David Hanak The Walkie-Talkie feature has been available on the Apple Watch since last year's watchOS 5 update. Now, information has emerged that Apple planned to implement a similar mechanism in iPhones as well. Despite the fact that there was development, the whole project was eventually put on hold.
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This news is interesting mainly because of how the walkie-talkie was supposed to work on iPhones. Apple is said to have developed this technology in collaboration with Intel, and the goal was to invent a way for users to communicate with each other who are, for example, out of reach of classic mobile networks. Internally, the project was called OGRS, which stands for "Off Grid Radio Service".
In practice, the technology was supposed to enable communication using text messages, even from places that are not covered by a classic signal. A special broadcast using radio waves running in the 900 MHz band, which is currently used for crisis communication in some industries (in the USA), would be used to transmit information.
Until now, virtually nothing was known about this project, and it is still unclear how far along Apple and Intel were with regard to the development and possible deployment of this technology in practice. Currently, development has been suspended and according to internal information, the reason for this is the departure of a key person from Apple. He was supposed to be the driving force behind this project. He was Rubén Caballero and he left Apple during April.
Another reason for the failure of the project could also be the fact that its functioning depended on the integration of data modems from Intel. However, as we know, Apple has finally settled with Qualcomm, which will supply data modems for iPhones for the next few generations. Perhaps we will see this function later, when Apple starts producing its own data modems, which will be partially based on Intel technology.
Source: 9to5mac
