Microsoft is joining Apple by offering a creepy-yet-useful feature similar to iOS’s Find My Friends. Spanish-language site Microsoft Place reports that an upcoming app called People Sense allows Windows Phone users to share their real-time locations with a select group of trusted friends.
Not only does the new feature, currently in development under codename Buddy Aware, give users access to their friends’ locations, but it also integrates messaging and calling. This would give users the option of chastising tardy pals or coworkers without having to switch apps.
People Sense will also leverage Microsoft’s Bing Maps, giving users detailed directions to their friends’ current locations. This would be useful if someone is lost or if, you know, you just want to drop in on someone unexpectedly.
The app looks fairly robust and polished in Microsoft Place’s video (included below), but it remains unclear when we will see People Sense’s official release, or whether Microsoft intends to add more additional features in the meantime. Also up for debate is how users will react: Find My Friends cannot entirely escape its creepy factor, and People Sense could easily see a similar fate.
Of course Microsoft’s biggest mobile challenge continues to be getting people to buy Windows Phones.
H/T The Verge | Photo via drtel/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
