Find My Device

2018: Work of function in buildings

In November, 2018 Google released update for Android thanks to which users can trace the forgotten device more precisely. There was a new version of the application of Find My Device at number 2.3.008 which got support of maps of buildings and working profiles.

The company did not publish the complete list of the added buildings, but it includes the main public places: shopping centers, museums, stadiums, airports. Their plans of floors are added to the program. At the same time if the user lost house phone, he will not see the plan of the premises. Through the Find My Device application it is possible to call on the number to find phone on a sound and also far off to block the device or to erase from it all contents. For search it is possible to use the application website on the computer or the Google Home device, and a system will automatically determine location of loss. Of course, these means of protecting work only if the building is displayed by Google.

Function of search Android smartphone works in buildings now

The complexity of adding of maps of buildings is that someone should load the building plan into Google Maps and then customize the system of positioning. For street cards images from satellites or the pictures taken by the Google Street View cars can be taken as a basis, but for buildings it is inapplicable.

Screenshot of the system Find My Device application

In future Google is going to make search of devices in buildings even more precisely even if in base there is no plan of the respective premises. The company added support of Wi-fi Round Trip Time (RTT) to versions of Android 9.0 Pie. This function allows to define exact location of the device indoors and to perform navigation on the basis of distance to the next to point Wi-Fi. However, the technology works only with certain models of routers which support Wi-Fi of RTT. Google promised that until the end of 2018 will add support of this technology to the Google WiFi router.^[1][2]

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