TL; DR
- The Pixel 8a, like the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, supports Android's disabled search function.
- Disabled search allows devices to be located on Google's Find My Device network, even if they are turned off or the battery is dead.
- This is made possible by specialized hardware that reserves power for the phone's Bluetooth chip for several hours.
Google's Find my device network was finally launched last month, and while its rollout has been slow and limited to the United States and Canada so far, there's a lot to look forward to. Once fully rolled out worldwide, the Find My Device network will help billions of Android users find their lost devices. Select Android devices such as the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro can be located via the Find My Device network even when it is turned off or the battery is dead. This is made possible by specialized hardware on the Pixel 8 series, meaning it can't be enabled via an over-the-air update on other devices. Luckily, it looks like Google has recently launched Pixel 8a will also support this feature.
The way Google's Find My Device network works is basically as follows. Android devices that contribute to the Find My Device network broadcast a beacon via Bluetooth that other nearby Android devices can pick up. The devices that pick up this beacon then encrypt the location of the broadcast device and upload it to Google's servers. Location data is encrypted end-to-end with a key that is accessible only to the owner of the broadcast device and to whomever the owner has shared that device's location with.
However, most Android devices cannot transmit beacons via Bluetooth if they are turned off or the battery is dead. This is because their Bluetooth chips have no way to continue receiving power when the operating system tells the CPU to shut everything down. Google told me last month that the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro delivered several hours of backup power to the Bluetooth chip, even after the battery runs out. While the company hasn't yet come out and confirmed that the same will be true for their new Pixel 8a, we have good reason to believe this is the case.
If you have a Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, you can find your phone on the Find My Device network even if it's turned off or the battery is dead! This is possible because the phones have the specialized hardware to support the Powered Off Finding feature I previously… pic.twitter.com/qx5FKnc8zS
Our claim is based on the fact that the Pixel 8a supports Android's Powered-Off Finding feature. Powered-Off Finding is the name of the Android API that allows the system to send precomputed Find My Device network beacons to the device's Bluetooth chip. We know the Pixel 8a supports Powered-Off Finding because Google set the system property ro.bluetooth.finder.supported Unpleasant true on the device. This system property is only set to true if a device supports Powered-Off Finding, which means the Pixel 8a must also have the specialized hardware necessary to ensure the Bluetooth chip continues to emit beacons after the phone is turned off.
The Pixel 8a supporting Powered-Off Finding shouldn't be a surprise as it runs on the same thing Tensor G3 silicon and has the same Bluetooth chip, but it's still good to know that this feature is supported on Google's latest mid-range device. Google is working with hardware vendors to bring support for this feature to future Android devices, so hopefully this capability won't be exclusive to Google's Pixel lineup for long.
Once you receive your Pixel 8a, you can enable Disabled Search by simply signing up for the Find My Device network. If you choose the “off” or “without network” options in the Find My Device settings, Disabled Search will not work. Of course, if you turn off the Bluetooth radio or turn off location services, the feature won't work either, because the Find My Device network depends on it.