How a speedy Google search could locate your lost phone
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LOSING your phone is more than just a drag — with most of your life stored on there, for many people it’s an absolute disaster.
It’d probably make most people feel better if they knew there were more than a billion people out there to help them find it, then.
Good news greets us this week all the way from Mountain View, California – Google revealed its new Find My Device feature is rolling out to Android phones around the globe.
It’s a system that uses other people’s connectivity anonymously to relay back to the Find My Device network the location of compatible lost items.
If you lose a device you can find it using the Find My Device app on another Android device – like a tablet – or via a web browser when logged into your Google account. You can even opt to get Google Maps directions to your device.
I know what you’re thinking – that sounds like a privacy nightmare… not so, Google assures us.
It claims the system has actually been designed from the ground up to be private, with several layers of protection – for a start, all data is securely encrypted from end-toend.
A novel feature aimed at preventing unwanted tracking to a private location is aggregation. Multiple Android devices must detect a device before its location is logged – so you’ll ou’ll see the phone or tagged ged keys you’ve left in a busy sy coffee shop, but where there are fewer phones es – like at home – the location won’t be e logged… which h makes it much h harder for you to o be tracked there.
There is also protection against being tagged unknowingly by someone dropping a tag in your pocket or attaching one to your car – you’ll be notified if a device you do not own is travelling with you. And that works whether you are on Android or iPhone.
Finally, Google is also throttling the number of times a tag’s location can be requested by its owner. It says lost items are usually left in a static location, so no update date is required. But someone using g a tag to track your location is usually trying to do so in real time… … with limited requests allowed, they ey just won’t be able to. t
So far, so reassuring. r
You can, of course, share items on the system m with friends and a family, y, so shared items ite can be easily located by anyone e with permission. perm
And An there is also lso a feature f that hat allows allow pinpoint int location loca data for items item that are closer clos – so if you lose los your keys ys in your house, your phone will be able to guide you to them.
If you lose your phone in your house, and you have a Nest smart speaker, it will tell you how far away the phone is from the speaker to narrow down the places you need to look.
If all this sounds a little familiar, it could be because Apple has had a similar system in place for some time – its Find My platform operates in a very similar way, allowing location tracking for all Apple devices (including Macs, AirPods, and iPhones).
Apple, of course, makes its own tags – AirTags — which allow you to track anything you like.
Google isn’t making its own tags but is partnering with third parties including Chipolo and Pebblebee, both of whom have revealed details of their Android compatible trackers, which come in card form for wallets or tags to attach to items like bags and keys.
Google is also working with some other ot third-party device makers to bring Find My Device to their products pro too – look out for headphones head from JBL and Sony Son joining the party soon. If I you’re a Pixel 8 owner, there’s the one more surprise – the system can find these devices dev even when their battery is dead, which sounds like it could be a lifesaver. Find F My Device works with wit phones running Android And 9 or later and is rolling out over the coming weeks wee globally.
See Se chipolo.net for details of its it upcoming trackers, or pebblebee.com pebb for what’s in store stor from it.