Sometimes you have to stop for a second and realize how good we have things these days. Before, if you misplaced your phone, you’d have to retrace your steps and hope you’d find it wherever you might have left it. However, modern tech makes it a lot easier to pinpoint the exact place you left a device.
Apple’s Find My network is going to be gaining a new feature in the iOS 18.2 beta, and for the first time in a long time, I’m going to say that Google needs to shamelessly copy this feature and bring it to Android users, because it can sincerely be a gamechanger.
Apple Is Going To Let You Share A Lost Device’s Location With A Third Party
Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine that you traveled several hours to go to an event with some friends. You have a long journey ahead of you to get back home, so you leave your friends behind, but you only realize that you left your earbuds behind when you’re already one hour away. You can call your friends and ask them to keep an eye out for it, and you can even try to use Find My to direct them, but they might not find it in the end.
Instead of having to make the trip back yourself, the iOS 18.2 beta has brought in a new feature that will give you the chance to share the location of a lost device with a trusted third party. I’m sure you can think of several situations where that might be incredibly useful, especially when you might lose something in a public place like a store or in an airport, or when a friend is best equipped to help you recover something.
Apple Is Partnering With Airlines To Introduce This Feature Into Baggage Recovery
Speaking of airports, Apple’s going a step further. You’re going to be able to share the location of your missing items or tags with airlines, and it is honestly quite brilliant. Instead of needing to rage about your bag being missing, Apple is partnering with over 15 global airlines to let you easily share tag locations with their customer service so they are better equipped to find your lost luggage.
I’ve never dealt with lost luggage, but if you have, this might be something that you wish you had access to earlier. Of course, it will require having a trackable device such as an AirTag inside the luggage in the first place.
Google’s Find My Device Network Needs To Steal This Feature
Google’s Find My Device network went live earlier this year, and as much as I tend to hate when tech companies are shameless and steal features from other companies, I’m going to have to encourage Google to steal this one.
It is such a major help in the event that a third party is best equipped to locate a lost item for you that I want Google to start working on it right away. The airline part doesn’t need to be put into action just yet as I imagine that aspect took a lot of work. It wouldn’t hurt to have it at some point in the future though.
I won’t put too much pressure on Google though, as its Find My Device network is essentially still a newborn, so I’ll give it some time to mature.
