Find My can be a powerful app in the right hands.
Whether you have a recent iPhone, iPad, or AirTag, you can use Apple's Find My network to locate a device. Find My works by connecting all iDevices that have opted in for the service, allowing even offline products to exchange data with Apple's server through piggybacking on a nearby online device. Through this service, you get to locate, erase, ping, and do more with a device, including AirTags and other third-party trackers. While it sounds simple, there's a lot you can use the Find My app for.
How to add items or share a location to Find My
You may have noticed when opening the Find My app that in every tab (which we'll go over later), there's a plus (+) button towards the middle right. This button works similarly across all tabs. When you tap it, you get four options, allowing you to share your location with a friend, add a compatible MagSafe accessory like Apple's MagSafe Wallet, pair an AirTag, or pair a third-party Find My tracker. You can access this menu from any tab inside the app.
The processes to share your location or add an item to the app are super simple. For the former, you just tap Share My Location and choose the desired contact from the list, followed by the duration of permitted live location access. As for the latter, if you're not sure how to set up or use an AirTag, we've prepared a dedicated guide for that.
People
The first tab you'll see in the Find My app is People. Here you get to view the live location of anyone who has given you access. Those with newer iPhones can even share their precise location in real-time, allowing users to view almost every step they're taking as it happens.
When you click on a friend's name, you get a panel showing several buttons. You can view their contact information, navigate to their location through the Maps app, add notifications for when they arrive at or leave a certain location, favorite them, give their current location a name, like Home, share your own location with them, or stop receiving their location.
This feature is ideal for your close friends and family since it requires a fair amount of trust. Expectedly, many people refrain from using it altogether since it can be overly intrusive. Nonetheless, it can come in handy when someone you care about is in a high-risk place, and you'd want to keep an eye on them.
Devices.
The second tab you'll see is Devices, arguably the most important section of the app. Here, you can see a list of your main Apple devices, along with those of users in the same iCloud Family. These include iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, AirPods, and more.
When you click on a device, a panel appears, allowing you to view its last seen location and approximate battery level. You can also mark a device as lost, ping it with an audible sound, set left-behind notifications, and add a message if someone finds it. If you're in a bind, you can also remotely erase a device and remove it from your account as a last resort.
Items.
The third tab is Items, where your AirTags and Find My-certified trackers live. When clicking on an item, you get a panel that might be familiar if you've used the Devices tab we previously broke down. So you can ping an item, navigate to it, mark it as lost, rename it, set left-behind notifications, enable found notifications, or remove it from your account.
More interestingly, you might notice a button called Identify Found Item at the bottom. If you find someone else's AirTag or Find My tracker, you can use this button to scan it. If the owner has marked it as lost, then you will be able to view their contact information and reach out to them to arrange a meetup. It's also a great way to scan your surroundings if you believe someone is following you with a Find My-enabled tracker. While iOS automatically scans for these items in the background occasionally, using this button can further contribute to your peace of mind.
Me
Lastly, there's the Me tab, which is there for personal-related matters. There you get to give your current location a custom label, such as Home or Work. You also get to view the iDevice you've picked to transmit your live location to your chosen friends. Additionally, you get to disable friend requests completely and customize relevant notification settings. Clicking on either of the two customize notifications buttons redirects you to the Notifications section of the Settings app, where you get the typical app notification options and privileges, such as revoking the permission, opting for temporary or persistent banners, whether they appear on the Lock Screen, and so on.
At the very bottom, there's a link that launches the Find My web app in your browser, allowing a friend of yours to sign in to their account to locate their lost iDevice from your iPhone.
The Find My app is pretty simple to use, despite it being feature-rich. While the screenshots above were taken on an iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 16, the app is just stretched out on iPadOS 16 while still providing you with the same set of features. On macOS Ventura and watchOS 9, you also get a similar interface. However, some options are limited, such as pairing a new AirTag or device. Otherwise, you can ping, locate, navigate to, mark as lost, and control left-behind notifications from an Apple Watch or Mac.
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