Please Note
These trackers don’t work without any phone nearby that has WiFi or 4G/5G enabled. These networks are not trackers that use a SIM card.
Google does have a service where you can find your lost phone. The official name is the Find Hub. You can add other devices to this as well, Bluetooth trackers an other compatible devices can also be found. How it works is similar to how samsung and apple do it. I have linked info to their networks when you click their names
The way it works is that your android can locate nearby devices, trackers etc, and then send their info (encrypted) to the google cloud where you can view them. This way you and all other people contribute towards locating your lost keys, in theory.
The problem is that it is not on by default on android devices.
New opt‑in prompt during setup
In Google Play Services, Google is adding a “Find your device and help others too” screen to the initial device setup flow. This prompt explicitly explains that the Find Hub network “crowdsources locations from billions of Android devices to help find lost items,” then presents two toggles:
- Findable everywhere (more reliable; renamed from “with network in all areas”)
- Findable in busy places only (default; renamed from “with network in high‑traffic areas only”)
The problem is that this is only slowly enrolling now, meaning that the network isn’t big yet, and the default being with busy places only makes it unreliable. Google probably made “Findable in busy places only” the default so they don’t accidentally give creeps an easy way to stalk people. After everyone freaked out about AirTags being used for sketchy tracking.
Samsung and Apple had / have their networks being opt-out by default.