A launch date for the Find My Device network has been included in an email issued by Google to select Android owners following the settings of the feature’s rollout.
Google’s Find My Device network, which was formally unveiled last year, aims to use the vast Android device population to assist in finding lost or abandoned phones, headphones, and trackers. The network was postponed, though, while Google and Apple collaborated to create an industry standard that would help guarantee that location technology isn’t used to track someone else’s activities for harmful purposes. This was a concern for Android customers after Apple introduced AirTag in 2021.
Although the standard has been available since December 2023, Google withheld the launch of its network for the benefit of iPhone owners so Apple could include this security in iOS. This appears to have finally happened in iOS 17.5.
It appeared this week that the Find My Device network will go live really quickly. For those who registered for the Google Play Services beta, all of the settings started to surface. The functionality itself did not appear to function, though.
Google began blasting some users with emails early on Thursday morning, alerting them to the impending launch of the Find My Device network. The business began by outlining the network’s primary benefits:
You’ll be able to find your devices even while they’re offline thanks to the new Find My Device network. When your Fast Pair accessories aren’t connected to your phone, you can still locate them. This includes headphones and earphones that work with it as well as trackers that you can fasten to your bike, wallet, or keys.
More significantly, Google makes it clear that the network will start “in three days” in the email’s final paragraph. This indicates that Sunday, April 7, or, more likely, Monday, April 8, is when the Find My Device network launch will take place. That is less than a year after the first declaration.
In three days, when this function is activated, you’ll receive a notification on your Android devices. You can use the online Find My Device tool to choose not to use the network until then.
Nevertheless, this release date doesn’t seem to have been disclosed by Google anywhere else, and this email was only received by one person on our team. Though it’s conceivable that the email was received in error and the date provided is off, it appears that we’re now set to go forward considering the iOS improvements and the settings rollout.
Users can choose to opt out of the network capabilities ahead of time by clicking on a link in the email. But it seems like this is account-based. For the team member who got the email, it worked; however, others who hadn’t received the identical email from Google did not.
Nevertheless, considering that the network looks to be set on by default, that is a crucial point for Google to make. Google informs users that the settings they select will be applied to all Android devices connected to that Google account.
