- Apple’s Find My feature started from an intern’s idea to track lost devices.
- It began with the Find My iPhone app, announced at the 2009 Worldwide Developers Conference.
- The feature evolved to include Find My Friends and AirTags for all Apple devices.
If you’ve ever done the dreaded pat-down of your pockets when you realized your phone is missing, Apple’s Find My feature has probably been a lifesaver.
And, according to Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, the company’s idea for the feature was found through surprisingly humble origins.
Cue, in an interview earlier this year with tech YouTuber Safwan AhmedMia (better known by his moniker SuperSaf), said that the company’s Find My ecosystem was actually started by an intern.
The now ubiquitous tool for more forgetful users “started with the idea of somebody losing their phone on the couch,” Cue said. After an intern recognized the universal panic of misplacing your phone, the company worked to develop a solution.
“I remember one of the first things was if you have your phone in silent mode, it better override silent mode, or you’re not going to see it,” he said.
The original Find My iPhone app was first announced in 2009 during Apple’s 26th Worldwide Developers Conference. It was released the following year alongside the iPhone OS 3, initially only available to members of Apple’s now-defunct paid MobileMe service.
With the introduction of iCloud in 2011, it became free for all users. Later that year, the feature was extended to Macs with “Find My Mac” and has since become preinstalled on all iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.
And now it’s not just for lost devices but people and, say, misplaced luggage.
“Look at where it’s led to,” Cue said. “It went to Find My Friends to now AirTags because you’re finding your suitcase somewhere in the airport.”
Find My Friends, which allows users to share their locations with each other, was announced in 2011 on the day before Steve Jobs’ death.
Ten years later, the AirTag was released, allowing people to trace personal items with the physical tracking device that’s now popular for luggage, keys, and other accessories.
Apple has since announced further integrations with airports, allowing customers to share their AirTag location with airlines like Delta to help track down lost luggage. The feature, Share Item Location, is expected to launch in December with iOS 18.2.
Other companies have introduced similar tech to Apple’s Find My features, including Google, which announced earlier this April that its own Find My Device feature would now be available for Android phones and tablets.
But when it comes to Apple, “this is a great example of one where you go, ‘Well sure, that’s pretty easy. It didn’t take a genius to think that,'” Cue said. “But nobody thought of it until we did it.”
