Today, the all-new Find My Device is rolling out to Android devices around the world, starting in the U.S. and Canada. With a new, crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices, Find My Device can help you find your misplaced Android devices and everyday items quickly and securely. Here are five ways you can try it out.
↫ Erik Kay on the Google blog
This old Android feature has basically been updated to be the same thing as Apple’s Find My, but with more than just one vendor making the tracking tags. Of course, this means it also comes with the same problems, from its use by stalkers to controlling partners, and everything in between. This is a very problematic technology, one which I think is almost impossible to make safe.
Still, I have a Samsung tracker that I don’t use anymore – because I bought a Pixel 8 Pro, and don’t want to install any Samsung applications – and I do plan on getting a new tracker that’s compatible with this new Find My Device network. With two small kids, it’s easy to lose track of something like my car keys, and instead of stressing about where they are when we need to leave on time, I can just ping them using our Google Home devices instead.
Sometimes, these silly smart technologies really do take just that little bit of stress out of your life – you just have to be really picky and honest with yourself about what you really need.
I doubt I’ll ever use it since my watch can tell me when I’m more than a few feet away from my phone, but I can definitely see the benefit to those who don’t wear a smartwatch or otherwise have a way to find their lost devices. I definitely can see the potential for abuse too though; hopefully they will do better than Apple has done with curbing malicious use.
Off topic Thom, but how are you liking your Pixel 8 Pro? I switch from my iPhone 13 Pro to the Pixel 8 Pro back in January and so far I like it almost as much as when I had a Pixel 5. The only thing I really don’t like is how big it is; I have big hands (I’m 192cm tall) but I’ve always preferred smaller phones. Otherwise it’s better than my iPhone was in every way so far. I did have issues with RCS chats sometimes bugging out on me at first, but after an update in February that hasn’t happened again.
Morgan,
I don’t think we can continue fearing new technologies for potential misuse. Even since the invention of fire, everything we build can have those potential downsides, but we moved on.
And, yes, it is very helpful to have these apps (and the web version for Android, too). I sometime lose my smartwatch and phone at the same time.
(I also have a bunch of Tile tags for the wallet, keys, and whatnot. Better spend $15 than lots of time finding lost stuff)
sukru,
Some people may want to track luggage around the world, but for stuff around the house it would be nice just to have a local tracker implementation such that tracked locations would not be uploaded to google or apple unless the user specifically configured them to do that. These would take care of many of the privacy problems.
There are other products like that that only beep when they connect to your phone’s bluetooth.
jgfenix,
That would be useful, in addition to an app that can show you the signal strength. For better or worse though, the tech giants have their own interests in steering us towards tethered solutions that go through their servers. I’d like to see a universal tag locator standard that isn’t vendor locked. Vendor locking is a big problem with today’s smart devices unfortunately.
I don’t fear it, I welcome it, but as with any other technology there is potential for abuse. As I said I’m hopeful Google can do better than Apple in this regard.
they have anti-tracking built-in:
https://blog.google/products/android/unknown-tracker-alert-google-android/
At least! I had preordered a couple of tags and they were supposed to arrive last July but they wre were delayed due to G.oogle. Now I’m going to receive them one year later.