It took Google a while, but earlier this year, it finally rolled out Ultra Wideband–powered precision finding for compatible trackers. Since the feature relies on UWB, it only works with a handful of premium devices from Samsung, Google, and Motorola. However, there’s a catch: if you own a Pixel 6 Pro or Pixel 7 Pro, you can’t use precision finding on them, even though both phones have the required UWB hardware built in.
Google launched the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 years before it added UWB-powered precision finding support to Find Hub-compatible trackers. But the hardware on these older Pixels appears to have fallen short, as they don’t support precision finding.
As Android Authority‘s Mishaal Rahman discovered, the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro do not support the UWB-powered feature. Google also eventually confirmed this, stating precision finding only works on the Pixel 8 Pro and its newer Pro Pixels. It did not provide a clear reason behind this, though.
Without precision finding, the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro cannot provide pinpoint location guidance for a tagged item like their newer Pixel siblings.
Hardware’s there, feature’s not
So, why don’t the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro support precision finding despite seemingly having the required hardware? Mishaal Rahman discovered that both phones lack support for background ranging. Due to this, apps cannot use the UWB hardware in the background to get an estimated location of the tagged item.
It’s not entirely clear why precision finding requires this feature, especially since you must have the Find Hub app open for it to work anyway.
The Pixel 6 Pro’s UWB chip lacks support for determining the angle of arrival (AoA), which partly explains its omission. However, that still doesn’t clarify why the newer Pixel 7 Pro also misses out on precision finding support.
The Moto Tag is currently the only Find Hub-compatible tracker with precision finding support. This number should go up sooner rather than later, and then the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro’s lack of precision finding support will sting their users.
Without precision finding, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7’s UWB chip is only good for using them as a digital car key with select vehicles.
