Android 15 should welcome a new feature allowing you to detect your smartphone, even if it is turned off. This device would initially be reserved for Google Pixel 9.
When you lose or have your smartphone stolen, Android offers several options for finding your device. Indeed, the GPS and Bluetooth chips integrated into the device make it possible to determine its precise location, and to hope to get their hands on it if it is not already too late. However, things become complicated when the smartphone no longer has battery, or if the thief took care to turn it off quickly. It is therefore impossible to determine its position. This is the problem that Google is currently tackling, with a new system under development which could appear as early as this year.
The billions of Android devices used as a gigantic Bluetooth network
Google can tap into the hundreds of millions of Android devices in use around the world today with Find My Device. The latter have Bluetooth chips, and can emit and receive signals which make it possible to locate a smartphone declared lost or stolen. Each time an Android device passes near, the smartphone is tracked and the location sent securely to the owner of the lost or stolen phone.
However, Google must solve the problem of a turned off smartphone and is working on a feature called “ Powered Off Finding » which allows a device to store pre-calculated Bluetooth beacons in the Bluetooth controller’s memory in order to broadcast them, even when the device is powered off.
A feature reserved for the most recent Pixels initially
The functionality is, however, hardware dependent, and you will need a compatible smartphone to power the Bluetooth chip while the smartphone is turned off.
According to site findings Android Policethe Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, which should logically be available in fall 2024, could benefit from this functionality.
Google also plans to distribute this new functionality through Google Play Services, in order to make several models of its own compatible. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro could thus have this location powered off, as well as the Pixel 8a, a mid-range smartphone which could arrive sometime in 2024.
Android already has an interface, with a small text indicating that the smartphone can be detected even after it is turned off, when the latter is turned off. This small text box is not displayed for all users, but seems to indicate that things are seriously preparing on the Google team side.
Third-party manufacturers will also be able to use Google’s programming interface to benefit from the same service. Their smartphones will logically have to be compatible for Bluetooth detection when the device is turned off, and updated to Android 15, the future update of the operating system available this year.
Source : Android Police
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