Future iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches could change their user interfaces based on where a user is. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220114575) for “location-based graphical user interfaces.”
About the patent filing
The patent filing involves location-based content. Specifically, your Apple device could display merchant info (and ads) when you’re in a store.
Apple says that the functionality of modern mobile devices is constantly being extended to make commerce between the users of these mobile devices and store owners (e.g., merchants) easier. For example, instead of using a plastic credit card to make a purchase, a user merely has to present their mobile device at a point of sale terminal in a store to make a purchase.
However, Apple says that, often the user is still required to enter the store and interact with the point, of sale terminal or customer service person to make purchases at a store location. The tech giant wants your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch to receive and display identification information for a merchant store and its location.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing with technical details: “The mobile device can receive the identification information when the mobile device is proximate to the store location, for example. The mobile device can obtain graphical user interface (GUI) configuration data for the merchant store location based on the store location identification information.
“For example, the mobile device can obtain GUI content that has been customized for the merchant store location. The mobile device can configure a GUI of an application installed on the mobile device based on the obtained GUI configuration data. The mobile device can make the proximity application accessible to a user of the mobile device when the mobile device is near the store location.”
