Google starts rolling out Find My Device

[Hamster]

Google seriously never had this? Or is this a rebrand/new version?

 

[YM_80]

Correct, the main difference here is not the device reporting itself but other devices around it tracking it.

So the data is crowdsourced and less battery intensive.

It’s also always on, whereas the alternative would be only when polled remotely.

Not sure if the new version will change this, but on the current version, with multi-factor authentication enabled, when you try to track the phone, you get a pop-up on the actual phone asking you to verify that the other device can track it. So if it's stolen, it notifies the thief that you're trying to track it. You can still use one of the Google codes or some other means to authenticate, but the point is that by that time it's probably too late.

That always seemed counter-productive to me...

 

[SauRoNZA]

Not sure if the new version will change this, but on the current version, with multi-factor authentication enabled, when you try to track the phone, you get a pop-up on the actual phone asking you to verify that the other device can track it. So if it's stolen, it notifies the thief that you're trying to track it. You can still use one of the Google codes or some other means to authenticate, but the point is that by that time it's probably too late.

That always seemed counter-productive to me...

Even if it’s your own device? That is weird.

Find My on Apple only does that if you want to setup a notification for someone else in your network.

Very weird you would need repeat authentication on your own device.

But yes it would almost certainly change.

 

[Nerfherder]

+2-year-old Android, so it is API 28 and above. +6-year-old Android devices will be supported. Interesting. I am curious whether the crowdsource will also utilize non-smartphone devices? Wakey wakey.

yes - I need this for my smart watch.

 

[AdrianH]

Not sure if the new version will change this, but on the current version, with multi-factor authentication enabled, when you try to track the phone, you get a pop-up on the actual phone asking you to verify that the other device can track it. So if it's stolen, it notifies the thief that you're trying to track it. You can still use one of the Google codes or some other means to authenticate, but the point is that by that time it's probably too late.

That always seemed counter-productive to me...

This doesn't happen to me.

The only thing that happens is on the phone being tracked, a notification pops up saying "Device Located", but not on lockscreen.

 

[AdrianH]

I actually don't want it disabled cos I do want to know if it does happen. There was just no way to inform android, that those are my apple trackers.

So hoping there's a way now

Ah, I see.

Let's hope so because according to article I posted earlier, Apple seems to have also implemented tracking of any/all tags now like Google did. So we need to be able to whitelist tags if necessary.