images also clearly displaying ‘IM’ icons and the words ‘Instant Messages’ rather than ‘SMS’ icons (Short Messaging Service).
Although many technology patents sit gathering dust for many years after filing, some never to be brought forward into development, there’s every chance that this particular application will not lie dormant -- not least because instant messaging exists as one of the most requested features that iPhone users wish to see introduced to Apple’s handset.
Thus far missing from successive iPhone software updates, instant messaging currently remains out of reach for the Apple-loving masses, with only a limited AOL chat client available for those who really need to talk type in real-time without actually using the iPhone’s integral telephonic attributes.
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