by Dan Moren

New Siri Remote’s Find My feature limited to N1-equipped iPhones

I was curious about the limitations of the new Siri Remote‘s Precision Finding feature, which requires an iPhone 17 generation or newer. Earlier iPhones have Apple’s latest ultra wideband chip, which is what Find My generally uses, so why wouldn’t they be compatible?

Stevie Bonifield at The Verge has the answer:

Now the remote has Find My support, but if you want to see exactly how far away it is on your iPhone with details like “20 feet,” rather than simply “far” or “near,” you will need to have an iPhone Duo, iPhone Air, or any iPhone 17 or later. Those are the only models that include its new N1 networking chip with support for Bluetooth channel sounding, which enables AirTag-like precision tracking, but without requiring a UWB chip.

So before you run out and buy a new $59 remote and then hand it over to your pet to lose, make sure you’ve got a compatible phone I guess.