Find My Friends was not the first location-sharing app when it was introduced in 2011, but by being a first-party solution, it saw incredibly widespread support. So much so that Apple just went ahead and bundled with with iOS starting with iOS 9. Find My iPhone first launched as a MobileMe service in 2010, and became a free iCloud service in 2011. It has been a critical piece of infrastructure to help people locate their lost gear.
The ubiquity of these services have made them so popular, so oft-used and reliable, that they have become a mainstay of the Apple ecosystem; a reason to stick with Apple, just like iMessage.
With iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, Apple has given these location services their biggest overhaul yet. Since the two apps essentially do the same thing, they have been combined into a single app called “Find My” with a new interface. It’s included in iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina.
