Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google could be working on a Find My Device app for Wear OS.
- Evidence of the app was recently spotted in an old commercial.
- It’s possible what was shown was just an expansion of the existing Find My Phone Quick Settings tile.
It’s not uncommon for a company to occasionally sneak things into its advertisements, announcements, and so on to see if anyone notices. For example, Xbox head Phil Spencer had multiple interviews where he hid an Xbox Series S in his background in plain sight before it was revealed. It appears Google may have done something like that with one of its earlier Pixel Watch 3 commercials. A recent spotting suggests that the tech giant may have teased a Find My Device app for Wear OS months ago.
On Reddit, a user who goes by noesio582 spotted something interesting in the announcement ad for the Pixel Watch 3. At a certain point during the “Meet Google Pixel Watch 3 | Big Screen, Bigger Strides” video, you’ll see six Pixel Watch 3s grouped together. Each smartwatch has something different on its display such as Google Maps, playback controls, a Nest Doorbell camera feed, and more.
On one of those Pixel Watch 3s, you may notice what appears to be a Find My Device experience. It reads “Elisa’s Pixel” and is followed by a last seen date and time below it. There’s also a phone icon on a map, the battery percentage, and a button to make the phone play a sound.
This video came out five months ago and no one noticed this little detail until now. The Pixel Watch has long had a “Find My Phone” Quick Settings tile and this could simply be just an expansion of that. But there’s also a possibility that this could be a tease of a full Find My Device app on Wear OS.
Regardless, it would be nice to have a full Find My Device app as that would be the easiest way to bring it to all Wear OS devices. If such an app is in the works, hopefully, it will come sooner than later.