Today. Is. The. Day.
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!
