Google will solve Android's Find My Device network difficulties 'over the coming weeks'

Google launched an upgraded version of its Find My Device network in April, giving Android users the equivalent of Apple's Find My Device network for location trackers and offline devices. But some recent reviews have raised concerns about its ability to find devices and trackers quickly and reliably. Google announced that it was aware of this problem and plans to solve the problem in "the coming weeks".

The statement provided by Mishaal Rahman, Senior Writers of Android Authority and Android Police shared the site X, and Google acknowledged concerns about finding my device network. "We are actively trying to improve the network's network to improve speed and the ability to lose items in the coming weeks. Devices are continuously joining the new Find My Device network, and we expect the network to continue to grow, which will also help improve the ability to find lost devices.

The effectiveness of crowd tracking networks like Android Find My Device depends on the number of users actively using the service in the wild. The upgraded Find My Device network was initially only available in the US and Canada, but progress has been slow and was only extended to the UK last month. Google says network performance will improve as it continues to grow, but in a statement to Rahman, it also suggested that users can get ahead of the planned improvements by changing their Find My Device network settings to "Internet access everywhere." improve network performance.

The "Find device" network setting defaults to "Only use network in high traffic areas", which will wait for multiple Android devices to detect the missing item and then share the location calculated from several different location reports. As the name suggests, this method works best in busy areas such as shopping malls or airports where multiple devices detect a missing item, and provides an extra layer of privacy for Android devices that share location information. Changing this setting to "Network in all areas" can help find a lost item faster in "lower traffic areas", as data from multiple Android devices that have detected the item will not be aggregated location, but only the location using a single device. Google says the reason "network in all areas" isn't the default is that it requires users to "opt in to share location information over the network," which some people may be hesitant to do due to privacy concerns.