What percentage of Android phones are actually running it? I get that it’s brand new and over time more and more phones will report the location of trackers, but are there any metrics on current “market saturation” (for lack of a better word)?
I just got my Pebblebee clips yesterday that I pre-ordered a few months ago. I wanted to test them out so I sent one in my kid’s backpack to daycare today (which is a legit use case I had in mind when buying these, particularly when we leave him with a babysitter).
When I try to check on the location, it says “last seen at 7:45” which is when I dropped him off, implying that my phone was the last to ping the tracker. So that means none of the teachers’ phones, nor any of the other parents’ phones have pinged the tracker. It’s not a big daycare but he’s one of the first to arrive. There should have been at least 2 dozen other phones near his backpack since then. This brings me back to my question about how many phones would you expect to report the location of a tracker.
I tested with my new Chipolo trackers. I left a tracker at home and went a block away. Marked the tracker as lost. Came home and waited and waited to get a notification that it was found. An hour later I opened the app and then I got it. So far not so good. 🥹 That said I believe it will improve over time. It has to, in order to be useful.
That said I believe it will improve over time. It has to, in order to be useful.
That doesn’t mean it has to. Let me introduce you to dozens of other Google projects.
Well, assuming they want it to be useful.
That’s a bold assumption.
The default phones set only report in when it’s one of a few devices contributing to the location of a lost device. You have to go in to settings to change it to report for all devices all the time which would make it more useful when not lost in a place like an airport or shopping center.
https://support.google.com/android/answer/14796936#all_areas
Personally, I turned it off. I don’t like that feature. Maybe others will or are doing the same.
I keep getting offered to set up my Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds with FMD when they connect to my phone, despite it not being available in my country yet.
So yeah, going great…
