New AirTag Offers Expanded Range, Louder Speaker

I always put one in my carry-on bag as it’s especially easy to get separated from it at the airport during security check-through (like when you’re still going through the metal detector and your bag is already through the x-ray).

I also like it when I’m at a hotel or airbnb as I can be alerted if someone tries to make off with my stuff.

(I do agree with your conclusions: new ones are nicer, but not worth replacing existing tags.)

I like that they are a product, but not really. So far I have used them standing at a baggage carousel on a Saturday night watching bags go by for an hour without my bag appearing - according to the AirTag, it was at the airport. I do have AirTags in both of the carry on bags I might use, my luggage, and I have a wallet with a find-my thing so I can track that as well if I’ve lost it. I haven’t lost anything since AirTags came out, though.

I know people who have misplaced items and used AirTags to find them again, though.

Nope.

I’ve had AirTags on my EDC (every day carry) items since AirTags first came out. They’ve mostly provided peace of mind. The AirTags I use in checked baggage, though, have helped me a lot when flying. For example, I was able to find a big duffel quickly when the airline treated it like a baby stroller or sports gear (taking it directly to the baggage office rather than putting it onto the claim belt) not as a standard bag.

I’m not going to replace my existing AirTags but I did order one of the new version because I’ve been waiting for the release to buy an additional AirTag.

That makes sense to me. Personally, I haven’t worried too much about my carry-on bag in part because I’m highly attuned to its presence at all times while actually moving around, and when it’s in in a hotel or Airbnb, I usually leave my Find My-enabled laptop and/or AirPods Pro in it, so I’d have some idea of where it was if it walked.

I suppose that’s a question—what is the practical difference between an AirTag and the MacBook Air or AirPods Pro for tracking?

I have twelve of them… my keys, my wallet, my car, my flashlight, every bag I own…

Peace of mind, but finding things too.

That’s an interesting question. Do iPads and Airs and AirPods connect to the same Find My network as the AirTags or do they only work when connected to wifi? My impression was the latter, meaning they don’t work as well, but laptops supporting location are a newer feature I haven’t explored.

I also like that AirTags are small enough they can be hidden in a laptop bag or backpack pocket where a thief might not notice them. A laptop they might disable right away so it couldn’t call home. At any rate, the double protection couldn’t hurt. (And I carry my AirPods in my pocket, so they wouldn’t help track my carry-on.)

I really like AirTags for tracking checked bags, though I rarely do that. I did it once on a flight that had a short changeover in Denver, a large airport notorious for bags not making the connecting flight. But when I got to my new plane and I was in my seat, Find My reported my checked bag was “with me” meaning it was already on the plane! That was a relief and one less thing to stress about.

I have AirTags in:

1. Luggage – I check bags fairly regularly and it’s good to follow them.
2. Car – helpful to find the parking spot I left the car in.
3. Keys – mine move around more than yours do.
4. Purse & keys for my Mom – much more forgetful about things like that.

So far, haven’t had a major save with them, but lots of small ones.

I use one when when I travel. Usually in my checked bag.

It came in very handy on one trip, a few years ago, when my bag ended up bumped to a later flight. I arrived at the airport and immediately saw that it wasn’t with me. But it wasn’t strictly necessary, because the United app told me which flight the bag was on. Since that flight was arriving an hour later, I just waited for that flight to land and picked it up. But it would’ve been very useful had it actually gotten lost.

My wife puts one in her eyeglass case, so we can quickly find it on those occasions where they get misplaced.

I don’t plan on upgrading mine, but I will appreciate the new ones the next time I need to buy more.

I appreciate having them. I use them for travel (luggage, carry-on backpack), car keys, wife’s purse. When I was bike riding I carried one on the bike. I won’t be upgrading until one fails.

I have them in all of my bags, including my everyday carry satchel.

Also in my vehicle and bicycles, which proved both useful and horrifying during a multi-state relocation and I could see where my belongs were versus where the moving company status page said they were.

Never had AirTags and they are useless expense and complication in my humble existence.

Useful would be, an unintrusive way to know if any have been planted on my car for example, but apparently for that one needs to have bluetooth and other stuff turned on. Sigh.

We have a bunch in our luggage, bags, bikes, backpacks, car, and I have a Find My compatible card in my wallet. I’ve never actually lost my wallet but it did once drop out of my pocket (I usually keep it in the back pocket of my slacks) when leaving a restaurant and just being able to double-check that it was still there while I ran back to pick it up, was great.

Since we’ve moved around a lot and worked in different countries over the years, we have amassed friends on different continents. With some we exchange items per postal mail — you wouldn’t believe how much the kids of our Czech friends miss Cheez Whiz (yes, indeed, of all American “foods”). With some of these friends I’ll drop an AirTag right in the parcel and when they send me something next time, they put my AirTag back in the box. There’s apparently always enough Apple devices at major airports and freight terminals, even among ramp workers in many parts of the world, so I’m always surprised how frequently I get updates. Much better than some shippers’ tracking pages.

I won’t be replacing my older AirTags with these new models. But it’s a useful and pleasantly low-key update to an already great product. I’ll look forward to getting one and testing the improved location finding when I need my next AirTag.

Would love a smaller AirTag, but appreciate the battery etc. constrains size. I have four, two on car keys, one on the cat’s outdoor collar, and one I use on expensive thermal AI camera that I deploy in the wilderness as part of pest monitoring.

I am a little disappointed that there is not more battery life. A lot of us might have replaced thed onces we have with longer lasting ones.

I have been waiting for the new ones to add any (I assumed they were coming soon bc the old ones were dropping in price). I use them in luggage mostly and for that they have been valuable. I also have them on my cats, and for that the extra distance would be nice so will use the new ones for that

We learnt our lesson about carry on bags at Las Vegas airport several years ago. We were in the secure area at a cafe waiting for the flight to D.C. While we were at the table talking to the waiter a seated “customer” behind us grabbed a bag from under my partner’s chair and left the cafe. In hindsight the waiter might have been complicit.
Fortunately the bag just had a sun hat and minor items (which is why it was under the chair). Airport security were not interested in following up the theft. It turned out that that area of the cafe did not have CCTV!
This was before Airtags were available. We now have Airtags in our carry on bags as well as checked bags. Good for peace of mind.

As much as I like the idea of the AirTag, I haven’t had a chance to take advantage of one in real life.

Sometimes I’ll read something that reminds me people really are different. I’d say the AirTag is my second most important piece of technology, after the iPhone itself. I have them on my wallet, keys, thermos, my important paper notebook, in my vehicles, and in my everyday backpack. I’ve used every one of them to locate misplaced or forgotten items, and in any given week I check Find My for one item or another an average of 4-5 times. I’ve always been forgetful about stuff, even in high school my teachers joked that I left a trail of forgotten objects, and if anything it’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. To be exact, it got somewhat better for a while in my 20s and 30s as I got myself together, and has been declining again since my mid 40’s. Having AirTags has made that decline a little less hard to manage.

The ones in the vehicles are less about forgetfulness and more about the fact that parking is tight in my neighborhood and the cars can be anywhere within a three-block radius, especially if someone else has been driving it. Which is not to say that I don’t ever forget where I parked the car!

My wife and son both seem to be experts at losing track of keys, and were using Tile — but we’re Apple people, so I bought them AirTags early on. I also added one to my keychain; it fell off — and while I found my keys, Find My and the alarm never managed to quite lead me to the missing AirTag, even though it seemed to know where it was. That was a huge strike to me. Changing the battery is an exercise, which was strike two.

I eventually bought Eufy tags — and still have one of those in each of my camera bags (four of them, don’t ask ). I ended up buying Keysmart locks for all of our luggage for when we cruise, and it comforts me to be able to confirm our bags are on the boat before we sail, and it’s a pretty sturdy TSA-compliant lock to boot.

So my answer is, screw AirTags. Not worth having much less replacing.

Just curious…what aspect of your experience made you feel angry? And do you feel the same way about any other Apple products or Apple, the company?

Similar story, but Swiss Air only had one flight per day to Budapest and the airline (well really a subcontractor handling the luggage) said it would be sent to our hotel the next day. Having the AirTag let me know it had arrived in Budapest the next day. Numerous phone calls, but we had to return to the airport after about three days and I knew where my bag was.

I also am in the peace of mind club or other bags and my bike. I’ve left a few things behind in the past and no doubt will do it again. In fact right now I have a backup hard drive which I’ve stored in some obscure (to me) place. I guess it didn’t get an AirTag.

I’ve been waiting for about two years to buy another batch.

…I’ve never established a need so I do not have any. But with the newer AirTags I may take another look.

I just added 4 for traveling items. New ones shipped 1/11/26. They work fine with my iPhone 14 and iOS 18.7.2.

Oops - looks like I bought the last batch of the previous version. Just noticed the release date on Apple.com is 1/26/26.

I’ve got a ton of them deployed, but often they help me find where I left something intentionally and not accidentally: both cars have AirTags because this helps my wife and I find them in parking lots and garages that we have parked in so many times, we can’t remember which space we parked in this time! (It’s happened a few times. Yes, in airport and other lots, I often take a picture of the floor/number!)

I wrote a whole book about this if you really want to know! The brief answer is anything that can connect to the Internet can directly report its whereabouts when connected, which includes certain relay items (audio gear, Apple Watch without cellular, etc.). Anything with no Internet connection (either by design or at the moment) can use the crowdsourced Find My Network, which uses Bluetooth and a privacy-preserving design to relay encrypted location information via the nearest Apple device connected to the Internet. So an AirTag or an MacBook Pro without an Internet connection can both relay via someone’s nearby iPhone, pulling location information from that phone.

Dig this: Elevation Lab TimeCapsule 10-Year Battery Case review: Everlasting AirTag life

Extreme case (both use case and actual case).

Strictly AirTags. Like a lot of people I do get frustrated here and there with Apple, but I’ll still take their products (this one excepted) over its rivals. But as explained, AirTag’s competition is better, and in most cases cheaper, in my experience.

Have lots: keys, suitcase, wallet, backpack, camera bag, bike, etc. Much better than Tiles.

I left my wallet on a bus in Sydney last year. Being able to track the bus that it was one and retrieve it once it came around on it’s route to and from Bondi Beach meant I got my wallet back. Without the AirTag, quite possibly won’t have seen it again.

My suitcase was lost in Seattle Airport and didn’t turn up on the carousal, but I could see where it was so it could be retrieved before I missed my connection.

Probably won’t upgrade but might replace my main ones at some point.

One of my cats who loves to roam wears an AirTag. The range sucks and you can barely hear it beep, but it still made is possible to track him down and find him numerous times. He may have been lost forever without it. I will most definitely get the new one.

I am surprised this hasn’t come up in the discussion yet. AirTags will not work when you or the tag don’t have service. I use them for travel like others and that’s works well. But I also spend a lot of time in a national forest area with no service doing work that means I get in and out of the car a lot. I like to have something on my key chain to find it if I happen to drop it or put it down in the car somewhere. The latter has happened once. I use a Tile for this which works using only Bluetooth. It would also work if you dropped something track-able along a remote trail, but I haven’t had this situation. I’m not a fan of some aspects of a Tile (e.g. no replaceable battery), but works in this case where an AirTag doesn’t.

I use AirTags a lot: bike, car, keys, luggage… but I find that there are cheaper devices that use the AirTag network and don’t seem to have any disadvantages. Most have the same form as the original Apple device, but one can also get credit card sized ones for a wallet or purse. I have used them to find stuff a lot, including my car when I forgot where it was parked.

I have just acquired some new hearing aids (Phonak) which appear to use the FindMy network but which need a manufacturer-supplied app on my iPhone to provide location data. I’ve already used this twice to find lost aids, including one that was detected many miles away from my own location.

I wonder how long it will take for the AirTag imitators to improve their specs to match AirTag 2.

Absolutely necessary when flying with a checked in bicycle bag. Makes it lot less stressful knowing if it might be on the way or went somewhere else. Could save you hours of time.

Several folks here have talked about using AirTags to keep track of a parked car. AirTags can be useful for tracking a car that has moved by someone else (spouse, thief, etc.), but if you have a Bluetooth-enabled car and are using an iPhone, you can have your Apple Maps automatically remember where you left the car.

You can also do it on Google Maps.

Interesting that you find Eufy tags better as they are using Apple’s FindMy network, according to their promo material.

I tried using Tile trackers during a five month trip all around the EU and UK. (Pre-AirTag availability) and in all that time they never worked, not even once. There are simply not enough people using them to establish a workable network.

Fascinating topic! I didn’t realize these things were so widespread and what they are good for; thanks TidBITS!.

I rarely lose track of anything for long and when I do I usually find it, but am now thinking there might be a couple of uses in my situation. It’s amazing how many folks don’t trust airlines to keep track of their bags. I haven’t traveled in almost 9 years so this is an eye-opener.

I reviewed Apple’s info on how to detect tracking devices and in the process saw the term ‘find my network accessory’ or similar and didn’t know what they were talking about. Dug a bit more and came across Chipolo, a similar product similar price. Would be interested to hear anyone’s experience with that. Dug some more and found many variants on this. I take it looking for product that is MFI certified would be important.

Can these tag things be used in like a single user enviornment, that is, if they have a range of 200 meters, then as long as I am within that distance, the iPhone should find it directly over bluetooth, without having the FindMy Network setting on? I am usually within that distance of my important stuff. Other iPhone users will be able to see my tags too is that correct?

I’m not sure what you mean by no service. AirTags basically hijack any nearby iPhones to report their location. AirTags don’t connect to cellular or anything on their own.

So if you’re in a remote area without many cell phones, then yes, an AirTag is basically useless.

I have a special tracker for my dog (Tractive GPS) that uses cellular to connect to the network. It works even in remote areas, as long as there is cellular signal. But because it uses cellular, there is an annual fee ($100) for the cellular network use. But since I go on hikes with my dog, I like having that extra security of being able to track him (and someone could use it to track me if I’m with him).

Great to know! I wasn’t sure how that worked for non-AirTags.

(Though I do have a weird problem on my new MacBook Pro – it’s never been able to activate Find My. Long chats with ChatGPT says this is known issue and is caused by corrupt OS stuff and requires reinstalling the OS or some major low-level resetting. All the easy solutions didn’t fix it. This laptop never leaves my house so I haven’t bothered, but it sure is weird.)

I assume he means a location with no radio (cellular or Wi-Fi) coverage.

I assume that in this situation, a nearby iPhone will record the location and will transmit it to iCloud when it moves to a location that has coverage. So the location will be tracked, but the data may be outdated by the time it is made available for the owner to use.

Of course, if there are no phones nearby (e.g., on a pet’s collar if it wanders into the woods), then the location won’t be tracked at all.

Find My would not have alerted you to it. Find My only lets you know where something is (active query via the app) or when you leave it behind. Otherwise, the notion is that it could be used for stalking. There’s at least one Find My Network compatible device for deterring bike theft that also lets you arm it, so that if it moves, it sets off a very loud alarm, but that feature is unrelated to Find My.

Of course, the moment you noticed it was missing, finding an airport police officer might have worked with a live map!

My younger cats sits, and the neighbor was gone for a long time (about 10 days) once and the cat disappeared! We couldn’t find her, and it was a whole to do. She wasn’t eating food in the kitchen, the camera they had at the cat flap wasn’t working, etc. A few hours after they return, she jumps on their bed and looks terrific. I’m guessing another neighbor was feeding her?

So they stuck an AirTag on her collar and the next time my kid cat sat, again, couldn’t find her, but with the tag and then Precision Finding, we discovered her! She may have got herself stuck in an attic. She likes us, even? Weird. The upshot is that the AirTag is shared with me, so i still know where that cat is 24x7.

I’ll be looking to buy new AirTags after they create a feature where you can turn the speaker on/off without having to physically remove it for those times when you want to track your item without tipping off a thief to where the tag is located. Seems to me like that should be a no-brainer!

They’ll never (officially) do this because they’d be roasted for enabling stalking.

For you dog folks — I LOVE Tractive and its GPS out here in serious boonies with large loose dog. I signed up with 5-year plan and saved big bucks. The headlight is also very handy. And they replaced a lost tracker for free.

Oops. Forgot about that. Maybe they can design one that explodes in the hands of stalkers…

Two points. I was flying from London to New York a couple of years ago. My two suitcases each had an iTag within. As we were taxiing up to the airbridge at JFK, my iPhone indicated that my two cases were still at Heathrow - a big surprise. Then came the announcement that some clown had packed fireworks in his case and as a result ALL our luggage had been removed prior to takeoff.

I got a new car 9 months ago and I have placed an iTag under the carpet in a rear footwell.

Yes - we did consider checking the rubbish bins a around the airport in case the sunhat had been dumped (it had sentimental value). An airtag might have made that easier.
My story was more about how easy it is to be robbed when you are tired after a very long flight, even in a “secure” area.

Yes, I feel like I’ve been lucky, but I am vaguely paranoid about always having a hand on my belongings. I wonder what the theft rate is behind security, given the number of cameras and such!

Perhaps I use them in a different way? I mostly want to make sure things are with me, that I have not left them behind. Find My seems to be able to do that with any device. And for something nearby, they were loud enough before Apple turned up the volume. Ultimately, had a bad experience with AirTags and do not see a reason to chase good money after bad.

What David said is correct. There is no cell service and no Wifi. I have done tests with both Tile trackers and AirTag trackers. An iPhone will not cause an AirTag to beep even if it’s right next to it where there is no cell service.

I got tired of replacing the battery in the airtag hidden in my wife’s car, so I bought these airtag holder/battery extenders with some lithium batteries.

Interesting, given that the communication protocol is Bluetooth, which doesn’t require Internet access.

I assume that either your phone doesn’t retain the Bluetooth ID (and therefore needs to fetch it from a server) or that this is some kind of anti-stalking feature (perhaps checking to make sure the tag is not reported lost or transferred to a different user).

I have an AirTag on my keys, and I’ve used it a few times to find where my keys were in the house. I’ve also placed one in my mother’s purse. She has dementia, so she tends to put things in weird random places and then can’t remember that she did so.

I’m curious if Apple has modified the design of the AirTags so you can use Duracell batteries without having to remove the bitter coating on them.

When they ship, it should be obvious. Just look inside the battery compartment and see if the negative terminal contact is still on the edge of the compartment or if it’s moved closer to the center.

And, FWIW, Amazon Basics CR2032s work out of the package. I have no clue if the are coated or not.

On this topic, I saw on 9to5Mac that the speaker on the AirTag 2 is reportedly much harder to remove than the original AirTag.

I’m confused by this complaint. Tracking an AirTag and making the AirTag play a sound are two different operations. The AirTag does not make a noise when tracked, only when you request it or when it’s been traveling with someone in a way that suggests it might be being used by a stalker.

Maybe I’m the one who is confused, but from what I’ve read: (1) An AirTag emits a sound when it’s moved and has been separated from its owner for a period of time. (2) A thief, notified by their own phone that an AirTag is nearby, can make it play a sound. (3) In thinking their property has simply been mislaid and not stolen, an owner would inadvertently reveal the location by pressing Play Sound, thereby letting a thief know its exact location. Yes/no?

Well it turns out I bought the Take Control Books Find My and Air Tags ebook years ago but never read it, so I got the update and golly it is not a simple topic!

But it appears from @glennf ‘s description, I should be able to use Items (Apple or other Tags) the way I imagine: link them to iPhone and within some hundreds of meters be able to find them directly with iPhone if misplaced (left keys with Tag attached in the garden for example), either on a map and/or with the help of directions if precise location is enabled, or with help of the sound the item makes. Or if further away and I mark it as lost, it could be found thru the Find My crowdsourced network (even if I have that turned off on my iPhone).

One thing I’m wondering though is that these Items can start beeping if the linked iPhone is out of range for some days. So if I leave one at home while traveling for a week, my neighbors might hear the Item peeping and think something is wrong, like it’s a smoke detector or something. Or have I misunderstood the Item/AirTag’s ‘I’m feeling lonely’ mode?

I’ve ordered a Chipolo and aim to write about it here soon.

Just curious: what led to this 180º turn?

It’s not that loud. If you’re not in the same room with it, you probably won’t hear anything.

This feature is meant to help prevent stalking. If a stranger plants a device on you, after a while, it will start chirping, so you can find and deactivate it. This is in addition to your phone reporting that a device is traveling with you.

Good eye @Halfsmoke !

This thread! for one.

Losing track of car keys last month for another. Knew I had them in hand at home and retraced my steps and found them. Still, had I not found them it would have been quite inconvenient. Also, am traveling locally more, often with MBAir so I thought, hm… Maybe worth a try.

I hope it doesn’t make me lax about keeping track of stuff though. By not having these things I am forced to create routines and awareness. Knock on wood, I have only locked myself out of the house once in almost 7 years and not lost any other valuables, so awareness has worked for me, and I always try to have a backup plan for things and I strive to minimize dependence on tech.

So I’ll give it a whirl at home and upcoming trip to a trade show and see what happens.

Not going into details but I do have some worry about a tracker being planted recently, so I have also idly looked at how to detect them. I also see online that real stalkers will disable the speakers on these before planting them. Then this topic came up so I’m reading more.

I found out how many settings you have to turn on to notice a tracker traveling with you, so I did turn them on and when out and about do switch on iPhone’s Bluetooth, which otherwise remains off.

Which makes me wonder, when using a Tag, Apple or otherwise, does BT need to be continually on, or will they lose pairing and the Item start peeping etc? Or will the Item just be there, silently peeping out its BT and or other signals until I lose it and turn on BT and Find My on iPhone?

That’s the scenario I’m thinking of, plant the Tag(s) and only when I need to find them, turn on BT and Find My. Maybe that’s doing it wrong though

What settings did you need to turn on? By default, you will learn of one traveling with you.

My understanding is that the paired device pings the AirTag occasionally, probably less than once every 15 minutes, to maintain this alertness. The AirTag doesn’t have any real outbound connection capability: it broadcast. But it can receive certain inbound signals.

I would not say hundreds of meters except outside with line of site. Dozens of meters, definitely. Outside of Bluetooth range, anyone’s nearby device who wanders by will relay a signal. This is, say, how people track their pets with AirTags on their collars who wander off (and outdoor cats).

Reminds me of an incident years ago, when I was driving home in a snowstorm. I pulled over to the side of the road to break ice off of my wipers and accidentally locked myself out of the car (the engine was running). I had to wait for a passing police officer with a slim jim to get back in.

Ever since then, I have worn my spare keys (home and car) on a chain around my neck, to make sure I never get locked out again.

Other Apple devices (phones, Macs, AirPods, etc.) implement the iBeacon protocol. This is a connectionless protocol where the device periodically transmits a small amount of identifying data that a receiving device can receive and process. Any compatible devices that receive this data will forward it, along with location information, to an Apple server. This is how FindMy works with your mobile devices.

AirTags don’t use iBeacon, using a different format data packet. But the concept is similar - periodically broadcasting ID information to whoever is nearby to receive it. Compatible mobile devices (whether from Apple or otherwise) are expected to send this information along with location information to an Apple server.

In either case, the owner, running the Find My app queries Apple’s server to read the last-known location. And if it is in range of the device, it can use Bluetooth and/or UWB to help you locate its specific location.

So I don’t think it ever establishes “pairing” with anything. At least not in the Bluetooth protocol sense.

Regarding your more specific questions:

• An AirTag will make a noise once every 6 hours when it is in “lost mode” if motion has been detected since the last check.

  • You can explicitly mark it lost via the Find My app. This will propagate to the device if someone with an iPhone (or other compatible device) comes within range.
  • It will automatically go to lost mode if it is away from the owner’s device for more than 3 days.

• It will be transmitting its BT signals all the time, as long as the battery is installed.

  • Every second when near the owner’s device
  • Every 2 seconds when away
  • Updates its advertisement data every 15 minutes
  • Updates its Bluetooth MAC address every day at 4:00am

The expected usage is to place it inside or otherwise attach it to an object you want to track. It will always transmit its ID, and anybody with a compatible mobile device receiving that ID will compute an approximate location (from the mobile device’s location services and other data like the Bluetooth radio signal strength) and forward both to an Apple server.

This way you can find the device, even if it is nowhere near anybody’s phone. The Find My network will be able to report its last-known location - the computed location from the last time anyone with a mobile device reported its location.

See also: Apple AirTag Reverse Engineering - Adam Catley

Your mobile devices all participate in the Find My protocol. Any device they detect is reported to Apple.

Your phone also keeps track of what devices it has detected. If it detects a tag that you don’t own that is moving with you for an extended period of time, it will pop up an alert letting you know. You can then respond to that alert to make it chime, to assist you in finding it.

This works pretty well. It very quickly alerted me to the one my wife uses for her stuff when we drive somewhere together. (I was able to then tell the phone that I know about the tag and don’t want to be alerted about it.)

Bluetooth, Tracking Notifications, scratched my dull nugget about Find My Location access, which has 3 choices plus Precise Location option (I only recalled it being on or off) and reviewed the settings in Allow Find My to Access. I tend to turn off the majority of default settings.

OK thanks for that. I’ll probably try it both with BT on all day and selectively and see what happens.

Got it, super. I am getting more forgetful but I check frequently through the day for important stuff like keys, wallet and so on so rarely lose track of them and when I do I expect to notice within a short time and distance.

Getting a better grasp on the topic for sure. It’s way more complicated than I expected, different and specific terminologies which can trip one up (devices/items/Find My and FM Network), complications of Family groups, phew! Must have taken a lot of concentration to write the book!

Lots of good points and anecdotes @Shamino !

Maybe my comment was vague, sorry. I thought I read that a new Tag (any manufacturer) has to be held to the device and given a name etc, that’s what I was calling ‘pairing’. The tag is then directly ah associated, or friends, with the the Device it was held to. Thereafter the Device friend would be able to find the Tag directly if within radio range of each other, without having to involve Apple Servers etc. Could very likely be I misunderstood, but am getting closer!

So no noise will occur if it hasn’t moved, regardless of the other points…?

(at self) I must admit, I’m not anymore Apple’s expected usage model… Hilarity aside, having not participated in anything but Find My for Mac, iPhone, iPad Devices over the years and now coming back to the topic, this all feels a bit icky and intrusive. I don’t expect to need to know the location of any Tag I put in use all the time, only when it (rarely) goes missing. At those times I’d like to whip out iPhone, turn on BTooth and check Find My Tag and find it. I guess that qualifies as Doing It Wrong. Maybe there is some other product for that scenario.

If you have Find My enabled in its various locations in Settings. Or can it not be disabled?

What happens on moving busses and trains, people are detecting Tags and stuff and getting notifications, the notifications give the name of the thing they detect? So thieves will see iPhone alerts for ‘Jimbob’s iPhone’ or ‘Susie’s Wallet’ etc?

Intriguing topic! Thanks for the help and I’m looking forward to learning more when I get the Tags.

Ah. Yes. You need to associate the tag with your Apple ID. It is done by holding it up to your phone, etc.

“Pairing”, however, is a very specific part of the Bluetooth protocol, where a peripheral device (e.g., headphones) exchanges encryption credentials with a host device (e.g., your computer) so they can communicate securely. See also Wikipedia.

Yeah, but how can you send it a signal to get a location if it’s missing? It doesn’t have a cellular radio, where there might be some way to communicate directly with it. And it doesn’t have GPS or any other way to know its own location. Chances are that you will be out of range when you need to get this information.

Think, for example, that you placed it in your checked luggage. If it ends up getting redirected to an airport in Stanstanistan or Upper Slobobia, you aren’t going to be able to send it a signal. But with the current design, you’ll get a location if anybody with an iPhone walks near it.

Yes, you can disable this, but unless you’ve got a good reason, I think you shouldn’t.

Find My only works because millions of mobile devices can report what they discover. If your phone doesn’t participate, you’ll still be able to track your tag (if other people are near it), but if you don’t participate, then it may hinder someone else’s ability to find his item. And if most people opt-out, the entire system stops working.

Not nearly as bad as that.

Imagine a train full of people and luggage with tags. Yes, everybody’s phone will receive the Bluetooth radio beacons. And they will report the data, along with the location, to Apple.

But the data is completely anonymous. They will report the tag’s Bluetooth address (effectively a serial number, but it changes every 24 hours), a public encryption key and its location. And that’s it.

There is no user interface where you can see any information about what it is reporting.

You can use a Bluetooth scanner utility to look for tags, but the only thing you see (I just tried it) is a non-specific “Apple Find My” device, that only transmits a public key and its battery level.

The association between that ID and what you call it is only in your Apple iCloud account, and requires the corresponding private key - which you generate when you set up the tag and is securely stored in your iCloud keychain.

Someone who physically finds a tag and taps his phone on it will be able to read its embedded NFC data. But the only information provided there is the tag’s serial number and the last four digits of the owner’s phone number. And your phone has to come within a very short distance (less than an inch) of the tag in order to read that.

Tip… Name the AirTag to include the date of turning on. Then you know roughly when to replace the battery after a year’s gone by, and even before the ‘your battery is low’ thingy appears.

The batteries are cheap enough, that swapping them out on the 1-year mark each time means you always have a working AirTag.

eg. name them: “Bike (2026.01)” = Jan 2026, “Bag (2025.12)” = Dec 2025, or similar.

Thanks for your patience @Shamino .

OK associate, not pair. This whole topic is rife with very specific terminology that I need to learn better.

If I can’t find it myself, I would open Find My and either find it nearby or mark it as lost. Then after some time its location, relayed by Find My Network Devices passing by, would be revealed, or not?

In my scenarios I think I would almost always be within bt range. I have a fairly simple life. I haven’t traveled by air in almost 9 years and don’t expect to. I might travel soon by train but would want to keep my suitcase in sight. Which reminds me to ask, if it is a general practice these days as theft deterrance, to put a sticker or some indicator on luggage that it contains a tracking device. Suppose it depends on the thief, and I have never been one so don’t know how they think in general. (Notifying airlines of your checked bag Tag I’ve read and see its many advantages).

I have it on for the most important Devices only. Older ones with minimal data on them, used for on Device music or games, I leave it off and put them in Airplane Mode. Would be no great crisis to lose them.

I get it about the crowdsourcing aspect of the Find My Network, but Find My Device with the Network off still works for my iPhone/Mac, I had the maybe mistaken notion they communicate directly with Apple and me, not thru others. I am just not yet comfy with my Devices and Items being so widely identified. Still, I am the kind of person who will pick up a glove or other item from the snow or sidewalk and put it somewhere visible, so its owner will find it upon retracing their steps, or I return things to owners if I know them and contact neighbors about fence gates left open etc.

ok silently then, not the whole train car load of iPhones would be buzzing with Notifications.

Thanks again for the comments, I think I’m getting a better understanding about this.

Is there a list anywhere of what the 50 airlines are? The best I have found is a list of 30 airlines.

Again, keep in mind that there is no direct connection between the devices.

You can do this, but you won’t get a recent location until someone else’s phone reports its location. If it’s in your home, this might not happen for a very long time.

Setting it to “lost” mode pushes your change to iCloud. The tag itself won’t know until someone with a mobile device passes close enough to relay the data. Or if it’s been away from you for three days.

Tracking tags are not a substitute for common sense. But they help out after the fact if an item gets lost or stolen.

Not that I know of. I don’t think it would help. A thief would just ransack your bag, find the tag and discard it.

I use two AirTags for two sets of my keys. I leave one set behind frequently. Tremendous help. One more AirTag in my wife’s purse. Final AirTag in RC airplanes. Lost a plane once. AirTag range was too small. Someone with Model 1 excellent eyesight brought it back to me.

I won’t quickly buy new AirTags but I might spring for one model 2 for the airplane. Existing AirTags are important part of my life.

I had a briefing from Apple, and 50 airlines have committed and 36 rolled out. Apple doesn’t seem to have a list, but MacRumors does! They may have done the leg work and checked all 36 sites? These 36 Airlines Offer iPhone Feature That Helps Find Your Lost Bags - MacRumors

In the Take Control book on this it says on page 13:

An AirTag’s location may be tracked via ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless and Bluetooth over inches to tens of feet (centimeters to meters) from a nearby paired iPhone or iPad;

So that makes it sound like they do communicate directly, maybe that’s where I got the idea.

According to Apple AirTag Reverse Engineering - Adam Catley, the UWB functionality is much much simpler than this.

It’s pretty much like a sonar-ping. It transmits data pulses every 60 ms from its antenna. Your phone, when receiving these, can compute distance and direction.

From what I’ve read so far, this looks like one-way communication, not a “connection” that could be used to send requests and get back answers.

My understanding, from Glenn’s TC book, is that any Apple iPhone, iPad or Mac that is connected to wifi/internet will anonymously report pings from Airtags, even if they do not have Find My enabled. Those with Find My enabled will also report GPS. Apparently Apple maintains a database of wifi locations so GPS is not essential for locating an Airtag.

" This broadcast is recognized by anyone’s iPhone, iPad, or Mac running
at least iOS 13/iPadOS 13 or macOS 10.15. If a device owned by another person has an internet connection, their device encrypts a package of the beacon’s name with location information obtained or inferred, and uploads it to Apple."

According to MacOtakara article https://www.macotakara.jp/Watch/entry-50407.html (in Japanese) the Precision Finding feature is not available on Apple Watch in Japan. If you try to Find, then a message “Region Not Supported for Precision Finding” appears, and the ‘Open Find Items’ button is displayed, forcing the route display via Apple Map. The feature on the Apple Watch is not fully supported yet, in Japan, it seems.

I think I distracted this Topic for a while and have more to ask about Find My (xyz) so I think I’ll start a new Topic on that.

Now back to the regularly scheduled comments about the advantages of extended range and louder speaker in AirTag v2…

That sounds correct. Disabling “Find My” on your phone will prevent Apple from tracking the location of your phone, but it won’t stop the device from relaying information about other devices that broadcast data to the Find My network.

If you disable location services, then it won’t be able to broadcast your location. And yes, location services uses many things in addition to GPS (including nearby Wi-Fi hotspots).

I looked for an option that might stop your phone from relaying the location of other objects, but I didn’t see anything relevant. So you may have to disable Bluetooth altogether if this really bothers you.

I believe that’s in settings / privacy & security / location services / share my location / find my iPhone - you can turn off “Find My Network” there. (Also in settings / Apple account / find my / find my iPhone).

Maybe, but it’s unclear. The text below that box says:

Participating in the Find My network lets you locate this iPhone even when it’s offline, in power reserve mode, and after power off.

It doesn’t say anything about relaying information from other devices.

The option may be something else entirely - like using Bluetooth to advertise itself (the way an Air Tag might) when the normal methods of location reporting are unavailable.

Sorry, I should have added that I checked for that, and found this article by Glenn Fleishman on MacWorld a few years ago:

When your device has Find My network enabled, it relays any signals it picks up from other devices if it has an active Internet connection. But it also broadcasts that anonymized Bluetooth message whenever it’s not connected to the Internet. When you disable Find My network, both tracking and relaying is turned off.

If they’re unopened and you want the new ones, just return them.

Too late. They’ve been traveling.

I put Air Tags in all my items when traveling. I never know when I’ll forget to carry on my carry on items. Also very reassuring to know my checked bag has arrived at the destination airport, especially when it is one of the last ones to come out. Or when it doesn’t come out at all.

I flew home to San Francisco airport directly from France. My bag showed as being in the terminal. Eventually bags stop. Carrousel stops. No bag. Find a helpful agent. After literally a couple of hours (she was quite busy), she says that the bag was caught in the machinery and retrieval has to wait until shutdown at 3am. Go home, she says, and we’ll deliver it in the morning. Which they did. Good thing I wasn’t going on a connecting flight, as was a couple who had the same problem.

Apparently still easy enough to disable if you can operate a soldering iron though.

Adam asked, “Have AirTags made a difference in your life?”

Absolutely! I have a dozen of them, shared with my wife, and they are incredibly helpful. My wife constantly misplaces her keys – no problem. Her purse? Sometimes. We’ve located luggage – and have gotten positive confirmation that our bags made a flight. When my wife was on standby for a flight, and didn’t get a seat, her bag made the earlier flight, and I easily I located her waiting bag among the dozens in the “unclaimed” area. We’ve got one concealed in each of our bikes, which gives us some piece of mind when we have to lock them up when we go inside an establishment. We’ve got one in the car (we live in a city) in case it goes missing.

Adam, if you have it inside a bell, and the bell is metallic, you are limiting its ability to operate (radio signals do not traverse conductors). I recommend the Pelican Protector 4-Pack AirTag Holder, available at Amazon, which you can stick to the back side of a kickstand pivot point, or under a seat, and it does a good job of protecting the AirTag from the elements.

To the question, “Do you plan to replace existing ones with these new models?“ I won’t replace the ones I have now – they get the job done.

I’m pretty sure the casing on the bells is plastic.

@glennf has written an article about AirTag 2 compatibility at Six Colors. It basically comes down to needing iOS 26.2.1, which many previously AirTag-compatible devices can’t run.

One thing I don’t quite understand, Glenn, is whether this impacts findability by devices running older versions of OS or Android.

From the article:

First, some older devices can’t see newer AirTags

• Tahoe requires that a Mac has an M-series chip or is one of a handful of late Intel models from 2019 and 2020.

I haven’t investigated Android, and now I am curious about the cross-compatibility issue. I have got to assume that anti-tracking features work with Android and older Apple OS versions because that’s part of the spec: a device doesn’t have to support tracking natively to recognize it is traveling with them or, when jostled, has been away from their paired device for 8 to 24 hours.

Right, it’s the visibility of newer AirTags to other devices that I was curious about, though anti-tracking falls into a similar bucket. When you lose your luggage, you want as many devices as possible to be able to detect and report the position of the associated AirTag.

I see my confusion over your use of findability and visibility. There’s “being able to recognize a tracker is near you” and there’s “be part of the Find My network crowdsourced location relay.”

This is another good question. Android devices can’t relay Find My locations. The two networks are incompatible in terms of offering crowdsourcing. Google, in fact, has much better restrictions and requirements on theirs, I think, for reducing the potential of unwanted tracking.

All Apple devices will be able to continue relaying new AirTags, because that is based on Bluetooth broadcasts, and doesn’t require chip compatibility for location tracking.

The thing I don’t exactly get on Apple’s part is that crowdsourced locations should still be available with an AirTag “2,” even if Bluetooth and UWB were incompatible for nearby finding? I don’t understand why they’re incompatible, but even so, it seems like Apple didn’t want to have AirTag 2 support before 26.2.1 on devices that don’t also have BT/UWB support for local finding!

Ah! I’d forgotten that Android can only participate in the anti-tracking side, not the Find My findability side.

@glennf: I see my confusion over your use of findability and visibility. There’s “being able to recognize a tracker is near you” and there’s “be part of the Find My network crowdsourced location relay.”

I’m still not sure I understand the compataiblity issue. … If I buy an AirTag 2 and add pair it with my iPhone running 26.2.1, can older Apple devices running older versions of iOS/iPadOS still report the Air Tag 2’s location to the Find My Network?

If I lose my keys attached to an AirTag 2, I want as many Apple devices as possible to be able to see it and report its location to the Find My Network so that I can find my lost keys. In most situations, more devices finding and reporting my AirTag’s location is more important than improved precision finding range. (But I do value the increased range of precision finding for situations where I’m out hiking and the only iPhone in the area is my iPhone.)

Yes. I understand the concern, but it would be absurd for Apple to break that part of the compatibility, as it would make the new AirTags dramatically less useful for some time than the old ones.

AirTags and other Find My items of every sort broadcast a Bluetooth signal that all Apple devices recognize. It is only if you want to pair or track an AirTag you own or that is shared with you that you hit the compatibility snag.

Just learned AirTags 2.0 will only work with “Find My” in version 26 and later of Apples OSes. Will the older ones still be available for those who CAN’T use OS 26 or later?

Doesn’t look like it from Apple; Amazon still has them. Be interesting to see how long that third party availability lasts.

Thanks, silbey!

I hadn’t a need before but I was thinking about using them for a poor man’s lojack. However, my iMac is maxed out at High Sierra, my MBP is maxed at Monterrey, and my iDevices are staying at iOS 18 until August. I’ll check out Amazon.

Edit. OK, just ordered a 4-pack of the Gen 1 version from Amazon. $69.95 out the door incl tax. Free delivery and 6% back by delaying delivery from tomorrow to Sunday.

@romad

You can also check MacRumors for deals and availability. I’ve seen posts about deals on v.1 AirTags at Woot and Amazon there. Another traditional place to find hardware designated as Vintage or Obsolete by Apple is Other World Computing.

I checked MacSales but their search didn’t find any AirTags on their site.

Speaking of these Tag Items, I got a set of 3rd Party, Chipolo, and so far they work pretty well except for the ‘notify when left behind’ feature of Find My App, which I would find very useful. I have it turned on but I can be hours and miles away from the Item and get no notification.

The manufacturer points to Apple for this feature but indicates that my distance and time would have reasonably been expected to cause a Notification.

They also said it might require that Apple’s Significant Locations to also be on for such a notification to occur.

Language at Apple’s page on ‘separation alerts’ and Take Control of AirTags 4.0 indicate using Significant Locations or excluding alerts/notifications in specific locations is optional.

Anyone else had experience with this problem and resolved it? Is it truly not optional to use Significant Locations for separation alerts/notify when left behind work?

I bought some AirTags 2nd gen only to find out that they don’t work on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18. Like AirPods Pro 3 they’re artificially limited to the newest system (not just iOS 26 but a specific point release)

So I returned them and bought some AirTags 1st gen. Amazon messed up the order so I got them for free, plus some credit as way of an apology.

Silver linings, eh?

Are there any other devices present, that can receive the signal and report location, near the tags you’ve left behind?

Thanks for the question @jrg , yes when I tried this it was at a trade show, not tech type but still lots and lots of devices around for the 8-ish hours a day at the show. Afterwards, at dining and hotel were fewer devices but still around.

Chipolo support said significant locations needed to be on, so despite reservations I put it on for several days. They could also not say how far away or for how long it would take to trigger an alert.

Never got a single alert although I was away from chips for sometimes 2 hours and up to several km away.

So I turned all that off and will probably reset and give away the chips. FindMy has become too complex and interwoven and not well explained by Apple to use and I don’t want to waste my life administering FindMy. I rarely lose things anyway and minimize on device data and services.

It was a test and for me it’s not worthwhile. I’ll mull it over a while then decide.

True. You don’t need an AirTag if you drive a car with its own app. Your phone will display an Apple Map showing your vehicle’s location.