Last month, Wired had a really interesting piece looking at the behind-the-scenes magic powering Apple’s new Find My app for iOS and MacOS devices.

This is one of the things that's really stuck with me since Apple's (jam-packed) WWDC keynote last month. This might be one of my favorite features from iOS 13, and not just because it's so technically impressive.

Last summer I bought a Bluetooth tracker from Tile, and while it was interesting at first, it quickly fell into more of a novelty item when I realized some of its limitations. Namely, if I were to lose something, the ability for the Tile app to pick it up depends entirely on another person having purchased a Tile tracker of their own, which is far less likely than this approach, where the technology is baked in directly.

Granted, this is only for Apple devices (although there's a rumor that they may release their own version of a Bluetooth tracker), but still.

A few years ago, someone broke into my apartment and stole my iMac. Find My Mac never picked it back up, and so I have no idea where it ended up. With the new approach in this updated Find My app, it sounds like there's a much better chance of people recovering their lost items since every Apple device running the updated software is both actively sending out a beacon, even when sleeping or offline, as well as constantly looking for beacons from other people's devices. It’s like a gigantic mesh network for lost or stolen devices.