GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Google appears to be preparing a new “People Finding” mode for the Find Hub when you’re near the person you’re looking for.
It’s possible this could be a short-range directional tool similar to Apple’s Precision Finding.
It’s not yet clear if UWB support on both phones will be a requirement.
A little over a year ago, Google gave the Find Hub (then still Find My Device) a big upgrade, expanding its location tools from hardware to also let you find people. It works very similarly to Google Maps location sharing, displaying the position of friends and family as points on the map. That can already be pretty handy, but now it looks like Google could be preparing a major improvement to this tool.
Looking at the changes present in Google Play Services version 26.20.30 beta, we’re spotting a few new text strings that make reference to a “People Finding” feature:
Code Copy Text <string name="people_finding_notif_title">People Finding Started</string> <string name="people_finding_notif_body">Your friend is nearby and searching for you. Tap to see location sharing settings.</string> <string name="people_finding_notif_title_with_name">%1$s is looking for you</string>
Besides just being interested in that new People Finding label, we’re curious about the words being used to talk about this feature. Rather than just friends looking for you wherever they are, this specifically reaches for “nearby” language — and that might be a clue.
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