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- Google says UWB for Find My Device is coming soon
- There’s been a 4x speed increase since last year
- Testing by The Verge shows some problems with coverage
Google gave the Android Find My Device network a significant upgrade last year, with improved support for third-party trackers and offline location access, and it sounds like another important update is almost here.
Speaking to The Verge, Android product manager Angela Hsiao said that support for ultra wide-band (UWB) technology would be coming “very soon” to Find My Device, which essentially enables a much more precise form of tracking.
If you’re using a UWB-enabled device to locate another UWB-enabled device – so searching for an AirTag with an iPhone, in the Apple ecosystem – you get guided almost exactly to the right spot. You’ll know the lost gadget is behind the sofa, not just somewhere inside your house, for example.
Earlier this month, signs hidden in the code for Find My Device suggested that UWB might soon be supported, and it seems that a launch is now imminent. We know Google I/O 2025 gets underway on May 20, and we may hear more about UWB then.
The need for speed
The Verge also ran some pretty comprehensive tests of the current state of the Find My Device network. Google’s tech seems to perform as well as the Apple equivalent now, but only in busy areas with a lot of activity (and passing gadgets to locate lost items).
In more remote areas, the coverage and tracking time seems less than optimal, though it varies depending on the tracker used and the specific scenario. Bear in mind that Google doesn’t yet have its own-brand version of the Apple AirTags, though the rumors are that some might be in the works.
Based on Google’s internal testing, Hsiao says, the network is able to locate items around four times faster than it could when the major 2024 upgrade was rolled out – so it’s getting better, even if it’s not quite caught up to Apple yet.
For UWB to work, you also need a phone with the technology when you’re looking for something, but a lot of the best Android phones now come with the technology on board (including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Google Pixel 9 Pro).