Find My in iOS 13 and macOS Catalina Lets You Find Your Lost Device even if Isn't Connected to a Network How it Works

In April a report from Bloomberg claimed that Apple is working to merge Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into one app called Find My since then no more information was revealed until WWDC keynote where Apple boosted the new app on the stage.

Find My app, which is replacing Find My iPhone and Find My Friends in iOS 13, has the ability to track a lost or stolen iPhone, iPad or Mac even when isn't connected to a Wi-Fi, cellular networks, or turned off.

To locate these lost devices even when they are offline Apple leveraging other Apple devices in the wild depending on the Bluetooth connectivity, by sending them signals in an encrypted and synonymous way avoiding being abused or tracked.

Apple assured that the way your device communicate with other Apple nearby devices will make your personal location unavailable to any other meddlesome or even Apple itself.

Apple in addition to some info that has been said about the app on the stage, it also shared addition info with WIRED. To use Find My, Apple required to have at least two devices, each one emits a changing key constantly which other strange devices use to encrypt and upload your geolocation data, and only your other devices --that are linked with the same Apple ID and secured with two-step authentication-- can decrypt those location data.

For those who are worrying about the battery and bandwidth consumption regarding broadcasting that the devices emit, Apple says that Find My uses just tiny bits of data that can be piggybacked on existing network traffic, so there is no impact on battery life, data usage, or privacy. WIRED has shown off the steps on how Find My could work using an expert, explaining what happens when a device with Find My gets lost.

Essentially, when you miss your device, it's going to broadcast a public key, which can then be picked up by another Apple device whatever who is the owner.

Say someone steals your MacBook. Even if the thief carries it around closed and disconnected from the internet, your laptop will emit its rotating public key via Bluetooth. A nearby stranger's iPhone, with no interaction from its owner, will pick up the signal, check its own location, and encrypt that location data using the public key it picked up from the laptop. The public key doesn't contain any identifying information, and since it frequently rotates, the stranger's iPhone can't link the laptop to its prior locations either.

The stranger's iPhone then uploads two things to Apple's server: The encrypted location, and a hash of the laptop's public key, which will serve as an identifier. Since Apple doesn't have the private key, it can't decrypt the location.

Find My app is available in iOS 13, iPadOS, and macOS Catalina, many things about the app will be clearer on over the upcoming days, and the app could also extend to other wearable gadgets like Apple Watch and AirPods, Find My app is not going to be fully functioning until iOS 13 and macOS Catalina are installed widely.

Data source: WIRED via Macrumors