Gadget Weekly
Join Namera Saud Fatmi as she explores the cool, weird, and sometimes downright weird world of smartphone accessories, gadgets, and other nerdy toys each week.
Google has relaunched the Find My Device network to compete with Apple’s similar Find My network for finding items, with the official rollout starting in April 2024. The idea behind it was to create a network of compatible devices around the world to help you find lost items using compatible item tracking programs.
It’s right up my alley as a professional accessory fiddler, which is why I’ve gotten my hands on the latest and greatest Bluetooth trackers that support the new network. Chipolo and Pebblebee were the first brands to get on the Find My Device train, so those are the brands I chose for my little experiment.
We’ve all heard that Google’s Find My Device network works, but it doesn’t work as expected. Still, I had high hopes that my test would yield somewhat positive results. Here’s how it happened.
Pebblebee was kind enough to send me the Pebblebee for Android clip, the Pebblebee for Android map, and the Pebblebee for Android label. Here are the main features of the three Bluetooth trackers.
| Category | Clip Pebblebee | Pebblebee Card | Pebblebee label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | 500 feet | 500 feet | 300 feet |
| Water and dust resistance | IPX6 | IPX6 | IPX6 |
| Battery | Up to 12 months, USB-C charging | Up to 18 months, magnetic charger to USB-C charging | Up to 8 months, magnetic charger to USB-C charging |
| Sound volume | Strongly | Strongly | Strongly |
| Dimensions | 45 x 38 x 8.50 mm | 54 x 85 x 2.8 mm | 26 x 40 x 4.5 mm |
To get a good understanding of the network, I also contacted Chipolo about their Google Find My Device compatible trackers. The brand has just launched updated versions of its older range. Both Chipolo ONE Point and Chipolo CARD Point have been updated to support the new Google network.
| Category | Chipolo ONE Point | Chipolo CARD Point |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | 200 feet | 200 feet |
| Water and dust resistance | IPX5 | IPX5 |
| Battery | 1 year, replaceable CR2032 cell | Up to 2 years, no replacement |
| Sound volume | Louder, 120dB | Loud, 105dB |
| Dimensions | 6.4 x 37.9 mm | 2.4 x 85.1 x 53.6 mm |
Both brands offer your typical circular keyhole trackers as well as card-shaped ones. In addition to these, Pebblebee offers a small label that comes with a silicone mold and double-sided adhesive tape. You can either attach the tag to your pet’s collar using the silicone holder or use the adhesive tape to attach it to something like a TV remote.
Essentially, the Pebblebee and Chipolo Find My Device trackers are almost identical in terms of functionality. You set up each tracker using your Android phone and each brand’s corresponding Android app. The app automatically helps you add your tracker to the Google Find My Device app.
I found the Chipolo app to be a bit faster while setting up new trackers. Pebblebee trackers, meanwhile, have better response and a wider Bluetooth range. Note that the Chipolo trackers are noisier than the Pebblebee ones. All of them have splash-proof water resistance.
What’s really cool is that Pebblebee trackers can be charged using regular old USB-C cables or magnetic pin to USB-C cables.
After you set up Google Find My Device trackers, you name them and attach them to things that matter. What I ended up doing with all five of my trackers was splitting each one up among my friends and asking them not to reveal their location to me. I wanted to randomly find them using the power of the Google grid and have my friends then be able to confirm if the grid was correct or not.
Everything went well as long as the trackers were within bluetooth range of my phone. However, the minute I was out of range, the network lost them immediately. At this point I decided it was time to make things better.
The next day I marked all bluetooth trackers as lost. Surely at least one of the five trackers will be discovered in the next few days? Shockingly, it was three whole days before I heard anything.
And get this: it wasn’t even the web that helped me find my “lost” trackers. I happened to be having dinner with friends and had forgotten that some of them were wearing my trackers. Halfway through the meal, a notification on my phone alerted me that one of my lost trackers had been found and was nearby.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I was under the impression that the network would work amazingly well considering how massively popular Android devices are in the Asian region where I’m based.
Comparing my expectations to reality, I soon realized that having Android devices was not enough to make the Find My Device network successful. My colleague Brady Snyder did a great job explaining this.
While the vast majority of all Android and Google Fast Pair devices can use Google’s new network, not many choose to contribute to the crowdsourced network. Limited input and participation kills what could be a fantastic anonymous way to track items.
Ironically, Google offers too many options for participating in the Find My Device network. This is meant to protect user privacy, so I can’t blame them for it, but it doesn’t really make sense given how the contribution of device location data is anonymous and encrypted.
In addition to the bewildering variety of options for contributing to the web, there’s also the fact that many people simply haven’t set up Find My Device on their Android devices yet. It’s not on everyone’s list of first things to do with their new Android phone, and some people don’t even know about the feature, which is another problem entirely.
So what can be done to fix this? As counterintuitive as it sounds, Google needs to find a way to get more Android users to contribute to its crowdsourced network if the Find My Device network is to reach its full potential. If people choose not to be part of the network, it will fail as a discovery network by design. And with that in mind, it wouldn’t make sense to upgrade your Bluetooth trackers to the latest variants. Since contributions to the crowdfunded Find My Device network are anonymous anyway, why give people so many chances to opt out of its more useful feature?
