Google will address Find My Device network issues on Android “in the coming weeks”

In a statement provided to Mishaal Rahman, a senior contributor to sites such as Android authorities AND Android Policewhich they shared on X, Google acknowledged concerns about its Find My Device network. “We’re actively working to make improvements to the Find My Device network that will improve the speed and ability to locate lost items in the coming weeks. As devices continue to join the new Find My Device network, we expect the network to continue to expand, which will also help improve the ability to find lost devices.”

The performance of crowdsourced tracking networks such as Find My Device on Android depends on the number of users actively using the service while away from home. Initially only available in the US and Canada, the improved Find My Device feature was slow and only expanded to the UK last month.

Google says the network’s performance will improve as it continues to evolve, but in its statement to Rahman it also suggested that users could improve it ahead of the planned improvements by changing the Find My Device network setting to “Networked in all areas.”

The default network setting for Find My Device is “Only with network in high-traffic areas,” which waits for multiple Android devices to detect a lost item before sharing its location calculated from several different location reports. As the name suggests, this approach works best in busy locations such as shopping malls or airports, where multiple devices detect a lost item, providing an additional layer of privacy for Android devices sharing location information.

Changing this setting to “Networked in all areas” can potentially help you locate lost items more quickly in “lower traffic areas” because instead of aggregating the location from several Android devices that have detected them, the location from only one device is used. The reason “Networked in all areas” isn’t the default setting is because Google says it requires users to “opt-in to sharing location information across the network,” which some may be hesitant to do due to privacy concerns.