The new update will allow “Find My” app to work by broadcasting Bluetooth signals from Apple devices even when they’re offline, allowing nearby Apple devices to send their location to the cloud. This is a crowd-sourced network created from the many millions of Apple devices around.
Apple’s Find My app is great a application if you lose devices like your iPhone, iPad or other Apple device. In the last few minutes, Apple has updated the app to make it compatible with lots of products made by certain other companies, too.
The first Find My enabled products have been confirmed and include VanMoof’s stunning e-bikes (models S3 and X3), Belkin’s Soundform Freedom True Wireless Earbuds and the Chipolo One Spot item finder. All will be available from next week.
Find My App is a super intelligent and means you can track all Apple devices even when they are not connected to the internet. If you lose your iPhone or any other Apple devices you can remotely access it and put it in Lost mode from a laptop or other device.
Then, Find My App will automatically lock the device and display a message with a contact number on its screen. You can also remotely clear the device if it falls into a third-party hands.
Now, your missing iPhone, any other Apple devices or, now, VanMoof bike, Belkin in-ears and Chipolo One Spot, sends a message to a passing Apple device, and the approximate location is then reported directly to you. Even the nearby iPhone will not even tell its owner that it’s heard the pleading call of the lonely, lost item.
Apple says, “The encryption scheme is also designed not only to prevent interlopers from identifying or tracking a device from its Bluetooth signal, but also to keep Apple itself from learning device locations, even as it allows you to pinpoint yours.”
To find these new devices will be even more accurate on the latest Apple devices with the U1 Ultra Wideband chip built in, that is, from the iPhone 11 onwards (though not including the iPhone SE),
This update is what Apple describes as a “directionally aware experience when nearby”. It’s also promised that a label reading “Works with Apple Find My” will be on all Apple products so customers know this feature is enabled on the thing they’re buying.
But the surprised thing is we are expecting it to come big on the heels of this update is the much-anticipated release of Apple’s own tracker called AirTags.
Does this update indicate the rumored tags are almost here? Or does the launch of the app without AirTags mean we’ve got longer to wait?
Given there’s possibly an iPad Pro launch coming in a matter of days, I’d say it could be the former and that AirTags could be announced alongside if it’s an event or soon after if announcements are made by press release.
