A reviewer took a Galaxy phone offline and hunted it with Samsung Find and Google Find Hub. Neither was reliable, and one sent him over 340 meters off.
A reviewer at Android Police hid an offline Samsung Galaxy phone and tried to find it with two tools: Samsung Find and Google Find Hub. Both found it around the house. Away from home, results were patchy. In an isolated spot, Samsung Find pointed him more than 340 meters from the phone.
Offline finders work by borrowing other people's phones. A lost phone sends out a Bluetooth signal, and nearby compatible phones and tablets that are online report where it was seen. The reviewer used two identical Galaxy S22+ phones, one to lose and one to search with. He turned off mobile data and Wi-Fi on the lost one and left Airplane mode off, because Samsung Find does not work in that mode.
Samsung Find's offline signal only starts after 30 minutes, so he waited that long before each test. He ran 16 tests over two days and measured how far each tracker's pointer was from the phone's real spot.
Samsung says its offline locations can be off by 100 meters. The 340 meter miss is well past that. The reviewer said he would have wasted time searching the wrong area. He valued that Find Hub did not claim to know more than it did.
By default, Android phones only help the Find Hub network in busy places, where several nearby devices detect the lost phone. Find Hub can be set to report a lost phone's location everywhere, but many people never change it. Samsung Find also has a Search nearby feature. Samsung says it reaches 100 meters outdoors, but walls and pedestrians can cut that to about 10. It did not help in the test.
The reviewer picked Samsung Find for an offline Galaxy phone. It found the phone more consistently, and it worked whether or not Bluetooth and Location were on. Find Hub needs both turned on. His advice is to set up both trackers, but not to count on either for an offline phone unless it is somewhere around the house or in a crowded place. Keeping the phone online is more reliable.
Set up Samsung Find and Google Find Hub now, switch Find Hub to report everywhere, and do not rely on either to locate an offline phone.
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