Android’s Find My Device network settings start going live for some users

Ben Schoon | Apr 3 2024 - 10:25 am PT

Nearly a year ago at Google I/O, the new “Find My Device” network for trackers was announced for Android, but then delayed indefinitely for the benefit of iPhone users. Now, finally, the network is starting to roll out – sort of.

The Find My Device network piggybacks off of all Android phones with Google Play Services to help users find lost items including phones and smartwatches, as well as trackers, headphones, and more. Google first announced the network in May 2023 with the goal of rolling it out in the months to follow, but the company later announced a delay.

The network’s delay was to wait on Apple implementing protections in iOS for trackers used with Android. Apple was waiting for an industry standard to be built out for the action (even though no such protection was available to Android when AirTags debuted), with the standard having been ready to go as of December 2023. Just this week, in iOS 17.5 builds, 9to5Mac found evidence of the protection that Google was waiting on.

Now, Google is starting to roll out Android’s Find My Device network.

In the latest beta version of Google Play Services, v24.12.14, a new “Find your offline devices” is appearing in the Settings menu for some users. This leads to another page with options to find devices without the network, with the network in “high-traffic areas,” and with the network all of the time. Users can also turn the feature off entirely. By default, the option is turned on and to “all areas.”

We previously reported on these settings in September 2023. The descriptions of each were as follows:

Without network: “Your device won’t participate in the network. You can still locate your offline devices using their stored recent locations when they were online.”
With network in high-traffic areas only: “Locate using stored recent locations or the network in areas like airports or busy footpaths. To help find a lost item, location info from your device is used only if others in the network also detect the item.”
With the network in all areas: “Locate using stored recent locations or the network even in low-traffic areas. To help find a lost item, location info from just your device may be used if it’s the only one in the network to detect the item.”

The rollout was noticed by @AssembleDebug, and has since been also spotted by several users on Telegram. However, it does appear to be in a limited capacity so far. We’re not seeing it appear on a Pixel 8 Pro with the latest Play Services update, but your results may vary. On Pixel, the setting should appear under Settings > Security & privacy > Device finders > Find My Device > Find your offline devices.

Top comment by Paul W

Liked by 13 people

Finally I bet Chipolo, Pebblebee & others can't wait as I bet they have so much stock since the launch was supposed to be last year. They can finally launch & use android users can FINALLY have a tracking device that actually works.

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If you’re seeing the settings live, let us know in the comments below!

This is not a wide, formal launch, but very likely the first steps of the full launch. Presumably, Google will fully flip the switch when iOS 17.5 is available to iPhone which, currently, is estimated to be sometime in May. We’ve reached out to Google for more information.