Google Reportedly Developing First-Party Bluetooth Tracker for Android
Google is taking on the likes of Apple, Tile and Samsung as it looks to soon come out with its own Bluetooth tracker.
According to Ars Technica, the yet-to-be-announced first-party device was first spotted by Android researcher Kuba Wojciechowski, who said it's being called "Grogu" internally – after The Mandalorian character of the same name. He also said that the device is being developed by the Nest team, and it would come with some of the same features as Apple's AirTag, including a built-in speaker and support for Bluetooth LE and ultra-wideband (UWB).
The speaker allows you to play a ringtone on the tracker to make it easier to locate. But in case you don't want to do that, you can use UWB, a type of radio technology that can act as a radar of sorts and point you to the location of your tracker. Your device, of course, needs to support UWB for you to use this option. There are a number of high-end Android phones that have UWB built into them, including Google's own Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro.
What's more, Esper's Mishaal Rahman found a "locator tag" option in Google's Fast Pair developer console, suggesting the search engine giant is building a Bluetooth tracker ecosystem for the first-party device. The tracker ecosystem can essentially serve as a crowdsourced "lost and found" network, leveraging the Bluetooth connections of over three billion active Android devices across the globe, which is exactly what Apple is doing with the iPhone and AirTag.
Rahman also spotted evidence of an anti-stalking function that detects and alerts you if a foreign tracking device is moving with you.
For those unfamiliar, Bluetooth trackers are handy devices that you can attach to car keys, bags or any other objects you might usually lose so that you can locate them using your other devices. They aren't capable of sending their locations on their own because they don't contain real-time location data like GPS. Instead, they emit Bluetooth signals that can anonymously be picked up by nearby devices that show their last known location.
It’s unclear as of yet when the Bluetooth tracker and the network might launch.
Google is reportedly developing its own Bluetooth tracker to take on Apple's AirTag.
The first-party device would feature a built-in speaker and support for Bluetooth LE and ultra-wideband (UWB).
The search engine giant is also building a Bluetooth tracker ecosystem for the device, leveraging over three billion active Android devices across the globe.
No word yet on when the tracker and the network might launch.