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Yesterday Google finally took its new Find My Device network online, after a long wait caused by Apple needing to add unwanted tracker protection to iOS. The new Find My Device network by Google encompasses over a billion active devices across the world, and so it should make tracking them quite easy.
One feature that was especially intriguing was the ability to track a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro even when they’re powered off or have no battery, and obviously a lot of people have been wondering, since the announcement, whether this incredibly useful feature would be making it to other smartphones in the future. Now we have an answer and it boils down to “yes, eventually”.
Google says it’s working with other smartphone makers, as well as chipset makers, to enable this functionality for other handsets in the future. The feature should land on additional premium Android smartphones first, before it eventually trickles down to more affordable ones.
Specialized hardware enables the capability to find devices with dead batteries on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, which powers the Bluetooth chip even when they are powered off or have seemingly run out of juice. Google is encouraging other device makers to adopt the same approach.
It’s unclear which premium Android smartphones would be first in line following the two aforementioned Pixels, and it’s also unclear if Google plans to roll this out to older Pixels of its own. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Google’s statements on the matter shed no light on whether existing phones other than the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro even have the required hardware for this to work, or if we’re going to have to wait for next-gen products.
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