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

Samsung SmartTag trackers have historically only supported Galaxy devices.

With the SmartTag 3, Samsung formally announced iPhone support, and later appeared to confirm non-Galaxy Android compatibility.

Samsung is now walking back that latter statement, saying that Android support will remain Galaxy-only.

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. …