Google is reportedly working on a feature that will allow your Android device to detect smart trackers in close vicinity. Folks at 9to5Google spotted the functionality while decompiling the Play services APK. According to them, Google began working on the feature in March of this year. The capability was found to be integrated with the Google Play services, which should enable availability for a wide range of Android phones.
Apple already has “Tracker Detect” for Android that allows users to find nearby AirTags, while Tile released a similar feature recently. Now, Google plans to integrate the tag-scanning feature into Android. Hence, in the future, you will not need to have a separate app for this feature as functionality will come built into Android itself.
Google hasn’t revealed any details about the feature yet, but hints about it have been discovered in the latest version of Play Services (22.12.13). The decompiled code clearly details “unfamiliar device alerts” and an “unfamiliar tag detected notification” for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags. Along with this, it mentions three types of tags — Tile tag, ATag and Finder Tag. The first two are pointed towards Apple’s AirTag and the Tile Tag but we cannot say what Finder Tag refers to.
As soon as your Android device detects an unidentified tag/tracker, it will be able to ring and notify you about its presence. This feature will be extremely useful in preventing trackers from being planted on you or any other person accompanying you. As mentioned before, both Apple and Tile have Android apps to detect an unknown smart tag near your phone. However, they require manual scanning and are not as quick.