Damien Wilde / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Final month, Google introduced that its Discover My System community was rolling out to Android units globally, beginning with the US and Canada.
- Over the previous few days, some customers outdoors North America reported having the ability to choose into the Discover My System community.
- This alerts a wider international rollout could also be imminent, presumably coinciding with subsequent week’s Google I/O occasion.
When Google launched its Discover My System community final month, it talked about that it was rolling out to Android units globally, beginning in the USA and Canada. It’s comprehensible that Google is staggering the rollout of a characteristic as important because the Discover My System community because it wants some buffer time to catch any bugs that pop up earlier than the rollout reaches a important mass. However it’s additionally disappointing because it signifies that energy customers outdoors of the US and Canada — like many Android Authority readers — should wait even longer to get a characteristic they’ve already been ready on for almost a yr. Fortunately, although, it seems that Google is lastly beginning to roll out the Discover My System community outdoors of North America, a minimum of to some customers.
If you happen to haven’t heard, Google first introduced the Discover My System community all the way in which again in Could 2023 throughout that yr’s I/O developer convention. Earlier than the launch of the Discover My System community, units wanted to self-report their location to Google’s Discover My System service. That meant misplaced offline units might solely be situated by their final recognized location. The Discover My System community, alternatively, permits misplaced units to be situated even when they’re offline. That is attainable as a result of billions of Android units can report every others’ areas.
Given the privateness and safety fiasco that Apple’s Discover My community induced when it launched to the general public (individuals have been utilizing AirTags to trace different individuals secretly), Google determined to delay the general public launch of its Discover My System community to present Apple time to implement unknown tracker alerts in iOS. Google additionally constructed its Discover My System community with a “multi-layered” strategy to privateness and safety, with options like end-to-end encryption for location information and aggregated system location reporting by default. With indicators that Apple’s iOS 17.5 launch will lastly assist unknown tracker alerts, Google determined to flip the change final month to allow its Discover My System community.
Google introduced the launch of its Discover My System community in a weblog put up on April 8 this yr. Particularly, it mentioned it was rolling out to Android units “around the globe, beginning within the US and Canada.” Though the corporate didn’t share precisely when the community would roll out to customers outdoors of those two nations, a spokesperson for Pebblebee — certainly one of a number of firms making Bluetooth trackers suitable with the Discover My System community — advised me that its merchandise “will likely be accessible to ship out globally as early as Could 27, 2024.” This implies that the Discover My System community will roll out globally by the top of Could, simply in time for these tracker merchandise to succeed in shoppers.
Certainly, we’re already seeing some reviews of the community rolling out to customers outdoors of North America. On Monday, Japanese Twitter consumer @Nrnsasa5gmmwsub shared a screenshot exhibiting they acquired the Discover My System community characteristic. And right this moment, UK Twitter consumer @willza3 shared screenshots exhibiting they acquired the opt-in message to affix the Discover My System community, too.
In latest days, many customers within the US and Canada have reported getting emails from Google informing them that their units will quickly be a part of the Discover My System community. Nonetheless, I haven’t seen anybody outdoors North America say they obtained this electronic mail. It’s attainable that Google’s rollout of the Discover My System community to those two customers was a mistake, however provided that it already mentioned it deliberate to roll this out “around the globe,” it’s extra doubtless that it’s simply rolling this out actually, actually slowly. Hopefully, we’ll hear extra concerning the international rollout of the Discover My System community at subsequent week’s Google I/O occasion in order that customers outdoors of North America who purchased a tracker suitable with the community can really use it.
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