As expected last week, today Google officially announced that it has finally turned on its long-awaited Find My Device network for Android, which will even work on offline devices. The feature will be available globally starting today in the United States and Canada on devices running Android 9 and above.
The network will have over a billion devices, so your devices will be easily located even if they are offline. As a bonus with the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, thanks to some “specialized Pixel hardware,” they can be tracked even if they’re turned off or their battery dies.
Starting in May, new Bluetooth tracker tags will be available from Chipolo and Pebblebee, and these tags can be found in the Find My Device app because they are built specifically for the new Find My Device network. They’ll also be compatible with unknown tracker alerts on Android and iOS to prevent – you guessed it – unwanted tracking. Anker’s eufy, Jio and Motorola will launch more Bluetooth tags later this year.
If you’re close to your lost device but still can’t see it, a Find Nearby button will appear to help you determine the exact location of the device near you. Starting in May, this will work with the new Bluetooth tag mentioned above.
If you’re at home and have Nest devices, the Find My Device app will be able to pinpoint the distance of your lost device to those Nest devices. Finally, you can also “share” devices with other people so you can find them more easily if they are lost.
Google says it has implemented “multiple layers of protection” into its new Find My Device network to help keep you safe and your personal information private. For example, location data is end-to-end encrypted, and aggregated device location reporting is a “first-of-its-kind security feature” that provides additional protection against unwanted tracking to home or private locations.
Headphones from JBL, Sony and others will receive software updates in the near future that will allow them to join Google’s new Find My Device network.
Google’s rollout of this new Find My Device network has been delayed for months as it waits for Apple to implement unwanted tracking protections in iOS. It looks like this will finally go live in iOS 17.5, which should be released soon, which is why the new Find My Device network is live now.
source