Apple will soon open up the Find My app to third-party products

The Find My app on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS allows Apple users to locate their lost devices on a simple map. It relies on Bluetooth, GPS, and other signals like internet connectivity but is currently limited to Apple products.

By the end of this year, though, the Find My app will be opened up to products from rival companies.

Tile and other accessory makers can benefit

In addition to recently introducing iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 at the online WWDC 2020 developers conference, Apple also announced a new Find My Network Accessory Program that does exactly what the name suggests.

The new program, which is scheduled to go live later this year, will allow compatible devices from other manufacturers to sync with the vast Find My network and become locatable inside the universal app.

That compatibility even applies to devices that don’t offer internet connectivity. The most obvious candidate for the program is Tile, a company that creates Bluetooth tracking tags that will soon be rivalled directly by Apple’s own AirTags.

The entire process is still end-to-end encrypted

Despite opening up the Find My app to third-party accessories, Apple says the process of locating devices is still secure. The entire process is “end-to-end encrypted, anonymous, and is extremely data and battery efficient.”

The Silicon Valley-based company has not yet announced an exact deployment date beyond later this year but it will most likely coincide with the launch of the aforementioned AirTags tracking tags, which themselves are expected to debut alongside the iPhone 12 series in the fall.