Apple phone feature would provide a busy signal before you even dial

People familiar with instant messaging are used to seeing green and red dots signaling to them whether a contact is likely busy or available. But when people make phone calls, there’s no guidance before dialing and having to wait out a bunch of rings.

Apple Inc. might be looking to change that. The company is seeking a patent for a feature that would show “status” dots alongside people’s contacts. It would determine people’s status by looking at indicators including ringer volume setting, location, cell reception strength, battery level and calendar.

If the feature was turned on, all of this communication would happen behind-the-scenes without the user having to do anything.

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“Incoming voice calls to mobile devices can be intrusive under certain situations,” the patent application says. “The caller in such cases has no control over whether or not the call will be accepted.”

Though this patent hasn’t been approved yet, Apple did recently secure a large batch of patents. One of them allows for a cellphone to automatically text selected contacts when the device discovers that it has a new phone number. That could bring an end to those annoying, “New number! Please update your contacts” Facebook groups.

Apple also secured a patent to have Microsoft Kinect-like motion sensors on devices that could allow for a new “Workouts” app. Another granted patent provides for easy manipulation of 3-D graphics.

The last one of note offers a technique to manage the swelling of batteries.

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