One of the benefits of buying an iPhone is the connection to Apple’s Find My network, which lets you track down pretty-much any Apple device you can buy — plus accessories like headphones from a few third parties. Android phones don’t have anything of the same caliber right now, but Samsung may be trying to change that with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series.
Anyone that picks up a Galaxy S24 smartphone will spot that there’s a brand new app called Samsung Find pre-installed. From the looks of things, this is a Find My-like experience for Samsung phones, Plus it’ll be coming to older phones as part of the OneUI 6.1 update later this year.
Samsung Find is a new app preloaded on the #GalaxyS24 series. This dedicated app provides a map view of your Galaxy devices on the SmartThings Find network. You can also track items you've attached your Galaxy SmartTag trackers to.The Samsung Find app has 3 tabs: People,… pic.twitter.com/WS8pZWKyEEJanuary 18, 2024
Mishaal Rahman has already had some hands-on time with the Samsung Find app, and has revealed a bunch of details about the new app. The key takeaway here is that it offers a map view of all your devices connected to the Samsung SmartThings network — which means it’s going to be restricted to Samsung devices for the time being.
Rahman notes that there are three tabs to work with, "Devices" for finding stuff belonging to you or family members, while "People" lets you share your location with others, "Items" will presumably be for SmartTag trackers that have been attached to your personal effects, like bags or keys.
There’s also a “notify when left behind” feature on the way, which warns you if you’ve moved away from any important items. So you’ll be notified if you accidentally forget your keys, or if it looks like someone is walking off with your stuff. According to Rahman this feature isn’t available, and should be added as part of a future update.
Since the Galaxy S24 will arrive running OneUI 6.1 out of the box, they’ll be the first devices to enjoy this new feature. Older devices will be able to download Samsung Find from Google Play once they’ve received the 6.1 update.
Currently we don’t know when OneUI 6.1 will roll out to older phones, but Samsung has confirmed the first wave will be happening in the first half of 2024. Devices set to get this update first include the Galaxy S23 series (including the S23 FE), the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
The main issue with this update is that it’s only going to be seriously useful if you have a bunch of Samsung devices. Android already offers a Find My Device system for hunting down lost phones, so the usefulness of Samsung Find may be limited to keeping tabs on Galaxy Buds and SmartTags.
But in light of limited alternative options, and especially since Google’s updated Find My Device network is still nowhere to be seen, it’s better that Samsung has something to offer its users — even if it is limited. Who knows, maybe one day Android phone makers will join forces on a system that can rival Apple’s Find My network. But until that day, this will have to do.
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