Access Apple's Find My Friends app on iCloud.com

Apple’s Find My Friends App to Trace Friends/Family Members

Apple has recently added Find My Friends, its iOS utilised to trace friends and family members. Find My Friends service of Apple can now be accessed from any mobile device inclusive of Windows PC due to its debut on the iCloud.com portico. Initially spotted by 9to5Mac, this addition brings the feature to the computers for the first time.

Though for years, the Find My iPhone service was available from iCloud.com, Find My Friends tends to be limited to an iOS app. Find My Friends, also came to the Mac through a widget built in to OS X 10.11 El Captain, last month. However, users preferring to acess the Find My Friends service without the iPhone, iPad or a Mac will be unable to do so till the update.

Activating this service needs an iPhone or iPad that enables the service to track user’s current locations. The opt-in social networking feature permits friends to share their precise location on a map. Earlier in the year, Find my Friends and Find My iPhone became a more predominant part of Apple ecosystem when had become inborn, pre-installed apps on iOS 9. Formerly, to download the software, user had to access the iOS App Store.

Missing Potential to Set Alert/Edit Friends

Apple has included the find My Friends app in the operating system with the release of iOS 9, instead of making it an optional install as done in the past. With the addition of Find My Friends to iCloud.com, there is a possibility of gathering more information about friends’ locations from Mac as well as Windows. In order to view the location of your friends, users could visit Apple’s iCloud website and sign in with an Apple ID and when logged in, could locate and click on familiar Find My Friends app icon. List of friends tend to be displayed towards the left of the page with a map on the right. You could click on a friend in order to view their exact location. General functions are somewhat limited in comparison with the iOS app, but particularly missing the potential to set alert or edit friends.

Pre-Installed on Every iOS Device

Find My Friends links Find My iPhone together with many other iCloud apps which include Calendar, Contact,Mail, Photos, Notes, Reminders, iCloud Drive as well as the iWork suite of apps. The addition of Find My Friends to iCloud.com comes following its promotion to a default app in iOS 9 meaning that it comes pre-installed on every iOS device which cannot be removed. However, the app can be hidden though not totally removed from the device. The iOS 9 also comprise of a Find My Friends widget to equal the OS X Notification Centre widget but there is no dedicated, standalone Find My Friends app for OS X.

Consumers may tend to have different views regarding `Find my Friends’ app where some may consider it helpful and practical while others may find it disturbing. In any case, users will not be included to the app without their consent. Once you choose it, you will be included on the Apple map. A positive aspect of the app is for parents with the ability of tracking their children’s locations without the need of texting them.