Apple's iOS 17 that was introduced with iPhone 15 introduced a wide range of new features, with one of them being branded and trademarked "NameDrop." Apple notes: "Hold your iPhone near someone else’s iPhone or Apple Watch4 to use NameDrop. You’ll both be able to choose the specific phone numbers or email addresses you want to share, and you can share them along with your Contact Poster instantly.  Simply bring your phones close together to initiate the transfer over AirDrop." Our cover graphic presents this iOS 17 feature. Apple's concept also extended to the new "Initiate SharePlay."

Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent titled "Location Systems For Electronic Device Communications" that relates to Apple's new NameDrop and even Initiate SharePlay on iOS 17.

At the heart of this patent is Apple's patent FIG. 16 as presented below illustrating the act of two users sharing data. Apple notes that "If the user of device #10 (an iPhone) wishes to exchange contact information with the user of another device (iPhone), the two users may place devices in the appropriate trigger location (e.g., end-to-end as shown in the example of FIG. 16, side-to-side, or other suitable arrangement). Upon detecting that device 10 and device 10′ are in the appropriate trigger location, control circuitry #22 may automatically send contact information #116 to device 10′ (or may prompt the user to take action before sending contact information 116 to device 10′).

To learn more about other scenarios and finer details in general, review Apple's granted patent 11805392.