‘You will soon find your Google Pixel when it is off’
Google is working on a feature to always be able to see the location of a Pixel phone, even when the device is off. 91Mobiles writes this based on information from leaked source code of Android 14.
Android 14
The idea is that you will still be able to find your phone when your battery is completely empty, or when location detection is switched off. This new feature was supposed to be introduced along with Android 14 and here’s how it works. So-called Finger Network keys are sent to the chip in the device (which also has Bluetooth Low Energy). This chip, for example, can send signals thanks to that Bluetooth (and it is always on), so you always know where your Pixel is.
That Bluetooth Low Energy is not found in every device and whether it could even be used on the Pixel phones that we know now, that is also the question. Would it be a special feature on the Pixel 8 then? It would be a nice factor for the announcement of the upcoming device. In any case, it is not original: You can also track down Apple AirPods without the device having to be online or on.
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Pixel lost
It is, however, a very popular option. If a thief has made off with your device, you can hopefully take action quickly, or if you left it on the last train after a party and the train has been shunted somewhere, at least you know where to go. The possible new option for Pixel is said to be called Pixel Power-off Finder and Bluetooth must be on to use it.
The source code would have been sent to component suppliers within the early access program. Incidentally, Google has come up with more for tracing your phone, so it would consider using the same kind of network of Android phones as Apple does to, for example, detect AirTags with iPhones. There are 3 billion of them in the world, so that’s certainly not a bad idea. However, we have not yet received any official information about this, which also applies to the feature we describe above.
Have you ever lost your phone and were able to track it down thanks to Google’s software? Leave it in the comments.
