Samsung backtracks on SmartTag 3 Android support — still locked to Galaxy phones

As consumers, we want our mobile accessories to be as compatible as possible — pick up a pair of Nothing Ear 3a earbuds, for instance, and you’d expect them to work with everything from Pixels to iPhones. But sometimes we run into unexpected restrictions, like the ones that have impacted Samsung’s SmartTag trackers, requiring the use of certain Galaxy phones to trace them. Samsung finally started improving that compatibility with the launch of the SmartTag 3 earlier this month, but it turns out that effort is not going to be nearly as expansive as we hoped.

When Samsung first announced the SmartTag 3, one of the big upgrades it shared for this generation was iPhone support. And that sounded great, but it also left us wondering: What about the rest of the Android landscape? Was Samsung really going to just ignore every other Android phone out there, and jump right to iPhone compatibility?

A few days later, we got word that Samsung was confirming an Android expansion, telling news outlets:

Yes, SmartTag3 is compatible with other Android devices that have access to the Google Play Store to download the SmartThings and Samsung Find apps.

On one hand, that read like unequivocal confirmation: Boom, right there, “other Android devices.” But something also didn’t quite pass the smell test here.

Samsung was saying that any Android device that downloaded SmartThings and Samsung Find could track the SmartTag 3. SmartThings is generally available — you can install it on your Pixel phone, no problem. But Samsung Find, as far as we knew, only supported Galaxy devices running One UI.

Realizing this, we reached out to Samsung ourselves in an attempt to double-check the veracity of the statement, and got the same message back. Perhaps there was a big new Samsung Find update just over the horizon, expanding the app’s support across the Android landscape?

Nope!

Today we fired up a Pixel 11 Pro, planning to try out the SmartTag 3 with it, only to be hit with an incompatibility message:

Maybe we still needed to install a just-released update? Curious, we reached out to Samsung once again… and here’s where everything falls apart. That broader Android support we just saw Samsung “confirm” is apparently not happening, after all. And more than that, it’s not even on the roadmap for happening soon. A spokesperson tells us:

SmartTag3 currently connects to and works only with Galaxy devices among Android smartphones, and there are currently no plans to support other Android devices.

To Samsung’s small credit, it never did make any big pronouncements about Android compatibility, and this detail only eventually emerged in the days following the initial SmartTag 3 launch. Clearly, though, some wires got crossed internally, resulting in that confusing, seemingly self-contradictory statement being released earlier this week.

While we do appreciate the facts finally coming out, and Samsung making a much clearer statement about its intent for the SmartTag 3, we’re definitely still filing this revelation under “bummer.” Oh well, there’s always the SmartTag 4!