Offline finding unclear communication

[arianwen27]

Heyo everyone. Been doing a bit of an investigation into phone tracking solutions and I've hit a metaphorical wall with samsung.

As a lot of you probably know, offline finding turns your device into a smart tag. Allowing other samsung devices to locate it. You might not know on the official website explaining this feature, it claims to work "even when it's turned off" meaning the device is shut down. This one sentence potentially means all offline finding supported devices can be located when shut down.

Iphones from around the iPhone 11 have this.

Google pixel devices have this.

A tiny part of explaining offline finding mentions this, but nothing else talks of it. 

The only mention of this feature is one line on the samsung website. I couldn't find anyone testing it or anything to say which devices support being located when powered off. I'd try it myself but having my phone shut down for hours would be problematic.

I really hope this feature is real and works, else samsung will be lagging behind the competition.

If anyone has a modern S series (the newer the better) and wants to give it a try. Make sure offline finding is on, power off the device. Go somewhere, see if the find app or smart things find can locate your device (using probably a second phone). It might take a while to get a ping so maybe take it to work? Hopefully after a few hours it shows up as being found by a nearby device, then we know it works.

Finding when shut down should be a standard feature. If apple and google can do it, samsung with their own find network should be able to.

[Olammy]

I don't think this is working on Samsung as intended.

[arianwen27]

Exactly, nothing there mentions working when powered off. But samsung's website says it does and other phone manufacturers support it

[Joeeye]

Offline tracking on Samsung has been around since 2020. Google only officially started using offline tracking last year in Android in April 2024. It basically uses Bluetooth LE or Ultra Wide Band (UWB) to locate your device depending on support.

Samsung has Samsung Find which is their sub network to communicate between their devices whilst being technically offline (no WiFi or Mobile data). This allows things like power down or restart device to be activated by a user, even if there is no internet connection. To do any function like that whilst physically being shut down is not in the scope of any electronics device as far as I know.

[arianwen27]

Mhm, to do those functions it must be on. Though that's not what I'm talking about.

To locate the device, pixel phones and iphones transmit ble signals even when shut down fully. This means they can be located when turned off. Samsung does this too when powered on, called offline finding. The issue is it's unknown if this continues after shut down.

Samsung realistically should implement this feature at some point to stay ahead.
Though in the documentation for offline finding, it does state it works even when the device is turned off. Though I've seen no one try it or nothing else mention it. It's either not true or something literally no one has spoken about or tried

[Joeeye]

I guess you could look at it as a double edged sword. Whilst it's true the Pixel and iPhone can be tracked in real time by BLE whilst powered off, it does pose some security and privacy implications. Samsung's approach is simply to use the last registered location on their smart things network. You can view it as being "improved" as a security and privacy standpoint but a "weakness" compared to convenience and real time tracking.

[arianwen27]

Though is that samsung's approach? Their website says it works when powered off. Going off that, it works the same as apple and google.

I just couldn't find anyone who has actually gone and tried it yet. So the only evidence of it is samsung's website

[Joeeye]

Hmm can you point me to where it states tracking whilst being powered down? As far as I can see, they only make mention to "offline" tracking which doesn't specify a powered off device.

Going through the Samsung Find webpage, you'll notice one of the requirements stipulates the device must be powered on.

[arianwen27]

Of course I can. https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00088182/

Under the offline finding section. The web page starts talking about how smart things find works on phones, tablets and accessories. Then says "SmartThings Find can help you locate a missing device, even when it's turned off or not online."

This one line is what sent me down this rabbit hole of BLE tracking when shut down

[Joeeye]

Yeah I can see how that can be misleading, but in Samsung's defence, it says "can help" rather than directly claim precise tracking. It does technically help by broadcasting it's last known location to Samsung's servers, but as far as I've known about Samsung's offline tracking, it's always required the device to be powered on for the precise location in real time.

In any event, there isn't really anywhere else that alludes to tracking devices powered down, and given how Samsung Find already explicitly states a devices needs to be powered on, it's a pretty safe bet to assume this is the case.