Check your smartphone NOW: secret Android settings can tell you if unwanted AirTags are tracking you – here’s how to activate them

As a big boost to personal security, Android phones now tell users if they’re being tracked by one of Apple’s AirTag devices.

Google has rolled out an update so that Android devices automatically send alerts if they detect ‘an unknown tracker traveling with you’.

AirTags pair with a smartphone app so users can see the device’s location on a map – which is useful if they’re attached to a set of keys or in stolen luggage.

But since AirTags were released two years ago, nefarious figures have been caught slipping them into people’s pockets or bags to track their location on the app.

It follows the story of an Irish woman who is followed without her knowledge for two hours in Disneyland, California.

Apple has designed its coin-sized device so that users can attach it to important items such as keys, wallets and luggage.

Via the accompanying app, called ‘Find My’, users can always know where the tag is (as well as the object it is associated with).

Vacationers put an AirTag in their checked baggage so they can find it if the airline loses it.

But since the release of AirTags in 2021, Apple has been warned about worrying cases of the technology being misused, endangering people’s personal security and privacy.

By putting their AirTag in someone’s purse or pocket without them knowing, a criminal could potentially track the victim’s location all the way to their home.

AirTags are built so that a notification from Apple’s Find My app appears on a person’s iPhone if an unknown AirTag is found “travelling” with them, even if they don’t have the Find My app installed.

However, Find My is for iOS, so Apple has also created an app for Android devices called Tracker Detect to allow devices to detect AirTags as well as iPhones.

But Android users were still vulnerable to AirTag stalking if they didn’t download Tracker Detect on their device.

Now, Google has stepped up its efforts to protect potential victims of Android stalking by building alerts right into Android’s security settings.

If you are being tracked, the alert on your Android will say “Unknown tracker detected. The tracker’s owner can see the location.’

Tapping “more info” gives you the option to have the AirTag emit a sound so you know exactly where it’s hidden.

There is also the all-important option to disable the tracker so that the AirTag owner cannot see your location.

Alerts are enabled by default, but if you don’t want to receive them for some reason, you can disable the option.

Just go to device settings and tap “Security and emergencies” (or, if you’re using an older version of Android, “Personal safety”).

An option called “Unknown tracker alerts” allows you to enable and disable permission to receive sent alerts.

A big green checkmark should also tell you that there were ‘no trackers detected’ on the last scan, although you can run a manual scan for the devices at any time.

Google warns that “only compatible trackers can be detected,” as the alert currently only works if it’s an AirTag.

Other tracking devices including Samsung, Tile, Chipolo, Eufy Security and Pebblebee will receive support at a later date.

Ultimately, the update should bring peace of mind to Android users, such as women coming home from a night out.

A number of reports in the US have claimed that people are unwittingly tracked with AirTags, possibly by stalkers, thieves and sexual predators.

This is according to a study by Shame earlier this year, 150 police reports from dozens of U.S. police departments implicated AirTags over an eight-month period.

Of the 150 reports, 50 involved women who had called the police because they had begun to receive reports that their whereabouts were tracked by an AirTag that did not belong to them.

In one case, a woman called the police to report that her ex slashed her tires and left an AirTag in the car for her to watch.