Apple and Android phones will tell you if someone's tracking you

If someone slips a tracking device onto your person, your phone will now start telling you, regardless if you’re an Apple or Android user.

Apple devices have long alerted users if an Air Tag or similar Apple bluetooth device is located in their vicinity. And Android phones have had the ability to detect unknown bluetooth devices — Air Tag or not — since at least July. A new update allows gadgets from either manufacturer to be fully cross-functional.

The feature, which will send out an “[Item] Found Moving With You” alert to the user, is set to roll out to devices running iOS 17.5 and Android 6.0+.

The Associated Press reports that Google and Apple have been working on the capability since last year. “Bluetooth trackers have created tremendous user benefits, but they also bring the potential of unwanted tracking, which requires industrywide action to solve,” Dave Burke, Google’s vice president of Engineering for Android, told the outlet at the time.

The effort has the support of Samsung, the largest manufacturer of Android phones. Additionally, bluetooth tag makers Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebblebee have all signed on to make sure their products are compatible with both operating systems’ alert features.

“AirTag and third-party Find My network accessories were designed from the beginning with industry-first privacy and safety protections, and Apple has remained committed to innovating and supplementing these protections to keep consumers safe,” an Apple statement on the feature reads.

“This cross-platform collaboration — also an industry first, involving community and industry input — offers instructions and best practices for manufacturers, should they choose to build unwanted tracking alert capabilities into their products.”

Apple is currently facing a class-action lawsuit, filed in December 2022, alleging that it hasn’t done enough to stop stalkers from using its devices for ill intent. Though Apple, which denied the allegations, sought to have the case dismissed, a judge ruled in March that the case will go forward.