Google has always offered a way to find a lost Android phone with Android Device Manager, but it recently expanded and rebranded its 11-year-old Find My Device network to help locate not only smartphones and tablets, but also Wear OS devices like the Pixel Watch, compatible headphones, Bluetooth trackers, and more. Chipolo’s tip.
Apple’s Find My network has been around since 2010 and can currently find Apple products like iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirTags, as well as third-party devices that are compatible with the network. Nomad’s Pursuit Card.
But what will networks look like in 2024? To find out, I took a Chipolo One Point and an AirTag to San Francisco’s most popular tourist spot, Pier 39. Then, CNET’s John Kim hid the tracker outside of Bluetooth range, and I had to find its location using the Find My app on my iPhone 14 Pro and Find My Device on my Google Pixel 8 Pro. Here’s what happened:
Look at this: Apple Find My and Android Find My Device networks
How Find My and Find My Device work
Both Apple and Google’s systems use encrypted, crowdsourced networks of other phones and devices running iOS or Android to find lost items. Each can:
- See the current and last location of your items on a map
- Play a sound to find nearby items (if supported by device)
- Share items like Bluetooth trackers with friends so they can see your location too.
Setting up a Bluetooth tracker on each network is super easy: hold the tracker close to your phone and a popup will appear. Chipolo’s One Point requires you to press the tracker once to register it with Android and trigger the Fast Pair popup.
The difference between Find My and Find My Device
Apple’s Find My network has gained a slight advantage since it gained support for finding third-party items in 2021 and was overhauled in preparation for the launch of AirTags. Compare that to Google’s Find My network, which gained similar support for third-party devices and trackers earlier this year.
Currently, Find My Device trackers only support Bluetooth, but Apple’s AirTags use both Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband, a technology that helps pinpoint your exact location and displays a distance indicator along with directional directions in the Find My app.
Apple’s AirTags also have a separation alert feature called “Notify when left behind.” Select this option from the Find My app and you’ll be notified if you leave something behind outside of Bluetooth range.
With Apple’s Find My network, only one internet-connected iPhone or iOS device needs to pass by to find a lost item. When a non-internet connected Find My device passes in front of a lost item, the item’s location is encrypted and passed from Find My device to Find My device and then to internet-connected devices such as iPhones.
Google’s “Find My Device” settings are set by default to “Networks in high traffic areas only,” meaning that to find an item’s location, the network has to pass through multiple Android devices, and only then will it show a central point triangulated from these location reports.
however, Security > Find Device > Find Offline Device Change this to Networking in every fieldThis helps you find other people’s items in low-traffic areas, and you only need one other Android device to find the item. It’s similar to Apple’s Find My. Official Device Finder help page “Users who turn this option on will be helped to find items in both high and low traffic areas. This option may help you find your lost item faster.”
For this experiment, I left all the settings at default just to see what would happen.
Which tracker did you find first?
After my AirTag and Chipolo tracker got “lost” together somewhere at Pier 39, I pulled up the apps on my iPhone and Pixel 8 Pro, marked each one as lost, and started the timer. Just 4 minutes and 45 seconds into the challenge, I got my first notification from Apple’s Find My. Five minutes later, I got another notification with the location of my AirTag.
I waited about 30 minutes to see if the Google network would find the tracker, but I got no notification. I was, however, able to see the approximate location of the Chipolo tag on a map in the Find My Device app. Confusingly, although the network was able to triangulate the approximate location, I got no notification that the tracker had been found.
I then used each app’s built-in location tools to find the tracker. Apple’s Find My app provided walking directions to the AirTag on a map, revealing that it was only a few minutes away. Google’s Find My app, on the other hand, wasn’t much help, only showing a map view with no directions.
Once within Bluetooth range, the AirTag uses ultra-wideband to display precise tracking options, and as you move your phone, an arrow points you in the right direction along with a distance marker. In contrast, the Chipolo tracker has a shape that “fills in” as you get closer to an item.
I knew they were nearby, but couldn’t see them yet, so I tried playing a sound on each one. The AirTag was pretty quiet, but I could hear the Chipolo even over the noisy surroundings of Pier 39.
So while the ultra-wideband directional guidance helped me get closer to the AirTag when it was out of sight, the Chipolo’s loud sound made a big difference in finding the tracker.
Apple’s Find My network is stronger for now
In my very unscientific testing, Apple’s Find My network was able to locate lost items much faster than Google’s Find My Device network. As this network continues to roll out to Android devices, I expect this situation to improve, especially as more users select the option to find items in all areas. Adding ultra wideband support to Android trackers would also level the playing field; many Android phones already have ultra wideband chips.
I’m excited to revisit the challenge in a few months and see how Google’s Find My Device feature improves, especially once more devices connect to the network.
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