Apple has announced that it is officially opening up its Find My network to third-party accessory makers for safely and securely tracking items.
Find My is Now Open to Third-Party Manufacturers, Expect Tons of Upcoming Accessories to Support it
Find My has been an exclusive service for first-party devices such as iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc. But today, Apple is officially opening up the network to third-party accessory makers, allowing them to get certification and use Apple’s vast network of devices to track lost items.
The way this works is actually quite simple. If you have something that supports Find My and you end up losing it somewhere, and an iPhone or iPad user walks by it, the item would use Bluetooth to broadcast its location to you, basically piggybacking on the nearby iPhone and iPad to make itself aware to you. Of course, this requires someone in close proximity for it to work. Given how many iPhones and iPads there are in the wild, hundreds of millions of them, according to Apple, therefore it should not be a problem.
You will be able to find your lost items or track them using the brand new Items tab in the Find My app.
Which devices will make headlines first? According to Apple:
Apple says that existing devices can be updated to support the program as long as they adhere to the company’s strict privacy standards.
If we ever needed proof that Apple was working on AirTags then this news should make everything pretty clear.
