When is Google's airtag alternative being released?

RobotToaster@mander.xyz to Android@lemmy.world – 22 points –

I saw a while ago Google was planning an airtag alternative, but it seems to have been delayed. Anyone know when it's finally coming out?

10

This Chipotle blog entry describes things the best as far as I know: https://chipolo.net/en/blogs/chipolo-point-delay-and-google-find-my-device-app-update

Basically, in December, Google and Apple (and others?) came up with a standard on discovering trackers that are being used to stalk people. Because of the large iOS install base, Google has elected to wait for Apple to roll out that feature on iPhones before enabling the tracking device support on Android.

That typo made me wonder why might Chipotle had some sort of inside scoop at Google. Like maybe there's a Chipotle where all the Google engineers eat lunch, and one of them was trying to impress the person working at the counter by sharing product development updates.

Considering the almost weekly top secret document leaks on the war thunder forum, that wouldn't be surprising if it was real.

Thanks for that, although the lack of an ETA is disappointing.

Google has elected to wait for Apple to roll out that feature on iPhones before enabling the tracking device support on Android.

Letting your main competitor decide when you can launch a product sounds absolutely moronic.

I get the idea, but Apple had no such qualms about android users being stalked when they launched airtags.

I pre-ordered Chipotle last July. I hope it hasn't gone bad by now waiting on Google and Apple..

It's called Tile, but they don't have a replaceable battery.

And the network is way smaller since it only uses phones which have the tile app installed.

I wouldn't think Google would have qualms about using every Android device for its network, doesn't it already do that for Google maps?

People are much more willing to forgive Apple of that mistake than they are of google. Could you imagine if google was first to market with something that ended up being associated with stalking and every Android phone by default was in on it? Apple had a hard enough time weathering it.