Apple officially adds ‘unwanted tracker’ alerts in iOS 17.5 as Android trackers near

Ben Schoon | May 13 2024 - 11:05 am PT

AirTag-like trackers are finally coming to Android in the coming weeks and, ahead of that, Apple has finally implemented alerts for “unwanted trackers” in iOS 17.5.

Apple today announced iOS 17.5 which, as 9to5Mac details, brings upgrades to Apple’s News+ app on iPhone and iPad. But the much bigger news, at least from the Android perspective, is that iOS 17.5 finally sees Apple implement the “unwanted tracker” alerts based on the industry spec for “Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers” (DULT) which has been ready since December 2023.

With iOS 17.5, iPhone and iPad users will now get alerts saying that an “[Item] Found Moving With You.” The alerts will work with AirTags and other Find My accessories, but also any Bluetooth tracker that uses the DULT standard. This includes all of the trackers that have been announced for Android’s Find My Device network.

Apple explains:

With this new capability, users will now get an “[Item] Found Moving With You” alert on their device if an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is seen moving with them over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with.

If a user gets such an alert on their iOS device, it means that someone else’s AirTag, Find My accessory, or other industry specification-compatible Bluetooth tracker is moving with them. It’s possible the tracker is attached to an item the user is borrowing, but if not, iPhone can view the tracker’s identifier, have the tracker play a sound to help locate it, and access instructions to disable it.

Google has also implemented the same protections on all Android devices running Android 6.0 and newer. Google first rolled out that functionality in mid-2023 with AirTags in mind, and it’s since been updated to work with the DULT standard.

Meanwhile, AirTag-like trackers for Android are set to begin shipping to customers on May 27, with more to follow in the weeks following. Chipolo and Pebblebee first announced their Find My Device-compatible trackers for Android users in 2023 before Google opted to delay the network’s rollout until the industry standard was ready to avoid privacy concerns with the trackers being used on iPhone users unaware of their presence – Apple made no such consideration for Android users when launching AirTag in 2021, only releasing an app months later following backlash.

Google is currently rolling out the Find My Device network to all Android users, both in the initial launch regions of the US and Canada as well as in other parts of the globe (though in a more limited capacity).