Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
What is old is still new with Google, always. As part of the drop in March features for Android phones, Google has announced that it will have people finding its existing research research application. Since I have been using Google Maps’ location for years, I wondered if it would be a double functionality, the same or different / better. So I waited for people to appear in the Find My Device application on my phone and started to test.
The positive? It works and Google has not created an additional solution; He essentially integrated this into sharing the location of existing cards for people, but also made it available in the Find My Device application so that you have a central place to follow your things and your employees. The negative? Why did it take a whole year to add what is essentially a rapid copy / paste of an existing feature, and why is it missing some additional options that Maps has? Let’s dive.
Configuration and test Find my device for people
If you have received the update of the V3.1.277 of the Find My Device application, you probably have the new People Bottom tab. It is marked as a beta version, which is surprising since all the features have existed literally for years in Google Maps. But if Google wants to claim that it is still new and in the tests, well, let’s all pretend.
There are two sub-stabs here, one to start sharing your location with people and another to check the location of those who shared it with you. For the purposes of this test, I started at fresh and delete all my shares in Google Maps and to configure the sharing of the location with my husband from the Find My Device application.
After reading some explanations, the new interface to share my location appeared. Just like in the cards, I could define how long I wanted to share my location (an hour, only today, until I turn it off, or for a personalized duration) and select someone in my contacts to share or enter a link to send any other application. Quite simple stuff.
I set up the sharing of my phone on my husband’s account and vice versa, and I started testing it when I do shopping, when he went to work and when we were passionate about a day in Evreux. We both wear Android phones and the results were like I expected years of sharing the location of Google Maps. Our locations have been frequently updated, never more than five minutes apart and throughout several days. It works, Hoorray!
Find my device for people = Sharing the Google Maps location
When I set up our location division, I immediately noticed that both (me for him and for me) were reflected on Google Maps. They are all part of the same umbrella “Google Rental Share”. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I am happy that Google did not cook a separate sharing configuration here and rather integrated all this with the existing functionality of Maps.
The screenshots above show that the two applications display very similar information, although I find my device has a cleaner and more modern material than you aesthetics. I can see my husband’s location, when she last updates, and if he can also see my location. Finding my device also shows me how far it is from me.
Find my device and Google Maps displays the same information, but we have a more pleasant and more modern design.
The two applications hide more details until I press my husband’s name. This reveals the battery life of his phone, a button to get instructions to join him, and one to stop sharing my position with him. (This is also where the cards show the distance between us.) In addition, there is an overflow menu ⋮ to force a refreshment place, to hide it with my card if I do not want to see its location all the time and to block it to review my location.
Again, finding the interface of my device is cleaner here, although both are as functional as each other. I appreciate the touch of color behind the Live Icon in Look for my device, which immediately helps me to locate if the location is common or obsolete. Compared to light gray Just now From Google Maps, it’s easier to understand.
… Or not?
My problem with the implementation of finding my device, however, stems from the lack of additional features that have been cooked in sharing the location of Google Maps for ages.
One is the notifications option. This allows me to create rules and be notified when my husband enters an area or leaves it, as when it reaches work or leaves work. We do not use this for hunting ends but for security reasons. We live alone in a foreign country, we are therefore the only real support system of the other in France. I assure myself that he is doing well and he ensuring that I am ok are essential characteristics in our daily life.
I am sure that many families use this too for children, so not having it my device is a bit of a disappointment, especially since there is in the cards. All Google had to do was wear the interface elements to show it here. Apple Find My My already offers these notifications too, so I am disconcerted that they are not there in the Google application.
Google Maps also allows me to create a home screen shortcut for tracking the location of anyone – something finds that my device does not yet offer. There is no widget to find my device, not for devices, trackers or people.
So, although people’s monitoring generally works in Google’s new research application, it’s a little disappointing because there is a lack of options that exist in the same feature in Google Maps. For the moment, I do not see any reason to open finding my device to check the location of someone; I will stick to Google Maps until these additional options are making their way to find my device once it has come out of the “beta version” or until the new Google application offers something unique that is not available in the cards.
