Expanding the network format of the Find My Device service is for many a long-awaited development. And when I say long, it’s for nothing, because we started hearing about these plans back in June 2021, in response to the launch of Apple’s Find My Network a year earlier, at WWDC 2020 (yes, the one that served Apple Silicon presentation platform).

Of course, we found this out through a deep analysis of the beta version of Google Play Services that was released in those days, well Google didn’t officially confirm this until Google I/O in 2023in an announcement that was also somewhat overshadowed by the flurry of AI-related news and new devices that were unveiled in what was undoubtedly one of Google’s most interesting keynotes in recent years.

At the time, we thought that the development of Find My Device would start to develop quickly, but a few months later we learned the reason why it did not happen, and it is certainly a more than legitimate reason, because Google was hoping that Apple complete its part in the joint plan to improve the security of digital beacons and offer interoperability in this regard; something that proved more than necessaryas it turned out after the complaint against Apple that finally goes to court.

Google seems to have started rolling out the beta version of Find My Network with Google Play 12.24.14

It is enabled for me without turning on any flags. #Google #Android pic.twitter.com/WcxXMlPsLE

— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) April 3, 2024

Well, the wait seems to have started to end since then, as we can see in this tweetthat Google has started rolling out Network Mode in the Find My Device app, which significantly expands the reach of this tool, since an Internet connection is not required to locate the device. Instead, all devices that are part of the Find My Device network, that is, all Android devices that have this feature activated, will be able to detect the signal of potentially lost devices and report their location to their owners.

This also opens the door to the arrival of beacons similar to Apple AirTag, but of course, embedded in the network of Find My Android devicessomething for which search engine technology has already adopted a set of security measures aimed at detecting “intrusive” beacons, i.e. those used to track people who are not authorized to do so.

At the moment we are talking, yes, about a very limited deploymentbecause it is limited to the 12/24/14 beta compilation of Google Play services, and even its existence does not guarantee access to this new feature, and Google has certainly decided to evaluate it very carefully. , its operation, potential security issues and more to guarantee an optimal and secure user experience prior to its general availability.