Video screenshot by Sareena Dayaram/CNET
Know that feeling of reaching down to your back pocket only to discover that your phone is suddenly missing? How about when you unzip your bag, only to see the empty space where your phone was supposed to be? We’ve all been there, and it’s horrible.
But there’s good news for Galaxy fans. Samsung rolled out a new service late Thursday that’s essentially a one-stop digital lost-property shop, similar to Apple’s Find My. It’ll be available globally on Galaxy smartphones and tablets running Android 8 or later.
The service, called SmartThings Find, uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ultra-wideband technologies to help panicked owners track down their Galaxy phone as well as a range of Galaxy-branded devices. Everything from Galaxy tablets, smartwatches, and even individual earbuds can be located using the the SmartThings app, which comes pre-loaded on select Galaxy devices.
According to Samsung, SmartThings Find helps you locate nearby devices on a map even when offline, and it also gets Galaxy phones to ring if the device is close enough. Samsung has long offered the Find My Mobile feature, but that service, as the name suggests, is limited to locating mobile phones only.
Here’s a quick video from Samsung that explains how to get started and how SmartThings Find works.
Samsung says it’ll expand capabilities to tracking tags by early next year, which will help people locate items beyond Samsung’s electronic Galaxy devices, like a set of keys or wallets.
