TL;DR
- Ultra-wideband (UWB) trackers are capable of much more precise location-finding than their Bluetooth peers, but have limited hardware compatibility.
- While Samsung supports UWB through Galaxy SmartTags, Google has so far not offered anything similar on Find My Device.
- Google’s been working on changing that, though, and the latest Find My Device update shows further signs of progress towards precision UWB tracking.
With all the choices you’ve got when it comes to tracking hardware, we’re increasingly approaching a point where you’re not going to have much of an excuse any longer for constantly misplacing your stuff. Not all of these trackers are created the same, however, and we definitely have some thoughts about the best Bluetooth tracker for most Android users.
One big factor impacting performance is support for ultra-wideband (UWB) connectivity, and we’ve been following Google’s progress towards adding UWB support to its Find My Device network. That’s still in the works, and today we’re checking out the latest evidence we’ve uncovered of that development’s progress.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We’re looking at version 3.1.305-1 of Google’s Find My Device app. We first spotted code in the app referencing UWB hardware all the way back in the spring of last year, and over the months that have followed, we’ve seen Google continue to build that out, adding text strings in support of high-precision indoor tracking. With this new release, we’ve identified a few additional strings along this same line:
Code
<string name="precision_finding_onboarding_confirm_button">Next</string>
<string name="precision_finding_onboarding_instructions">On the next screen, hold your phone straight up and try moving around. This helps improve accuracy.</string>
<string name="precision_finding_onboarding_title">Hold your phone upright</string>
<string name="spot_improves_precision_finding_results_recommendation">To find nearby devices</string>
<string name="spot_poor_light_recommendation">More light needed to find the device</string>Related to that text about holding your phone properly to best scan your surroundings, we’ve also spotted a new animation illustrating the concept:
That could easily be part of an AR feature like Samsung’s “Find Using Camera,” and we’ve already seen Find My Device adding references to Google’s ARCore API.
At the moment, though, none of this is yet functional, and Android users desiring UWB-enhanced tracking need to go with Samsung and its Galaxy SmartTag trackers. Considering how long this has been in the works, we’re hesitant to even guess at an ETA, but we do have Google I/O coming up next month, which might be the perfect opportunity to introduce functionality like this.
It’s probably also worth thinking about the phone hardware requirements for UWB support, and how not even all current-gen Pixel phones include it. Maybe that’s a situation Google could change for the Pixel 10 — and introduce UWB for Find My Device alongside it? Right now, it’s anyone’s guess, and we’d just be happy to see this upgrade ready to go before the end of the year.
