I have a bad habit of misplacing things, so I installed a small group of Tile trackers on all my important items. My keys, my wallet, my bag—they all hurt when I can’t find them. But Tile’s Bluetooth tracking has its limitations, and it’s generally a hot-or-cold rangefinder. Google’s Find My Device gadgets are about to get better, according to a new APK teardown.
9to5Google is reporting some interesting new features in the Google Find My Device app, indicating that developers are working on a “Compass” feature. It’s believed to take advantage of the ultra-wideband (UWB) capabilities of newer devices. Apple’s AirTags and Samsung’s SmartTags use this technology, but so far, Google’s version of the system doesn’t.
Newer devices that support Google Find My Device, like the Moto Tag tracker, include UWB capabilities even if Google’s app doesn’t use them. UWB trackers can use very sophisticated radio frequency tricks to give you much more precise information about where an item is in physical space, including a direction relative to another device like a phone or tablet.
So a compass-like interface that literally points you in the right direction makes sense. But as with all app teardown investigations, the presence of code referencing a feature doesn’t mean it will automatically be implemented in a future update. We’ll keep an eye out for directions, er, directionals going forward.
