CES 2021 brought us the first third-party gadget that works with Apple’s Find My app. This is now possible thanks to Apple’s new initiative, announced back at WWDC 2020.
Belkin’s New Earbuds Support “Find My”
Belkin was first out of the gate with a Find My-compatible product. Announced ahead of March-April availability, the Soundform Freedom True Wireless Earbuds support Apple’s Find My network.
This means you can use the Find My app on your Apple device to locate your misplaced Belkin earbuds. Taking advantage of hundreds of millions of iPhones around the world, the handy feature even supports offline devices via Bluetooth-powered mesh networking, similar to how locator tags such as Tile work.
According to Apple, not only is the entire interaction end-to-end encrypted but also anonymized and “extremely data and battery efficient”.
Apple has been allowing third-party vendors to get certified and join the Find My app since last summer. According to the tech giant, user privacy is assured thanks to the aforementioned end-to-end encryption.
The handy Find My FAQs, along with the draft specification for product manufacturers and accessory vendors, can be found on Apple’s website.
Find (Almost) Everything, Even Offline
Find My used to be a stock iPhone app but is now available natively across the iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, macOS, and watchOS platforms. Aside from helping you find misplaced devices, the software can also be used to locate your friends and family that share their location with you. It’s one of those apps you don’t even know exist until you need it.
Your Apple devices automatically appear in the Find My app. And with Apple’s Family Sharing, family organizers can track the locations of their kids’ devices as well. After an Apple device has been marked as lost in the app, you can play a sound to make it easier to find. This is great if you’ve misplaced a device.
In the unfortunate case that your device gets stolen, you can remotely wipe it or put up a custom message on the Lock screen.
Network connectivity is required for these remote requests to function. Thankfully, you can flag an offline device as lost. Doing so means you’ll receive a notification as soon as the device has regained network connectivity or whenever another iOS user comes near it.
How the “Find My” App Works Its Magic
The Find My app uses your cellular internet connection, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS-powered location services to show the locations of your devices on a map. The software is available on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. It can also be launched via Apple’s personal assistant; just ask, “Hey Siri, where’s my iPhone?”
Summing up, we are now seeing the first Find My-compatible accessories arriving. On top of that, Apple’s own Tile-like AirTags item trackers are thought to be launching at some point this year. Which means you’ll soon be able to locate your lost gadgets right alongside Apple devices, such as iPhones and Macs, in the Find My app.
And thanks to its convenience, the feature may even serve as an incentive for people to focus their spending on Find My-compatible accessories.