Apple has enabled third-party companies to use Find My to locate items. Currently Find My can show the location of Apple Devices, including Macs, iPads, iPhones, AirPods, Apple Watches & iPods along with added contacts who have shared their location.
A developer document from Apple shows they will soon be supporting third-party Bluetooth devices with the Find My Network. ‘The Find My network is a crowdsourced network of hundreds of millions of Apple devices that can help users locate a missing iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and soon, third-party Find My network-enabled accessories, using the Find My app.’
Currently, the Find My Network is limited to Apple devices but will be soon available to third-party companies who implement the specification. Developers can express their interest in the Find My network by filling out the form provided on the support page. You can read the full document here.
Discovered in a recent iOS 14.4 beta, the items menu was discovered. This suggests the release of AirTags is on the horizon. The menu won’t just be for Apple accessories, but for third-party devices, which the first of them is Belkin’s wireless earbuds.
Appleosophy Media Designer Anton Bulzomi reported on this in early November, with files from the Find My app, which hinted at third-party accessories, which you can read more about here.
AirTags were first discovered by Appleosophy Media Editor Pururaj Dutta in an Apple Support video, which was later taken down. You can read more about our discovery here.
And if you don’t know what AirTags are or would like to know everything that we know about them. From our exclusive renders to the final leaks everything, all you need to know about AirTags, you can find here.
Author: Holden Satterwhite
Founder of Appleosophy and Redfruit Media. Twitter: @hesatter
