Since Apple launched AirTags earlier this year, tracking devices have become more and more popular. They are similar to Tile trackers, with a simple premise-you can easily link them to your Apple account, and it will use Apple's Find My network to find it. As long as your AirTag is close to someone’s iPhone, you can see its location. Now you don’t even need a device to do this, because Apple has released an official app to track AirTags on Android devices. However, there is a very important caveat.
Tracker Detect is one of the few Apple applications that can be used on Android, in addition to Apple Music, Beats applications, and an application that can be ported to the iOS system. You can use it to track rogue AirTags nearby, and if you want to find one, you can use this app to play a sound. There, you can scan the AirTag using NFC, or remove the battery to disable it.
Although it is very concise, its function is also very basic. It does not have an automatic scanning function, which means that you need to launch an application specifically to search for tags, and you will not receive notifications of missing AirTags nearby as you do on the iPhone. You might say that this makes the Tracker Detect app somewhat useless-many people agreed in the comment section that the app should be able to scan automatically. Manually scanning the AirTags around you every 5 minutes is not the most effective way to spend your day.
There are no obstacles to achieving this on Android phones—it's just Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Allowing non-Apple devices to automatically scan AirTags and contribute them to Apple's Find My network will also greatly increase the success rate of locating AirTags, especially in regions outside the United States.
In CNET’s statement, Apple pointed out that enhanced privacy is the main purpose of this new app: “Tracker Detect allows Android users to scan AirTags or item trackers that support the “Find Me” function. These trackers may be in situations where they do not know. Take it with you wherever you go. We are raising the privacy threshold for users and the industry as a whole, and hope that others will follow suit."
If you want to scan AirTags with your Android phone, you can download the app from the Google Play Store now.
Although it is very concise, its function is also very basic. It does not have an automatic scanning function, which means that you need to launch an application specifically to search for tags, and you will not receive notifications of missing AirTags nearby as you do on the iPhone. You might say that this makes the Tracker Detect app somewhat useless-many people agreed in the comment section that the app should be able to scan automatically. Manually scanning the AirTags around you every 5 minutes is not the most effective way to spend your day.
There are no obstacles to achieving this on Android phones—it's just Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Allowing non-Apple devices to automatically scan AirTags and contribute them to Apple's Find My network will also greatly increase the success rate of locating AirTags, especially in regions outside the United States.
In CNET’s statement, Apple pointed out that enhanced privacy is the main purpose of this new app: “Tracker Detect allows Android users to scan AirTags or item trackers that support the “Find Me” function. These trackers may be in situations where they do not know. Take it with you wherever you go. We are raising the privacy threshold for users and the industry as a whole, and hope that others will follow suit."
If you want to scan AirTags with your Android phone, you can download the app from the Google Play Store now.
