reservations. The drone initiative is a continuation of this effort and is unlikely to be related to a commercial Apple drone product.

Apple filed for an exemption on Sept. 21, 2015, from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones for commercial purposes, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News. At that time, exemptions were required to commercially operate drones. In a response dated March 22, 2016, the FAA granted Apple approval to “operate an unmanned aircraft system to conduct data collection, photography, and videography,” according to one of the documents.

Apple’s application told the FAA that it would use a range of drones sold by companies such as SZ DJI Technology Co. and Aibotix to collect the data.

Official guidelines for commercial drone operation were instated in August, restricting flying to mostly daytime hours and requiring licensed pilots to operate the equipment while keeping the drones in their line of sight. Apple committed to these guidelines, according to the FAA documents.

The current rules restrict commercial drones from flying over people and buildings, potentially limiting Apple’s initiative for the time being. Apple could meanwhile fly the drones in the U.S. within FAA guidelines and fly without restriction in countries without commercial drone regulations.

Apple has hired at least one person from Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Air division to help run the drone team, one of the people said. Prime Air is Amazon’s initiative to quickly deliver packages via drones. The Apple team is being assembled in Seattle, the same city as Amazon’s headquarters, the person said.

Beyond better data collection, Apple is developing an indoor mapping view that would allow users to navigate airports, and other high-traffic buildings like museums using iPhones, according to another person.

Apple acquired startup Indoor.io last year to help bring its indoor mapping project to market, according to another person familiar with the matter. Apple confirmed the purchase, but declined to say why it did the deal. The company also bought WiFiSlam in 2013, another startup with indoor navigation expertise.

Indoor location tracking is achieved via a combination of technologies inside the latest iPhones, including pressure sensors, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Apple is also working on a feature that provides better guidance for changing lanes while driving, one of the people said. Both features are planned for release next year but could be held back, the person said.

• Bloomberg’s Alex Webb and Olga Kharif contributed to this report.