Samsung Electronics has launched SmartThings Find, a new service that helps end-users locate Galaxy devices using the integrated Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ultra-wideband (UWB) technologies. After 6 million users across Korea and early access to the service in the UK and US, SmartThings Find is ready for a global launch on devices running Android 8 or later.
After completing a registration process, SmartThings users can find their Galaxy devices, such as smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, through the SmartThings app. Once a registered device has been offline for 30 minutes, it produces a BLE signal that can be received by other devices. If users report their device as lost via SmartThings Find, any nearby Galaxy smartphone or tablet that has opted into helping find misplaced devices can alert the Samsung server about its location, which will in turn notifies the original user.
All SmartThings Find user data is encrypted and securely protected, ensuring that the device’s location is not unveiled to anyone except its owner, the company said.
When users lose a device, they can open SmartThings Find on their smartphone or tablet and select the device they want to locate. Their smartphone will then show them the exact location of their device on a map. Once users are close to their device, they can choose to either have their device “ring” or locate it using the AR-based Search Nearby function.
Availability
Starting from 30 October, a new software update for the SmartThings app will be released for Galaxy smartphones and tablets running Android 8 or later around the world. After that, users can access the SmartThings Find service by tapping the banner at the bottom of the home screen in the SmartThings app. In addition, from early 2021, Samsung will further expand these functionalities to tracking tags, which will help users locate their favorite items, not only for Galaxy devices, but also others as well.
