TL; DR
- Google may be working on an Apple-like Find My network for Android phones.
- With the “Find My Device Network” you can ideally help other Android users to find their cell phones and vice versa.
Apple’s Find My network is perhaps the strongest community of devices that can help locate lost or stolen iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and other Apple products. It can even help track a device that is offline using millions of other Apple devices that may be near the lost device. Now it looks like Google is taking a page from Apple’s book and creating its own Find My Device Network.
People passing by XDA developer decrypted some strings in the latest version of Google Play Services launched in the beta channel. The strings clearly describe a “Find My Device Network” as a service that “enables your phone to find your devices and other people’s devices”.
Android users already have an app called Find My Device available on the Play Store. However, it can only find devices that are signed in to the user’s Google account. With the “Find My Device Network” you can ideally help other Android users to find their phones and vice versa.
Google recently announced that it is running Android on over three billion devices worldwide. Needless to say, Android phone users with Google Play services running on their devices would benefit most from the company’s alleged “Find My Device Network”.
There is no indication of whether this will be an Android 12 feature or whether it will be widespread across all Android phones. However, the latter would make the most sense. We’ll keep you updated when we know more about Google’s plans for the service.
