Months after announcing support for Find My in South Korea, Apple has seemingly enabled the feature in the country for beta testers, ahead of a wider release to the public.
Apple confirmed in a statement in September that it will introduce Find My to South Korea in the spring of 2025. Almost half a year later, the initiative seems to have signs of life.
In details shared by @Rac00n_dev to Aaron Perris on X on Sunday, it appears that Apple has enabled Find My support in South Korea. The support is said to have gone live after the release of the first developer beta of iOS 18.4.
Apple often introduces support for features in beta before releasing it to the general public, and this seems to be the case here. However, while Apple has yet to officially confirm it is live in the country, it will probably do so in a formal announcement for the update's official release.
A long time coming
Apple devices made for sale in South Korea had Find My permanently disabled before being sold to the public. While there is no official reason for why Apple disables the feature, aside from "internal policy," it is likely due to an interpretation of local laws.
South Korean law could be read as requiring all location data to be stored for a six-month period, though this is up to interpretation. More firm are requirements that the government must be able to access that stored data.
While Apple's privacy leanings and the law could be enough justification for Find My not to work in South Korea, that it works in outlying territories such as Baekryeongdo and Ulleungdo is a bit of an inconsistency to the rule.
The lack of support for Find My led to petitions to the government in July 2024 to allow the feature to work in the country. This led to a brief statement from Apple in September, confirming it will put the feature live early in 2025.
With the presence of Find My in the development beta, this could be a good sign for consumers to finally be able to use it in the near future.
