If it weren’t for the pack of AirTags I picked up in a Christmas sale, I’d have left the Apple ecosystem long ago. Since Apple unveiled its in-house tracker, I’ve been hooked to keeping tabs on my items via my phone, whether that’s watching my suitcases whiz past airport check-ins or never losing my keys. Living without AirTags became unimaginable, however compelling the latest Android phones were. At long last, though, Google patched that glaring gap in its mobile ecosystem earlier this year by introducing its own Find My Device network.
Google has always offered a way to find lost Android devices. But now, it has expanded the service to support AirTag-like Bluetooth trackers, which is similar to how Apple’s Find My platform works. Google’s Find My Device network crowdsources encrypted signals from over a billion Android devices to track a misplaced item, no matter where in the world it is. Once you lose an accessory, it looks for a nearby Android phone or tablet to latch onto for beaming its whereabouts to the network, which then notifies you.
