Around a year ago, Google and Apple teamed up to announce a new specification designed to stop unwanted Bluetooth-enabled tracking devices from tracking users without their knowledge.
At that time, it was just a proposal for creating the specification. In today’s world, Bluetooth trackers can be really useful for finding keys or related small items in your inventory. However, there is a lot of misuse of Bluetooth trackers, often without the knowledge of the person carrying it.
Now, that specification announced a year ago is becoming a reality and that is a good thing.
Google and Apple announced today that they have worked together to create an industry specification for the detection of unwanted location trackers for Bluetooth tracking devices.
The new specification makes it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if an unwanted Bluetooth device is unknowingly being used to track them.
The new specification will be implemented in the new iOS 17.5, which was just released this week. Meanwhile, Google is working towards adding this capability to Android 6.0+ devices. Android is currently on version 14 and the next version, 15, will release this year.
iOS users will get an alert, “[Item] Found Moving With You” on their devices if they find any unknown Bluetooth device moving with them over time. On Android, the alert is a bit different, it will say, “Tracker traveling with you” if an unknown Bluetooth device is moving with you.
Both platforms will let users play a sound to find the device and access instructions to disable it.
According to Apple, various Bluetooth device manufacturers including Motorola, Jio, Eufy, and Pebblebee have committed to making their devices compatible with the new specification.
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