Find My Device isn’t just for retrieving a lost phone anymore; at least, that’s one of the big takeaways from Google’s recent announcement of updates to its Android operating system. While Find My Device has historically been designed to tell you where a misplaced or stolen phone, laptop or tablet might be, that feature is now getting an update so that you can share that information with others. In other words, it’s less “Find My Device” and more “Find Me.”
In a 2023 article by Jessica Roy,The New York Times explored the growing popularity of location sharing among a younger generation, with a particular spotlight on Apple’s Find My Friends. “[A]pps like Find My Friends are being used by young people who want to know where their friends are and what they’re up to, without actually having to ask them,” Roy wrote at the time. So it isn’t particularly surprising to see Google working to build out its own version of this feature.
Google’s own description of the feature notes that users will have the option to share their location with “trusted contacts.” Based on the screenshots shown, Android users will also be able to select for how long their contacts will have access to their location — with options including one hour, until the end of the day or indefinitely. (A custom option is also available.)
Android Creator Invented a Smartphone to Take Down the iPhone
Silicon Valley veteran Andy Rubin returns to the fold with Essential Products.As Abner Li reported at 9to5Google, the new version of Find My Device with this functionality was released last week. This comes almost a year after another major update to the feature in question — one that allowed users users to track devices that had gone offline. We’ll see if this new feature is as popular for Google as its counterpart has been for Apple.
More Like This
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.