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iOS 10.3 Beta Includes New 'Find My AirPods' Mode for Locating Lost AirPods

Tuesday January 24, 2017 9:49 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple's AirPods are wire-free, which makes them convenient to use, but it's also caused some concern from users who are afraid to lose their $159 earphones. In its latest beta, Apple has introduced a new feature to assuage customer fears - Find My AirPods.

Available in iOS 10.3, Find My AirPods adds your AirPods to the "Find My iPhone" app, listing them alongside all other Apple products. In the app, you can tap on the AirPods to cause them to play a little chirping sound that gradually gets louder for location purposes.

After activating the sound, you can choose to have it play solely through the left AirPod or through the right AirPod so you don't need to listen to chirping if only one of the AirPods is missing.

findmyairpods
The location of the AirPods is displayed on the iPhone's screen. The AirPods rely on the iPhone's GPS to display a location (or another iOS device) and will offer up the last known place where the AirPods were connected should the AirPods be misplaced.

Find My AirPods isn't a perfect solution because the AirPods have no built in cellular connectivity of their own, but with the ability to see the last known location, AirPods owners can at least go to that spot to attempt to reconnect, and the included sound capabilities help narrow down a location.

Find My AirPods is activated automatically when iOS 10.3 is installed. AirPods show up in the menu as soon as they're connected to an iOS device. iOS 10.3 is currently limited to developers, but a public beta should be available in the near future.

[ 65 comments ]


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sputnikv
34 months ago
this has undoubtedly been in the works long before the find my airpods app was put on and subsequently removed from the app store
Rating: 15 Votes
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vertical smile
34 months ago
Maybe it was to address this....
[MEDIA=youtube]z_wImaGRkNY[/MEDIA]
Rating: 5 Votes
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saudor
34 months ago
Ahh.. just like the time the camera app that used the volume up button as a shutter got deleted from the app store. And bam! iOS5 featured it.
Rating: 5 Votes
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macTW
34 months ago
This is really well done. Even without GPS, you could follow your path from last use to now, listening for chirping. For a lack of GPS, this is almost as good as it could get.
Rating: 4 Votes
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northernmunky
34 months ago

this has undoubtedly been in the works long before the find my airpods app was put on and subsequently removed from the app store


This was in the UK news a few weeks ago that that app got canned, and people were saying "oh, Apple wants me to loose them so they can make more money out of me when I have to buy new ones" - and a lot of similar nonsense. I said then that aside from the conspiracy theories its probably more likely that the app approvers didn't know Apple was planning to make it a feature anyway and managment ordered its removal. - People then got upset that I wasn't bashing Apple enough!
Rating: 4 Votes
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T-Will
34 months ago
I've used this sound to find lost AirPods in the meantime: High Pitched Beeping for 20 Mins ('https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=UZHNKyqZfks')
Rating: 4 Votes
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tomaustin44
34 months ago
Great stuff! Wonder if the Airpods firmware will also have been updated... hoping for a fix to the battery drain issue.
Rating: 4 Votes
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kissmo
34 months ago
Where was this feature when I lost my left earbud....:((
Rating: 3 Votes
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SeaFox
34 months ago

Ahh.. just like the time the camera app that used the volume up button as a shutter got deleted from the app store. And bam! iOS5 featured it.


Another Apple innovation!

#MakeAppleGreatAgain
Rating: 3 Votes
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Amacfa
34 months ago

this has undoubtedly been in the works long before the find my airpods app was put on and subsequently removed from the app store

Uh oh, you triggered those macrumor trolls disguised as Apple enthusiasts.
Rating: 3 Votes

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