Google will locate even a turned off and discharged phone. And not to spy on you

“Find” from Apple is one of the few tools that Android users can really envy iPhone owners. In the event of a phone loss, they are able to track the loss, even if the smartphone is discharged or turned off by the thief. The feature works amazingly well, unlike Android’s “Find My Device”. In this case, the phone must be switched on, have enough battery power and be permanently connected to the network.

Google will allow you to find a stolen and disabled phone

However, this should change soon, and users of Android smartphones will finally stop envying Apple phone lovers. At least if you believe the leaks reached by the portal, the website refers to information from a Pole, Kuba Wojciechowski, who found quite interesting entries in the source code of Android 14 (for now, the system is in beta). They show that Google is working on the ability to connect Android devices to other smartphones, even when the first ones are turned off.

This is supposed to work in a similar way to finding lost iPhones or Apple AirTags. Google wants Android smartphones that rest in our hands and pockets to be able to detect (e.g. via Bluetooth) a lost or stolen device (also turned off) and transmit its location to Google. In this way, we could track the location of our Android live, as long as it was not transported away from human settlements.

For the feature to have a chance to work, you need hardware support for the Bluetooth module running in the background. Most likely, the “Find my device” function in the new version could work – at least at first – only on some phones. Secondly, it is not certain whether the tool will make its way to third-party Android smartphones. Google has so far named the Pixel Power-off Finder feature and is reportedly testing it on its own devices. It is also possible that the tool will initially go to smartphones from the Google Pixel series, and only later to devices from other companies.