- The Moto tag finally supports ultra-wideband tracking
- This brings the Android Find Hub tracker on par with Apple’s AirTags
- No word yet on when other Find Hub trackers will support UWB
Google’s Find Hub – previously Find My Device – has been a fairly proficient Android alternative to the always useful Apple Find My service, with both the Android and iOS options helping you locate your missing tech. But until now, Google’s service has lacked a key feature: ultra-wide band finding.
Find Hub can help you locate your phone, headphones, compatible Bluetooth trackers, and even close friends and family, all from one app. If you’ve not used the service (admittedly, it can feel a little hidden behind Google’s better known Android apps) it’s a useful one-stop finding shop that you’ll want to add to your home screen.
However, it has lacked one of Apple‘s core benefits of its Find My service: ultra-wideband tracking.
This upgraded variant of Bluetooth tracking allows your phone to more accurately track the precise location of the tag. Rather than simply being further or closer to the missing tag, the app can give you much more precise directions and distances thanks to UWB. But until now, no Find Hub devices offered UWB as an option.
Now, finally, the Moto Tag does so thanks to a firmware update, as spotted by Android Police. Once installed via the Moto Tag app (currently rolling out through the Play Store), you can launch the Find Hub app, and the updated tracker will be discoverable via UWB.
You’ll also need a high-end smartphone. While a few years-old devices support UWB, the feature is exclusive to premium models like the Google Pixel 6 Pro, and Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus and Ultra. The standard flagships, unfortunately, lack the feature for now.
Hopefully, as other UWB trackers arrive for Android, there will be more reason for budget-friendly devices to support it. For now, Moto’s Tag appears to be the only UWB device supported by Find Hub.
Beyond UWB, Google’s Find Hub is also set to gain support for tracking some devices using satellites “later this year” (via Google’s blog), making the service even more useful than it currently is. That would let the service not just catch up to Apple, but effectively take the lead.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
