GET STARTED WITH Find My

Whether you're trying to locate people, your iPhone or your wallet, Find My can help

- KENNY HEMPHILL

WHEN APPLE LAUNCHED Find My iPhone 12 years ago it was a revolutionary idea, if fairly limited in terms of features. The idea was that using an app on an iOS device, or by logging into iCloud on a computer, you could identify the exact location of an iPhone, iPod, or iPad that was connected to your account. You could then have the device play a sound, lock it with a passcode, or erase all contents and settings on the device if it had been lost or stolen. A year later, Find My iPhone was joined by Find My Friends, which enabled you to share your location with friends or family members, either temporarily or permanently.

Skip forward a decade and the Find My app is now on Mac, iOS and iPadOS and enables you to track any of those devices, as well as friends and family members, and the newest addition, AirTags. Find My is now baked deep into iOS and macOS, enabling you to, for example, see friends' locations in the Messages app, or manage location sharing in Contacts. Perhaps most useful of all, Apple has opened up the Find My network to third-party devices so that developers whose devices are approved by the Find My network accessory program, part of Made For iPhone (MFI), can connect their device to the network. That means it can be tracked in the Find My app, alongside Apple devices.

How to set up Find My

Meeting up with friends at a festival? Locate them with Find My

WHETHER YOU SHARE your location permanently with family members so you all know where each other are, or temporarily with groups of friends with whom you're on holiday, the Find My app is indispensable. By combining data from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks and GPS, the app is able to identify the location of friends who have agreed to share it with you, displaying that location on a map.