Find My Device on Android

#1

Post by el_duderino » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:03 PM UTC

Re: Find My Device on Android

#2

Post by el_duderino » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:05 PM UTC

Google posted another blog on how they built the new Find My Device network: https://security.googleblog.com/2024/04/find-my-device-netwo...

Re: Find My Device on Android

#3

Post by ddalex » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:26 PM UTC

I love my Tile(s), but since the AirTag and now Android networks now feature the same capability, I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base.

They should have sold out (edit: to a mobile platform company, either Google or Apple) while they had the chance.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#4

Post by jsheard » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

ddalex wrote: post #3

I love my Tile(s), but since the AirTag and now Android networks now feature the same capability, I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base. They should have sold out (edit: to a mobile platform company, either Google or Apple) while they had the chance.

They did sell out, they were acquired by Life360 a while ago.

edit: I don't think Google would have had much to gain by acquiring Tile, the actual technology is very simple, their moat was just the fact that they had the largest install base of tracking apps on Android. Google could, and did, just rug-pull them by pushing their own network out to every Android device with Play Services (so nearly all of them).

The only thing Tile really has going for it now is that their trackers can be used with both Android and iOS simultaneously, if you have devices in both ecosystems.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#5

Post by accrual » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:28 PM UTC

ddalex wrote: post #3

I love my Tile(s), but since the AirTag and now Android networks now feature the same capability, I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base. They should have sold out (edit: to a mobile platform company, either Google or Apple) while they had the chance.

Agreed. I bought a couple Tiles before AirTags were available. They worked fine, but AirTags are just better in every way.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#6

Post by jsheard » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:29 PM UTC

Finally, this was announced about a year ago but kept getting held up by the effort to standardize stalker detection across Android and iOS. Seems like they've finally got it figured out.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#7

Post by Scene_Cast2 » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:32 PM UTC

After a car break-in, I got myself airtags and an old iPhone. I was really hoping that the rumors of airtag support coming to Android were true.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#8

Post by renewiltord » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:32 PM UTC

Google is like store-brand Apple. But their home devices are so much better (but still somehow not ‘good’) that more people have coverage with them rather than HomePod so they’ll get the search assist from there.

I’m surprised they can only do proximity, though. AirTags do direction quite well and can sometimes even tell altitude difference.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#9

Post by amluto » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

Google is quite good at these little screw-you features:

> At home protection. If a user has chosen to save their home address in their Google Account, their Android device will also ensure that it does not contribute crowdsourced location reports to the Find My Device network when it is near the user’s home.

This is a feature that is fundamentally on-device, and it’s even a privacy feature, but for some reason it requires a Google account.

Re: Find My Device on Android

#10

Post by portify » Mon, Apr 08, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

Does it still require the device to be signed into a Google account?