Find My is an

asset tracking Asset tracking refers to the method of tracking physical assets, either by scanning barcode labels attached to the assets or by using tags using GPS, BLE, LoRa, or RFID which broadcast their location. These technologies can also be used for indo ...

app and service provided by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

that enables users to track the location of

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

watchOS watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only d ...

devices,

AirPods AirPods are wireless Bluetooth earbuds designed by Apple Inc. They were first announced on September 7, 2016, alongside the iPhone 7. Within two years, they became Apple's most popular accessory. The most recent model, AirPods (3rd generation ...

, AirTags and a number of supported third-party accessories through a connected

iCloud iCloud is a cloud service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011 as a successor to MobileMe. , the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016. iCloud enables users to sync their data to the cloud, inclu ...

account. Users can also share their GPS locations to others with Apple devices and view the location of others who choose to share their location. Find My was released alongside

iOS 13 iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and HomePod lines. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Develop ...

on September 19, 2019, merging the functions of the former Find My iPhone (known on macOS devices as Find My Mac) into a single app. On watchOS, Find My is separated into three different applications: Find Devices, Find People and Find Items. After being released on iOS, Find My was later released on iPadOS 13.1 on September 24, 2019 and macOS 10.15 on October 7, 2019.

Features

People

Find My allows users to share their GPS locations to contacts with an

, or

device for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely. Once shared, others are able to see the exact location of a person's device on a map and can receive directions to the person's location. Notifications can be set, alerting a user when someone leaves or arrives at a set location.

Devices

Users can find the location of their Apple devices and play a sound on the device at maximum volume, a useful feature if the device has been mislaid. A device can also be marked as lost, locking the device with a password and suspending sensitive features such as

Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. It is supported on these Apple devices: iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac. It digitizes and can replace a cred ...

. Lost mode also allows a user to leave a message and contact information on the lock screen of the device. A user can also choose to erase a device, deleting all content and settings, which is useful if the device contains sensitive information, however the device can no longer be located after this action is performed. After the erase is complete, the message can still be displayed and the device will be activation locked. This makes it hard for someone to use or sell the device. An Apple ID password is required to turn off Find My, sign out of iCloud, erase the device, or reactivate a device after an activation lock. Since iOS 15, users can locate their iPhone 11 or later for up to 5 hours after the phone battery was drained, or 24 if it was turned off by the user manually (SE 2nd and 3rd generation excluded), thanks to the power reserve. Meanwhile the iPhone Xr and Xs support the power reserve as well, those can’t be located when turned off. Apple hasn’t communicated on how the feature works and why it is exclusive to these models but it’s likely that the feature uses the iPhone U1 chip exclusive to the iPhone 11 and later.

Items

With the release of iOS 14.3, third-party

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

items and accessories with support for the Find My network accessory program can also be tracked, under a separate "Items" tab. If something is lost but out of Bluetooth range, the app will display the last known location until another

, or

device is nearby. Similar to Apple's own devices, third-party items can be placed into a "lost mode" which prevents others from pairing to the device. Lost items can be identified from within the Find My app, allowing a user to see a message or contact information from the owner of the lost item. Unlike other "key finders", AirTags also use

ultra-wideband Ultra-wideband (UWB, ultra wideband, ultra-wide band and ultraband) is a radio technology that can use a very low energy level for short-range, high-bandwidth communications over a large portion of the radio spectrum. UWB has traditional applicati ...

technology to find lost items (if the Apple device used for searching supports it).

References

External links