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Google’s latest Play Services update has a neat trick for your lost belongings
Your keys can run, but Find Hub is getting better at chasing.
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Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
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TL;DR
- Google’s October System Services update adds NFC support to Find Hub-compatible trackers, letting you tap a tag to quickly access its details or identify a lost tag.
- Setting up Find Hub trackers is getting easier, with options to name tags, choose categories, and enable features like Left-Behind Reminders during registration.
- The update also adds card artwork and payment network logos to card tokenization notifications, along with a smaller attribution change for apps using Google Maps features.
Google just made Find Hub trackers a little harder to lose for good. The company has been steadily turning Find Hub into a much more capable alternative to other item-tracking networks.
As part of Google’s October System Services updates, Google Play services v26.39 is adding NFC support for Find Hub-compatible tags. You’ll now be able to tap a tracker with your phone to quickly pull up its details and settings. More importantly, NFC can also help identify a lost tag, which could come in handy when something you’ve attached it to goes missing.
Say you leave your backpack at a coffee shop with a Find Hub tracker tucked inside. Someone finds it, notices the tracker, and wants to figure out who it belongs to. NFC support gives them a much faster way to interact with that tag, instead of leaving them wondering what to do with it.
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
It should also make things easier for the tracker owner. Tapping a tag can take you directly to its details and settings, saving you from opening Find Hub and hunting down the right tracker yourself.
Setting up those trackers is getting easier, too. Google is adding more options to the registration process, so you can sort out the important stuff while adding a new Find Hub tag. You can name the tracker, choose what type of item it’s attached to, and configure features such as Left-Behind Reminders during setup.
A couple of other improvements are arriving as part of Google’s October updates as well. Notifications shown during card tokenization can now include card artwork and payment network logos, making it easier to tell which card a prompt refers to without looking closely at the details.
Google is making a small Maps-related change as well. Apps using certain Google Maps features can now provide access to the relevant terms and attribution information through the info icon beside the Google Maps logo.
Those additions are useful, but the Find Hub changes are easily the more interesting part of this update. Trackers are supposed to disappear into the background until you actually need them, and making them easier to identify, configure, and interact with gets Find Hub a little closer to doing exactly that.
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Find HubGoogleGoogle Play ServicesNFC
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