Google is quietly tightening the screws on its Find Hub network enrollment rules. It’s expanding the conditions that trigger auto-enrollment, and while it’s giving users more time to opt out than originally planned, that “more time” amounts to just 48 hours.
Spotted in an APK teardown by Android Authority, new strings in the Find Hub app reveal that when you hit certain “triggers,” your device could be automatically enrolled in the Find Hub network after two days unless you opt out. That’s up from the 24-hour window seen in earlier builds, but it’s still a short leash for something that could turn your phone into a node in Google’s global location-finding network.
Not a surprising addition
And many users will appreciate the opt-out period
Find Hub is the rebranded Find My Device service, which got a major overhaul this year to track not just your gadgets, but also people, and any Bluetooth tracker that opts into the system. It’s essentially Google’s answer to Apple’s Find My, but with Android’s reach and hardware diversity. I’ve covered this rollout since it was still Find My Device, including my hands-on with Pebblebee’s Bluetooth tracker lineup. The hardware’s been decent, but the privacy and performance questions around network participation haven’t gone away.
Right now, the main automatic enrollment happens when you sign in to a Google Account on your device. By default, you’re set to “With network in high-traffic areas only,” meaning your phone can help find others’ lost items, but supposedly only in busy places.
The teardown shows Google is preparing more ways to nudge — or shove — users onto the network. Future triggers could include:
- Enabling Location access
- Syncing with a Fast Pair accessory
- Pulling the recent location of another device
- No longer using one of your other devices linked to your account
When one of these events occurs, a new alert will tell you:
This device will join the network in high-traffic areas within 2 days. You can opt out or join the network now by selecting a setting.
It’s not live yet, but the implication is clear: miss that two-day opt-out window, and you’re in. Google says the Find Hub network needs more devices to work well, and sure, a larger mesh makes location tracking more reliable. But with these triggers, automatic enrollment is starting to feel less like a feature and more like a default — one you have to actively reject, and fast.
In a lot of regions, Find Hub Bluetooth tracker performance is actually quite good, and in some tests (but not all) they actually work as well as AirTags. But they’re not perfect. Updates can still lag high-traffic areas. And, frustratingly, Find Hub requires internet connectivity to work. That is, no matter what your network settings are, if you don’t have signal or Wi-Fi, you can’t even begin to ping nearby devices via Bluetooth. We found that out the hard way during a large-scale power outage recently, and we’re still waiting for a fix.
