Apple released their soon-to-be-iconic AirTag trackers today. They have everything we have predicted in our countless AirTag rumors and our AirTag FAQ has already been updated to reflect all the details of today’s latest and greatest news.

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Key AirTag Features:

• AirTag uses Apple’s vast, global Find My network of iPhone and iPad users to help locate a lost item
• Location data remains private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption
• Launches / Available for order beginning Friday, April 30 at 5 a.m. PT
• One AirTag costs $29, and a four-pack of AirTags is available for a discounted price of $99
• Makes one heck-of-a Pet Tracker

What is Apple AirTag’s “Precision Finding”? How does the U1 Ultra-Wideband chip help you find your stuff?

• AirTag enables Apple’s “Precision Finding” system by using its proprietary “indoor GPS” U1 Ultra Wideband chip to help direct you to the exact location of whatever you attached AirTag to, instead of relying on just a simple beeping system like AirTag competitors from Samsung and Tile
• Precision Finding helps you more accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range. As you walk or drive with your iPhone or iPad in-hand, Precision Finding fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, to help guide you to AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback… So you can be inside your house, and it can help you turn left, right and go straight, tell you whether you’re getting hotter or colder, and then take you to that long-lost set of car keys, quickly.

So, how do you find your lost items with Apple AirTag trackers?

• Are you worried about losing an important item (or furry friend – see article on Are Apple AirTags Good Pet Trackers?), well then the first thing to do is to attach an AirTag to it!
• Then, you simply use the Find My app, which is built into every iPhone, iPad and Mac, to help find your lost item & AirTag (just like you’ve used the Find My App in the past to track down your lost iPhones)
• If the AirTag and your precious cargo are in Bluetooth range (e.g., in the the house), it will lead you right to it (oh look, the remote is under the couch… again)
• But, if your item and the AirTag is separated from its owner and out of Bluetooth range (e.g., if Fido ran away!) then you’ll rely on Apple’s nearly-billion-strong network of other iPhone / iPad / Apple Watch users… This is called the “Find My network” and it will help you help track your missing AirTag down
• Apple notes that “the Find My network is approaching a billion Apple devices and can detect Bluetooth signals from a lost AirTag and relay the location back to its owner, all in the background, anonymously and privately”
• Lost something? Simply open your Find My app and place your AirTag into “Lost Mode” – and you’ll (quickly) be notified when it is in range of anyone in the world with a modern iPhone or iPad, as they are the ones who comprise the Find My network
• Imagine – Fido is bound to be chewing on a bone down the street… but what street is he on, and what if he’s hiding behind a bush? Well, if he’s within 300′ or so of any random stranger with an iPhone – their phone will find him, and anonymously let you know exactly where he’s hiding. That’s. Freaking. Amazing. Welcome home Fido, and thank you AirTags!
• Did you find someone’s lost device with an AirTag on it, and want their hero / new BFF? You can help them find it! Simply tap it with your iPhone or any NFC-capable device and you will be taken to a website that will display a contact phone number for the owner, if they have provided one, and help them get it back quickly! I found someone’s locked iPhone on the street the other day, and it was much harder to return than it should have been… I had to keep it charged for hours until a friend of theirs called to ask where it was. Things should be easier to find and return, and with AirTags, now they are.

That sounds amazing… But, what about privacy? Can someone hide an AirTag in my car and spy on me and track me around the world? Do I need to be creeped out by stalkers with AirTags?

• Maybe… But Apple has thought this through, so AirTag has privacy built-in from launch
• First off, you don’t need to worry about Apple or some government entity finding and following you using your own AirTag trackers. Apple boasts that AirTag is designed to keep location data private and secure, as there is “no location data or location history physically stored inside AirTag.” So, check creepy hacking off your list.
• Further, “communication with the Find My network is end-to-end encrypted so that only the owner of a device has access to its location data, and no one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.”

That’s nerdy and reassuring… But that doesn’t stop my angry ex from sticking an AirTag in my car and following me around. How do I know if such a small AirTag is hidden in my bag somewhere?

• AirTag is also designed to prevent unwanted tracking a key differentiator from its many AirTag Competitors
• On a technical level, bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking / hacking
• More importantly, iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. This means that if someone stuck one in your bag and you own an iPhone it will warn you that a tracker belonging to someone else has hitched a ride with you and is announcing your location to the world. That’s pretty slick
• If I use Android, do I need to worry about stalkers tracking me with a hidden AirTag? Unfortunately, you kind of do. Since you won’t have an iOS device to automatically warn you that a suspicious AirTag is traveling with you, you’re likely not going to notice it right away. Fortunately, Apple has a backup system in place to give you some privacy… an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play an audible sound when moved to draw attention to it. I guess we have to all tune our ears to listen for random beeps from now on!
• And, if you do find an unknown AirTag in your stuff, you can tap it with an iPhone (or Android phone – or any NFC-capable device) and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag. But, let’s be real, you’d A) throw it out or smash it immediately, and B) quickly fire off a text to your Ex telling them to stop being creepy, ASAP
• Basically, if you’re worried about privacy, it might be worth getting iPhone now just to “bug-sweep” your life and ensure that you are AirTag free!

Apple has now confirmed (yes, CONFIRMED) that they are holding a product release event on Tuesday April 20th, 2021! Their “Spring Loaded” event. Will Apple release AirTags this week? Or does last week’s announcement of the Chipolo ONE Spot tracker (basically already an AirTag) mean that Apple’s leaving them to third-party developers? We’ll have to wait and see!

Often-accurate-Apple-leaker Max Weinbach (of the YouTube channel EverythingApplePro), says AirTags are coming out “soon.” Fantastic. Optimistic enough to keep us hooked, but not so specific as to risk being wrong! Well played!

Want even more specificity and certainty than the word “soon?” Well, let’s turn to one of our repeat rumor-creators, Jon Prosser (YouTube channel Front Page Tech), who is back with yet another less-than-confident prediction. Jon claims that AirTags are coming out in April – and says this time he has the info from a source with 100% historical rumor accuracy. So he should feel pretty good about it… But, alas. Jon says of his own rumor that he is “skeptical” as Apple hasn’t had an April launch in 14 years. Terrific…

Will AirTags come out this Spring? Are AirTags being released soon? Are AirTags launch in April. Maybe, definitely, and possibly. 100%. Let’s see how this turns out.

In other news, Mr. Weinbach did provide the world with further details of AirTags, so look out our next article on AirTags Dimensions. Thank you Max, and fingers crossed you’re right with that “soon” prediction as well.

OK, the title might be a bit tongue-in-cheek but you can’t blame us for getting excited and also trying to temper expectations. Yes, you’ve read here now and probably seen it elsewhere – the interwebs is alive now with a rumored Apple AirTags release event of March 23, 2021.

Loyal readers and AirTags fanatics will know, expected AirTags release date rumors have come and gone before. We just recently ran a piece saying that Apple AirTag will be Released in March but without a specific date on the calendar… Before that, well, we had a quite a few “quasi-credible” leaks and rumors come and go as well (January’s Are AirTags Coming Out in 2021, December’s AirTags Rumors: When Will AirTags Be Announced, the sadly disappointing pre-holiday Will AirTags Be Announced in time for Christmas, and many others that hit our inboxes but didn’t make the publishing cut).

So – what’s behind this week’s AirTag rumor and release-date leak, and is it credible? Let’s take a look.

Twitter-user Kang, who posts under DuanRui and has correctly predicted some prior Apple announcements, seems to be the first to have circled March 23rd on the calendar as the official AirTags release date – or at least, the next official Apple product announcement event (TBD on whether it includes AirTags). See his Tweet below:

Others had previously said the the 16th might be the date – but that felt like random conjecture based on the fact that Apple usually holds a release event in March each year, and was quickly shot-down by a more-connected source… Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman. His two tweets below summarize his thoughts pretty clearly. Not happening on the 16th… But no word on the 23rd.

So, OK, not the 16th. What about DuanRui’s 23rd comment – has anyone else with a decent track record of predicting Apple rumors confirmed that date as a possibility for an Apple event or AirTags release date?

Yes, Jon Prosser “confirmed” the 23rd in his tweet – he agrees, it must. be. happening. now… right? I mean, people don’t tweet without a lot of thought and evidence… right??? (sarcasm). Let’s see who might contradict Mr. Prosser next… It’s —– Mr. Prosser!

Jon Prosser waited a full 25 minutes, and then said he didn’t realize the 23rd was also the date of an upcoming OnePlus android phone release event, and changed his mind. Oh well… that was short-lived.

So, will Apple hold an event on March 23rd, and if so, will AirTags be released? Let’s wait and see!

AirTags are still on for March.

Haven’t heard of any further delays this time.

— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) February 12, 2021

Noted research analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities, released a report this year outlining his expectations for Apple’s 2021 product releases. Among them, and most importantly to us, is the upcoming release of AirTags.

We’re expecting this to be big – question is, when will AirTags be released in 2021? We’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, as with all “rumors,” it’s still very much TBD if this is more of the “the earth is flat” kind of rumor or, well, something reputable. We’ll know for certain tomorrow. What’s the basis of this rumor?

Well, Apple releases AppleCare support memos internally, and according to the good folks at MacRumors, one of them says that “something” hardware-related is going to change with respect to AppleCare on 12/8/2020. Still, that could just mean something mundane – such as AppleCare pricing changing, or even the packaging for AppleCare (and therefore the product numbers) being updated… OR IT COULD MEAN THAT AIRTAGS ARE FINALLY BEING RELEASED THIS WEEK!!! We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, count us in the cautiously-excited camp, as we did report on the prior rumor of AirTags Being Released By Christmas, so hopefully this is it. As always, we’ll have all the latest and Best AirTags Rumors and News here at AirTagReviews.com, so stay posted.

Editor’s Note 12/8/2020: Unfortunately, Apple did not announce AirTags today, so they are now expected to be released in early 2021. Instead, Apple released the new AirPods Max wireless noise-cancelling earphones (available now for $549 from Amazon – in 5 colors). Here’s the AirPods Max Release Video.