Yesterday, after a long wait for Apple to add unwanted tracker protection to iOS, Google finally brought its new Find My Device network online. Google’s new Find My Device network covers more than 1 billion active devices around the world, so tracking them should be easy.
One particularly interesting feature is the ability to track your Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro even when they’re powered off or have no battery, and apparently a lot of people have been wondering since launch if this very useful feature ever comes into play. It will be applied to other smartphones in the future. Now we have the answer, and it boils down to “yes, eventually.”
Google says it’s working with other smartphone makers, as well as chipset makers, to bring this feature to other phones in the future. The feature should come to more high-end Android smartphones first, and then eventually roll out to more affordable smartphones.
Specialized hardware is able to find devices with drained batteries on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro and power the Bluetooth chip even if they are turned off or appear to be out of battery. Google is encouraging other device makers to adopt the same approach.
It’s unclear which high-end Android smartphone will launch first after the two aforementioned Pixels, or whether Google plans to roll it out to its own older Pixels. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Google’s statement on the matter doesn’t reveal whether existing phones other than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have the necessary hardware to enable this feature, or whether we’ll have to wait for the next generation.
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