Apple Find My vs. Google Find My Device: We have a clear winner so far

Google recently expanded and improved its 11-year-old Find My Device network, formerly known as Android Device Manager, to help you find Android phones, tablets, Wear OS devices like the Pixel Watch, supported headphones and, of course, Bluetooth trackers , such as One Point Chipolo.

The Apple Find My network has been around since 2010 and currently includes Apple products such as iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and AirTags, as well as network-compatible third-party devices such as the Nomad tracking card.

But how do these networks compare in 2024? To find out, I took the Chipolo One Point and AirTag to Pier 39, the most popular tourist spot in San Francisco. CNET’s John Kim then hid the trackers out of Bluetooth range and I had to locate them using the Find My app on the iPhone 14 Pro and Find My Device on the Google Pixel 8 Pro. Here’s how it went.

How Find My and Find My Device work

Both Apple and Google’s systems use an encrypted, crowdsourced network of other iOS or Android phones and devices to help find lost items. Each of them allows:

• View the current and last known location of an item on the map
• Play a sound to find an item if nearby (if your device supports it)
• Share things like Bluetooth trackers with your friend so they can see your location too

Setting up Bluetooth trackers on any network is very easy. Hold it close to your phone and a pop-up window will appear. With One Point Chipolo, you only need to press the tracker once to register it to Android and trigger the Fast Pair pop-up.

What is the difference between Find My and Find My Device?

Apple’s Find My network has seen little progress since it was overhauled in 2021 to make it easier to find third-party items and prepare for the launch of AirTag. Compare this to Google’s Find My Device service, which gained similar support for third-party devices and trackers earlier this year.

Currently, Find My Device trackers only support Bluetooth, while Apple AirTags use both Bluetooth and ultra-wideband. This is a technology that helps you determine your exact location and displays distance indicators along with directional guidance in the Find My app.

Apple’s AirTags also have separation notifications, called Notify When Left Behind. Select this option in the Find My app and you’ll be notified when you leave something out of Bluetooth range.

Apple’s Find My network only needs one iPhone or iOS device connected to the Internet to locate a lost item. If Find My is not connected to the Internet and it encounters a lost item, the item’s location will be encrypted and passed from Find My to Find My until it reaches a connected device, such as an iPhone.

Google’s Find My Device settings are set to “only connected to high-traffic areas” by default. This means that the network needs multiple Android devices to detect the location of an item and only then shows the midpoint based on location reports.

However, you can go to Security > Find my device > Find your devices offline and change it to with the network in all areas. This can help you find other people’s items in less trafficked areas, and you only need one Android device to locate the item, similar to Apple’s Find My service. The official Android Find My Device help page says: “Users who enable this option help each other find items in both high- and low-traffic areas. This option may help you find your lost items faster.”

For this experiment, I left all the default settings to see what would happen.

Which tracker did I find first?

When the AirTag tracker and Chipolo got “lost” somewhere on Pier 39, I loaded the apps on my iPhone and Pixel 8 Pro, marked each as lost, and then started the timer. Just four minutes and forty-five seconds into the challenge, I received my first notification from Apple’s Find My app. Five minutes later I received another AirTag locating signal.

I waited 30 minutes to see if the Google network would find the tracker, but I didn’t receive any notification. However, I was able to see the approximate location of the Chipolo tag on the map in the Find My Device app. Confusingly, the network was able to determine an approximate location, but never notified me that the tracker had been found.

I then started looking for trackers using the location tools built into each app. Apple’s Find My showed me directions to AirTag on a map, so I knew it was only a few minutes away. Google’s Find My Device was less helpful and only showed me a map view without any directions.

Once I’m in Bluetooth range, AirTag will allow me to select precise ultra-wideband tracking options, so I can move my phone around and the arrow will point me in the right direction using distance markers. The Chipolo tracker, on the other hand, has a shape that “fills” as it approaches an object.

I knew I was close, but I still couldn’t see them, so I made a sound to each of them. The AirTag was quite faint, but I could hear the Chipolo even in the noisy environment of Pier 39.

So the ultra-wideband guidance helped me get closer to the AirTag when I couldn’t see it, but the loud sound of the Chipolo made a big difference in finding the tracker.

Apple’s Find My network is more robust for now

My highly unscientific test showed that Apple’s Find My network helped locate my lost item much faster than Google’s Find My Device network. I expect this will improve over time as the web expands on Android devices, especially if more users decide to locate items in all areas. Adding ultra-wideband support to Android trackers would also level the playing field – many Android phones already have an ultra-wideband chip.

I’m looking forward to taking on this challenge again in a few months to see how Google’s Find My Device experience improves, especially as more devices connect to the network.