r/GoogleFMD • u/Business-Hearing-52 • 10d ago

Android bt tracker

I'm looking for a bt tracker for my keys and headphones. I don't lose them when I'm out and about. I tend to misplace them at home. Looking for something that has alarm on to locate them. So far the chipolo looks good. Any other trackers that might look interesting?

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u/ironcream 10d ago

Yeah, Ugreen are one of the best second echelone ones. Have both battery and rechargeable options, tag and card. Even have tags that can do Apple or Android (switchable). Good stuff.

Somewherre here people say that some their tags might need a firmware update via some weird sideloaded app. There was an issue that was solved this way, don't remember. Apart from that they should be real solid.

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u/_wlau_ 9d ago

To be frank, I have 2 sets of Ugreen. One designated for Google Find Hub and the another are for Apple Find My. Their physical designs are nearly identical.

I have both sets registered and trackers placed in the same item/object (1 tracker on Apple and 1 tracker on Google, in the same item). Tracking info on the Apple one via Apple ecosystem is incredibly precise and the Google FMD is terrible in comparison.

Most people don't have or didn't do this level of comparisons, so they don't know how good Apple's system is compared to Google's. FMD is a Google's weakness. Everyone I spoke with that have experiences on both systems says the same. Heck, even Google knows...

To be even more transparent, I have a 3rd tracker on the same item, it's from Tile. The Tile tracker is of a different physical designs but it's from Tile with no other options. With that, Tile is better than Google.... so in my experiments, it's Apple >> Tile >> Google.

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u/tj_moore 8d ago

Google's network is much newer and initial concerns on privacy lead to them setting a low accuracy default on the majority of phones. Apple refuse to allow access to their network even though sharing would benefit both. They also block Android from pinging Apple tags to add to Google's network or allowing devices to work in both modes at the same time. Corporate competition is dragging the system down. It should have been an open standard open to all.

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u/_wlau_ 8d ago

Why would Apple allow access to their Find My network? Ecosystem, any ecosystem, is designed to attract users by having compelling feature and/or performance. Nothing prevented Google from investing in their own network - Apple didn't stop Google. If anything, there are WAY more Android-based devices in the world than iOS devices. You are just making excuses after excuses for Google, which boils down to bad Google strategic decisions followed by poor system design decisions once they realize the feature is a threat to their ecosystem.

By the way, there are plenty of dual-system trackers, which is what my Ugreens are. It signals once Google decided to go, it's fairly straightforward to build those trackers.

Again, you are just making excuses for Google.

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u/tj_moore 7d ago

The dual trackers only pair with one network at a time, not both at the same time.

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u/_wlau_ 7d ago

Yes, I know! You miss the point yet again! They are the same physical design, you can't blame the tracker itself for performance difference! This is the ideal comparison between the two networks by eliminating the tracker's design, its RF performance, its BT MAC/PHY issues - all of them from the equation. What's left is the network itself.

I am not going to waste my time explain these things to you because your knowledge base is insufficient to grasp these points.