Taking a cue out of Apple"s playbook, Samsung has updated its Find My Mobile app to add offline tracking support to it. The feature, dubbed "Offline finding", will allow your lost or stolen Galaxy device to be tracked even when it is offline and not connected to a Wi-Fi or mobile network.
Android"s default Find My tracking feature requires the lost or stolen device to have an active internet connection. However, most thieves tend to immediately throw the SIM card from a stolen device which ends up rendering the Find My feature useless.
Looks like Samsung just added offline finding to Samsung"s Find My Mobile.
— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) August 22, 2020
Let"s you track your phone even if it doesn"t have WiFi or cellular by using other Galaxy users. pic.twitter.com/psLl1rcb4X
The new Offline finding feature has been implemented in a manner similar to Apple. It works by letting Galaxy devices scan for lost or stolen Galaxy devices nearby using Bluetooth pings. For now, the new offline tracking feature is only available to Galaxy devices in the United States and Korea but support for more countries is coming soon. The feature can also be used to find lost watches and earbuds that were connected to the paired device.
The Offline finding feature will be available on all Galaxy devices running Android 8.0 or higher and also make its way to some of Samsung"s wearables including the Galaxy Watch 3. For now, the feature is only available on selected Galaxy smartphones running Android 10.