The advent of Bluetooth trackers has made it a lot easier to find your bag or keys when they’re lost, but it has also put inconspicuous tracking tools in the hands of people who might misuse them. Apple and Google have both implemented tracker alerts to let you know if there’s an unknown Bluetooth tracker nearby, and now as part of a new update, Google is letting Android users actually locate those trackers, too.
The feature is one of two new tools Google is adding to Find My Device-compatible trackers. The first, “Temporarily Pause Location” is what you’re supposed to enable when you first receive an unknown tracker notification. It blocks your phone from updating its location with trackers for 24 hours. The second, “Find Nearby,” helps you pinpoint where the tracker is if you can’t see it or easily hear it.
By clicking on an unknown tracker notification you’ll be able to see a map of where the tracker was last spotted moving with you. From there, you can play a sound to see if you can locate it (Google says the owner won’t be notified). If you can’t find it, Find Nearby will connect your phone to the tracker over Bluetooth and display a shape that fills in the closer you get to it.
The Find Nearby button and interface from Google's Find My Device network.
Google / Engadget
The tool is identical to what Google offers for locating trackers and devices you actually own, but importantly, you don’t need to use Find My Device or have your own tracker to benefit. Like Google’s original notifications feature, any device running Android 6.0 and up can deal with unknown Bluetooth trackers safely.
Expanding Find Nearby seems like the final step Google needed to take to tamp down Bluetooth tracker misuse, something Apple already does with its Precision Finding tool for AirTags. The companies released a shared standard for spotting unknown Bluetooth trackers regardless of whether you use Android or iOS in May 2024, following the launch of Google’s Find My Device network in April. Both Google and Apple offered their own methods of dealing with unknown trackers before then to prevent trackers from being used for everything from robbery to stalking.