After a year of additional development, Apple is opening up its iPhone notifications to third-party Bluetooth trackers to prevent stalking. The feature is present in iOS 17.5, and is available now.
A month after activating Bluetooth tracking on Android, Apple is now also ready to scan third-party Bluetooth trackers with iPhone. Initially, Google was going to add the functionality to Android 13 last year after the success of Apple AirTags, but that plan was delayed after the dangers of stalking using these Bluetooth trackers became clear.
After a year of fine-tuning, Google and Apple are ready to read each other’s tags to prevent stalking. Android has been ready since the beginning of April, and in one fell swoop it activated 3 billion Bluetooth trackers.
Apple has continued to support AirTags all this time, but with iOS 17.5, it can also read external Bluetooth trackers to prevent stalking. under the line Detect Unwanted Website Trackers (DULT) Users will now be notified when a Bluetooth tracker is tracking them, even though it’s not yours.
A notification will appear on your iPhone that there is an “object” following you when you move. Later, you can see on your iPhone who owns the tracker, play a sound to find the tracker, and you can even turn it off remotely.
