The walkie talkie feature on Apple Watches has been a well received feature and Apple were looking to bring a similar feature to iPhones! The new technology would have let people send text messages to other iPhones over a 900MHz radio spectrum. A spectrum that is typically used for dispatchers in the utility and manufacturing industry. The new feature would have brought walkie talkie esque abilities to iPhones. Without the need for WIFI of Mobile internet according to The Information.

However, the feature would have been different to the current walkie talkie feature on the Apple Watch. The information reports that Apple and Intel were working together on the project. It would have seen intel chips in future iPhones before it was shelved. Internally it was reportedly known as Project OGRS “ogres”. This would most likely have been in reference to patents which were filed a year ago which eluded to an Off Grid Radio Service.

Why did Apple Shelve it?

Why was it shelved? Well, The Information report says that the the internal champion on the project Rubén Caballero, left Apple earlier on in the year. Coupled with Apple settling with Qualcomm, and Apple’s expected move from Intel modems to Qualcomm put an end to it. Apple going with Qualcomm over Intel was so significant it caused Intel to sell it’s entire smartphone modem business. Which Apple purchased for $1Bn

This feature does sound pretty cool to be fair and maybe we’ll see this type feature in the future. Maybe with that there would be no excuse to not texting back, “I didn’t receive your text” wouldn’t fly.

(The Verge)

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