Google’s Find My Device network quietly rolls out to some outside North America
Some users in the UK and Japan are reportedly able to opt in to the network, which officially shouldn't be possible.
JoriPress
- Last month, Google announced that its Find My Device network was rolling out to Android devices globally, starting with the US and Canada.
- Over the past few days, some users outside North America reported being able to opt into the Find My Device network.
- This signals a wider global rollout may be imminent, possibly coinciding with next week’s Google I/O event.
When Google launched its Find My Device network last month, it mentioned that it was rolling out to Android devices globally, starting in the United States and Canada. It’s understandable that Google is staggering the rollout of a feature as significant as the Find My Device network since it needs some buffer time to catch any bugs that pop up before the rollout reaches a critical mass. But it’s also disappointing since it means that power users outside of the US and Canada — like many Android Authority readers — must wait even longer to get a feature they’ve already been waiting on for nearly a year. Thankfully, though, it appears that Google is finally starting to roll out the Find My Device network outside of North America, at least to some users.
If you haven’t heard, Google first announced the Find My Device network all the way back in May 2023 during that year’s I/O developer conference. Before the launch of the Find My Device network, devices needed to self-report their location to Google’s Find My Device service. That meant lost offline devices could only be located by their last known location. The Find My Device network, on the other hand, allows lost devices to be located even if they’re offline. This is possible because billions of Android devices can report each others’ locations.
