Today’s smartphones are equipped with features that weren’t feasible a decade ago.
Streaming movies, watching live games, and playing computer-level games was now possible.
But what if the device in which you do all this isn’t within your reach? You maybe forgot it somewhere in the house, or worst, in the cab you just came home from.
Apple tackles users’ worries with an app called ‘Find My.’ With it, you can find any Apple products you own – AirPods, Watch, an iPad, or even a MacBook.
The app’s advanced functionality lets you find your iPhone through other devices or the web.
But many wonder how accurate is Find My iPhone, and it depends on many factors that impact its accuracy.
The location of your iPhone on Find My can be approximate, but it can be surprisingly accurate.
In this article, I’ll guide you on how to make the Find My app solid and ready in case of an emergency.
How Does Find iPhone Work?
Several factors contribute to finding your lost phone, including cellular towers, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals. Finding your iPhone depends on how many options are reachable, its battery life, and hurdles such as bad weather, building, long trees, and other factors. It’s like a little search party!
Features of Find My iPhone App
Following are some of the features that make Apple’s ‘Find My iPhone’ app an essential tool to track any device:
Locate your device
With this feature, you can locate and track any of your Apple devices on the map. If you think the battery is low, you can still track it via the app or iCloud.com. When your device’s battery is critically low, your device will mark its last location before the battery runs entirely.
Erase your data remotely
You can opt for this option if you think your data is too valuable or if it falls into the wrong hands. With ‘Remote Erase,’ you have the option to delete your data. This option works on iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, and iPod Touch.
Enable Offline Finding
Find My app uses the internet and other resources to know the exact location of your devices.
We talked earlier about how Find My apps use the internet and its many resources to determine the location of devices. If your device’s network is turned on, you’ll still find the phone even when the network is on. This setting is essential for safety and security reasons to ensure their devices are extra secured.
Play a sound to find your device
With the Find my iPhone App, you can use the ‘Play a Sound’ feature that will play a sound or make a beep on your device if you cannot locate it, even if you have it nearby.
Activation Lock
Activation Lock automatically turns on when you enable the Find My iPhone app. When the Activation Lock is turned on, you’ll need to use your Apple ID and password to disable the Find My iPhone app and do more things like erase the data or reactivate the device or
Lost Mode
You must enable this feature as it will lock down your iPhone. You can also display a message of your choice. For instance, you can write, “I lost my phone and request anyone who finds it to ring this number 0123456789.” So, if anybody finds it and wants to contact you, they can do so without accessing it.
How Accurate Is Find My iPhone?
As mentioned in the above segments, Find My iPhone depends on various factors, making it highly accurate or, sometimes, not. If you have lost your phone and see a green circle in the Find My app in the next building, that doesn’t mean it’s there.
You can make Find My iPhone more accurate, but you’ll need to take steps before your iPhone is missing or lost.
When you see a blue dot, it means the location shown is exact. But if you see a larger green circle, the location is inaccurate. There are many reasons you may see a green dot, and buildings, lousy weather, or long trees are just some of them.
Moreover, if your phone runs out of battery, you may still be able to find it if the ‘Last Known Location’ has been set up. This feature automatically sends the location of your device to Apple when its battery is low. If you haven’t already turned on this feature, you should set it up now because it’s one of the only reliable ways to find your iPhone when it runs out of juice.
FAQs
Why is Find My iPhone not accurate?
Find My iPhone in part depends on GPS. The thing with GPS is that it doesn’t work very well in buildings. If your iPhone can connect to more satellites, the accuracy of the location can be a couple of meters or a couple of hundred meters. This is a restriction of GPS technology.
Does Airplane Mode Turn off my location?
Turning on Airplane Mode only turns off the cellular services and the Wi-Fi, and the feature does not affect the location services as it only disconnects your smartphone from the cellular network.
How do you find a lost iPhone that is turned off?
To find a lost iPhone which was switched off, you’ll first have to turn on ‘Find My network’ to find your iPhone when it’s off. After that, you can track it by going to any browser > iCloud.com/find > sign in using your Apple ID. You can also find it using the Find My app on a Mac or a spare iPhone if you have one.
Conclusion
Now that you know how accurate Find My iPhone is, you should try it before something unfortunate happens. After all, phones nowadays are an investment.
These steps ensure that your Find My iPhone gets more accurate, but it isn’t guaranteed that it will be perfect.
The best feature is the ‘Play Sound’ function in the Find My app, which notifies you when you get close enough to your iPhone to hear it. In addition, if you are an Apple Watch user, you can try pinging the iPhone once you are within Bluetooth range.
If you are clumsy and are extremely worried that you might lose your iPhone, you can buy an AirTag holder case and use the same Find My network app. These tiny devices have a Precision Finding feature and much longer battery life.
In short, the accuracy of Find My iPhone is the same as the GPS accuracy of the device – if the GPS on the iPhone cannot obtain a good signal, it may use Wi-Fi triangulation which reduces the accuracy.
