Android's Find My Device network will reportedly go crowd-sourced

Both Samsung and Apple have their own trackers: the SmartTag and the AirTag, respectively. What these trackers have in common is they both use a crowd-sourced network of devices to help track and locate lost tags or other devices. An APK Teardown suggests Google is working on a similar crowd-sourced network for locating lost things.

The teardown revealed hidden code found in the latest version of the Google Play Services 21.24.13 in the beta channel. The first says ”Allow your phone to help locate your and other people’s devices” and the second one reads ”Find My Device network”.

This hints that Google will leverage every Android device on Google Play Services to help locate lost or stolen Android devices, without a data connection. The wording of the first string suggests everyone who turns on the Find My Device feature will also be required to enable tracking for other lost devices. Nothing is concrete anyway, so that may change once the Find My Device network (if ever) launches.

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