long story short
- Google says that a shutdown tracking feature similar to the Pixel 8 should also appear on other Android phones.
- The company is working with other SOC and smartphone OEMs to achieve this goal.
- The feature should come to more high-end Android phones first, and then to more affordable phones.
Google’s upgraded Find My Device network can locate devices even when they are offline and not connected to the internet. But with the Pixel 8 series, Google has gone a step further, allowing users to find their phone even when it’s turned off or has a dead battery.Google has confirmed Android Authority The feature will come to other phones as well.
Google says it uses specialized hardware on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro to power the Bluetooth chip inside the phone even when the battery is drained or turned off. Google is encouraging other Android phone OEMs to adopt this approach.
“We are working with other SOCs and OEMs on how to bring the ability to find devices with dead batteries to other premium Android devices,” a Google representative told us in response to our query via email.
So once other OEMs find a way to keep the internal Bluetooth chip active in off mode, it looks like other Android phones will also get power-out tracking capabilities via the new Find My Device network. It’s unclear if this will be possible on existing Android phones beyond the Pixel 8 series.
Currently, most Android devices that are powered off cannot ping each other via Bluetooth. The iPhone was already able to do this long before Google introduced the feature to the Pixel 8 series. What remains to be seen is whether existing flagships like the Galaxy S24 series have built-in hardware support for keeping the Bluetooth chip powered even when the CPU and operating system are turned off.
as Android Authority Contributor Mishaal Rahman previously explained that the feature may also require an updated software that Google Play Services can use to send precomputed Finder network keys to the Bluetooth chip.
Will other existing Pixel devices get the feature? Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give us an answer to this question.