Supported Android devices will be automatically registered to the Find My Device feature unless users manually opt-out.

Google recently sent an email notification to Google Pixel users, stating that all supported Android devices will be automatically registered to the "Find My Device" network once it is officially launched. This means that these devices will become part of a massive Bluetooth crowdsourced network with over 1 billion nodes.

The Android device finding feature is similar to Apple's Find My system, where Google develops a crowdsourced network using wireless Bluetooth technology. All devices become nodes in this network.

For example, when two Android devices are within Bluetooth transmission range, they will automatically report each other's GPS location information, which is encrypted and sent to Google's servers. When a user initiates a search, they can easily locate their device, as long as there are other connected Android devices nearby. However, if the device is in a remote area with no other connected devices, the location information cannot be reported through the Bluetooth crowdsourced network.

The advantage of this Bluetooth crowdsourced network is that every device becomes a node, primarily using Bluetooth protocol for transmission, and supports Android phones or other supported IoT devices, such as item tags.

Devices that join the crowdsourced network can still report their location via Bluetooth even when offline, making it useful for finding lost Android phones or IoT tags. Users can also purchase these IoT tags to attach to their keys or bicycles for tracking purposes.

The Android Bluetooth crowdsourced network feature is about to launch, and supported Android devices (including but not limited to Pixel series devices) will automatically join the network three days after its launch.

Some users may feel that uploading encrypted location information is still not secure enough or may not want to become a node, and they can opt-out. Once opted out, the device will no longer communicate with other Android devices using the Bluetooth crowdsourced protocol, and users will not be able to continue searching for their device's location.

After the feature is officially launched, users can view their device's location information on this page: https://www.google.com/android/find/settings/fmdn