How long can you track a Pixel after a thief has powered it off? I tested it to find out

Android 15 allows you to find your phone even if it's powered off and offline, but does it really work as advertised?

May 3, 2025 - 13:27

How long can you track a Pixel after a thief has powered it off? I tested it to find out

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

Hardly any week goes by without me handing my husband a Bluetooth tracker and asking him to take it to work so I can test out remote location and finding. I’ve done it with AirTags, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2, Tile trackers, and dozens of Google Find My Device-compatible trackers like the Chipolo POP and Moto Tag. But when my Android Authority colleague Luka asked if we’d ever tested Google’s phone-off finding and how long it lasted, I drew a blank.

See, with Android 15, Google rolled out a new option for Pixel 8 and 9 phones to help you locate them even when powered off (other phones joined in later, like the OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15). Thanks to this, you should be able to find your offline phone even if the battery runs out or a thief turns it off. All good on paper, but we had taken Google’s word for it instead of testing it. So I had to test it out.