Apple releases Android app to find rogue AirTags

Apple has released an Android app on Monday to help Android users detect malicious nearby AirTag devices that might be used to track them.

Named Tracker Detect, the app is available through the official Google Play Store and has already been installed by more than 5,000 users.

Apple says the app can detect AirTags, but also other tracking devices from other companies compatible with the Apple Find My network.

"If you think someone is using AirTag or another device to track your location, you can scan to try to find it," Apple said on Monday, in the app's description.

iPads and iPhones have built-in support and show notifications whenever an AirTag is nearby or traveling with a user to which the AirTag wasn't registered.

AirTags also emit sounds when present near a non-owner for long periods of time. In June, Apple also shortened this time period from three days to a few hours, mainly to deter the abuse of its product to secretly track other people.

Through the release of the Tracker Detect app, the Cupertino-based company is giving Android users a similar defense and the ability to detect rogue AirTags on their person or secretly placed within their property.

Since the AirTag's release in April 2021, scenarios like these have taken place already, with the most notorious one being a group of car thieves in Canada who placed AirTags on expensive cars they spotted in public parking lots. The group would then track the cars as they traveled home and stole them from the owners' garages.