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Find My… everything? One app to track friends and devices

In iOS 13, Apple has combined Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into one single app. The all-new Find My is a great addition to iOS and offers a single space where you can find whatever you’ve lost — be it a friend or a device!

How to find friends in the Find My app

Before you can find friends in Find My, you need to add them. Head to the People tab and select Start Sharing Location. You’ll then need to choose the contact who you’d like to share your location with.

When you tap Send, you’ll also be able to choose how long you want to share your location for — Share for One Hour, Share Until End of Day, or Share Indefinitely.

Your friends will now be able to see your location, but you won’t be able to see theirs until they have accepted your request.

When you are sharing your location with a friend, you can tap on that friend for additional options.

Contact lets you view your friend’s contact page — there, you can access your friend’s phone number, email address, and any other related information.

Directions sends you to Maps and plots a route from your location to your friend’s location. Great for tracking each other down in an unfamiliar city!

Setting notifications

Notifications allows you to set up a location-based alert. Tap the Add… button and choose Notify Me or Notify [Friend]. You can then configure a notification based on your location or your friend’s.

For example, you can set Find My to send your friend a notification when you leave your current location — i.e. when you’ve set off to meet them. It’s a useful way of keeping tabs on one another!

How to find a device in the Find My app

To see your connected devices in Find My, choose the Devices page.

You have the option of activating “Find My” for your device when you first configure it. However, you can also activate this feature from the Settings app.

Activating the feature

Launch Settings and choose the Apple ID button at the top of the app. Select Find My, and choose Find My iPhone. There, you can enable or disable the feature for your device.

Finding your devices

Over in the Find My app at the Devices page, you can see all of your connected devices. This includes iPhones and iPads, but also supports Mac computers, the Apple Watch, and AirPods.

Certain devices, like AirPods, will only offer their location when they are within range of another device.

If you’ve lost a device …

If you’ve lost a device, or if a device has been stolen, tap the name of that device in Find My.

Play Sound will remotely trigger a sound to play on your device. If you’ve misplaced your iPhone or iPad around the house, this is a great way to find it.

Directions sets a route in the Maps will which will lead you to the approximate location of your device.

Importantly, Mark As Lost allows you to put a device into “Lost Mode.” To do so, choose Activate. Lost Mode allows you to display a message on your device’s screen to communicate with anyone who finds it. It also disables personal notifications and Apple Pay.

However, the device can still make and receive phone and FaceTime calls, which would be useful in helping someone return your device to you. You can also still track the device from within the Find My app.

Finally, you can choose to Erase This Device. Doing so remotely erases the content of your device and you will be unable to play a sound on the device or track it using Find My.

Importantly though, your Apple ID and password will still be required to activate the device. This prevents a stranger from being able to steal your lost device if they happen to find it.