Google plans to expand its location tracking service called Find My Device. According to new information, finding lost Android smartphones and tablets will become easier. They can now be found even when they are turned off or not connected to mobile data/WiFi.
Android 15 adds offline support for Find My Device
Google will hold the Google I/O 2024 developer conference on May 14. The extended offline device tracking feature is expected to be released with Android 15. Code snippets found in the Android Open Source Project showed that Google was testing this feature.
It’s unclear how the Find My Device expansion will work. However, it is thought that Google will use low-power Bluetooth signals that are broadcast even when the phone is turned off. Other devices in the Find My Device network will detect these signals and notify the owner of the phone’s last location.
However, it has been reported that not all models receiving Android 15 will support the offline tracking feature. Some hardware changes are required to enable continuous Bluetooth scanning. This means that it can only be used with the Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 series at first.
Despite being announced last year, Google has not implemented an expansion of its Find My Device feature to include offline tracking. The reason for this is based on Apple. The company is working on a cross-platform item tracking standard using Bluetooth signals. It is known that Google will integrate this technology directly into Android.