Find Missing Samsung Galaxy Gear With SmartThings Find
If you are a clumsy Samsung fan and often find yourself losing various Galaxy equipment – headphones, phone, smartwatch – Samsung’s new “SmartThings Find” update is a must. This will help you find your belongings even if they are not connected to a cellular or wireless network.
Samsung magic only works with its Galaxy devices right now, but if you have a few of them, it’s worth installing. Install SmartThings Find on your phone and you can find your other Samsung Galaxy belongings with a combination of Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth Low Energy, and ultra-wideband tracking. These last two are important as they should help you find missing devices when they are unplugged and give you a more accurate location than the more general location you might otherwise get with Wi-Fi or cellular tracking.
This is how the process works :
“After the device is offline for 30 minutes, it emits a BLE signal that can be received by other devices. If you report your loss using SmartThings Find, any nearby Galaxy smartphone or tablet that has chosen to help locate your lost devices can notify the Samsung server of its location, which in turn will notify you. All SmartThings Find user data is encrypted and secured, so the location of the device will not be disclosed to anyone other than the owner. ”
I don’t have multiple Samsung Galaxy devices, but it looks like they need to be turned on for this search and rescue process to work. (After all, how would they emit a Bluetooth signal.) Samsung’s setup is not a miracle worker. If you lost your Galaxy Buds a week ago, you probably won’t be able to find them, although I couldn’t verify when they last “pinged” the service, which may help you find out their last likely location.
How to set up Samsung SmartThings Find
To get started, you’ll need the Samsung SmartThings app on your Galaxy phone or tablet (running at least Android 8). By default, it is not included in any of them, so you will have to install it; if you already have one, make sure you are using the latest version from the Google Play Store.
From there, launch the app and agree to all the permissions it asks for, including granting access to your device’s location (obviously).
Next, you’ll want to find the SmartThings Find banner on the My Home page. Click on it to start downloading the individual update for the service. (It does not take a lot of time.)
You will then need to agree to the additional terms of SmartThings Find. Once you have done this, you will see a small map showing all the devices that you previously linked to your Samsung account:
Click on what’s not your current device and you’ll get a hint about the different methods you can use to find it:
The first option, Search Nearby, brings up augmented reality mode that indicates when you are approaching a missing device using colored arrows at the bottom of the screen. You can then use the Call icon or simply select it from your list of devices to try and find what’s missing.
Click on the three dots icon in the upper right corner of the main SmartThings Find interface and you will see two options: Edit and Settings. Tap the first one if you want certain devices not to appear on the map but still be able to be found using SmartThings Find. To completely remove them from the service, click on Settings and adjust if necessary:
If you don’t want to use SmartThing Find for any reason, Samsung has a variety of other methods you can use to find your missing devices with other devices, including finding your missing phone with Find My Mobile or using SmartThing. watch, search for missing smartwatches using the Galaxy Wearable app, or search for missing Galaxy Buds (using the same Galaxy Wearable app). Generally speaking, you need to make sure you enable these location tracking apps or features on your devices before they disappear. Otherwise, your options for reuniting with them will be limited.