For anyone looking for a free alternative that works without google play services: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.nulide.findmydevice/
This isn't really what the article is about. This app only does one small piece of what Google is announcing.
Find My Device on Android
131–140 of 332 posts
Re: Find My Device on Android
#132Will Google give up your location to the feds if they issue a broad area geolocation warrant?
Sure, and this announcement doesn't change that.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#133AirTags/Find My is THE reason why me and my whole family is on iOS. This is great. I wanted my next phone to be Z Flip since Apple stopped making small iPhones (and no foldables in sight), but reliance on Find My stopped me. This is great
You may want to watch some videos on the longevity of foldable screens, consensus is that they still don't hold up over time and become especially brittle after being exposed to cooler temperatures.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife and I had this exact same sort of situation and now we're both logged into each other's accounts. We never have trouble finding our phones now but it does introduce other problems. Such as not knowing if some sort of security alert is being generated by my spouse and now we have to communicate about it.
Does Android have an equivalent of the "Find my Friends" feature? I assume that would be easier/more secure than logging into each others accounts.
Google maps location sharing works cross-platform on android and iOS
Re: Find My Device on Android
#135Google 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.
Curious to know about the home devices. I'd never allow any google hardware a permanent place in my home even if it's amazing, but it's hard to see another major tech co coming up with something better than Apple TV. The Homepod is amazing too. It's stuck with Siri (is this what you mean?) but has fantastic sound that integrates with the TV for movies and Mac when playing music.
> I'd never allow any google hardware a permanent place in my home
The irrational part of me agrees with you, but I already have an Android phone, so the Google Home doesn't really give Google any extra insight into my private life that they don't already have.
This is why I don't get it when people are weirded out by a stationary always-on microphone in their homes, when they carry around a mobile, always-on microphone (and tracking device!) in their pockets.
(If you also refuse to have an Android phone on these same grounds, then your position seems pretty reasonable, of course.)
Re: Find My Device on Android
#136When will we get precise positioning using UWB? UWB has been in three generations of Pixel phones now and I haven't been able to use it a single time. Not even once. I want a direction finding arrow that points to my lost headphones case or my wife's phone. I want a smart door lock that unlocks automatically when I approach from the outside but not the inside. I want to stop relying on flaky Bluetooth for Tesla's car…
> UWB has been in three generations of Pixel phones now
Only sorta -- the Pro models have it, but the regular ones do not.
I wouldn't be surprised if Google eventually rolls this out. But it's probably bad optics to say it's only supported with a very limited set of models.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand your frustration, and device sharing is obviously a missing useful feature. But I absolutely don't want it to work without 2FA, and if your only 2FA is your phone you have other problems.
A "feature" designed to help you find your lost phone that can not work when your phone is lost is clearly designed poorly. All Google had to do here was copy Apple's solution of having access to that one feature work with only the user name and password.
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Re: Find My Device on Android
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting my tinfoil hat on, this explains why Google was okay adding a toggle to location access for apps on Android. They don't need your device to send them their location anymore, they'd only need you to be in range of an UWB or BLE device.
I'm all for assuming bad intent when it comes to Google and, but this doesn't really make sense. Google owns the OS; if they want your location, they don't need to care about per-app location permissions.
> Google owns the OS
Unless you install something else.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#139Sure. But more importantly, how do I disable this completely?
There was another post upthread that linked to a GrapheneOS post saying that it does require support from the OS to enable and set this up, and GrapheneOS won't support it. So you'd need to install a third-party OS that doesn't support it.
Not a great situation, to be sure.
Re: Find My Device on Android
#140Can the Pixel phones do the UWB finding like iPhones can where they tell you it’s 10.7 feet to your left? Or is this more like the older iPhones where it simply tells you if you’re getting closer or further away?
Based on the mockups and description in the article, it seems like it's the latter, unfortunately. If it did the UWB thing, I'm sure Google would have prominently pointed that out.
That’s what I was afraid of. It’s nice that AirTags can tell if they’re at home or whatever. But they got so much better with UWB on the phone for pinpoint locating.
Hopefully they’ll add that in the future.