Ability of Apple Airtags

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › Ability of Apple Airtags

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konfusd

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#2985347 20-Oct-2022 15:08

I think you still need a recent iOS device to set up the AirTag at first, but once it's set up then you can check its location on the web.

johno1234

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#2985353 20-Oct-2022 15:35

Recently went away on a boy's golf weekend, and one of the boys has an AirTag in his bag. Without me doing anything, I started getting notifications on my phone showing where *his* tag was, and even a crumb trail on a map going all the way from Auckland to the Coromandel and back.

Is this normal? He's obvious; yin my contact list but I never subscribed to get these notifications.

fearandloathing

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#2985355 20-Oct-2022 15:39

johno1234:
Recently went away on a boy's golf weekend, and one of the boys has an AirTag in his bag. Without me doing anything, I started getting notifications on my phone showing where *his* tag was, and even a crumb trail on a map going all the way from Auckland to the Coromandel and back.

Is this normal? He's obvious; yin my contact list but I never subscribed to get these notifications.

Yes, this is working as expected. You can silence them on your phone.

johno1234

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#2985379 20-Oct-2022 16:06

fearandloathing:
johno1234:

Recently went away on a boy's golf weekend, and one of the boys has an AirTag in his bag. Without me doing anything, I started getting notifications on my phone showing where *his* tag was, and even a crumb trail on a map going all the way from Auckland to the Coromandel and back.

Is this normal? He's obvious; yin my contact list but I never subscribed to get these notifications.

Yes, this is working as expected. You can silence them on your phone.

Interesting. I thought this feature would only be of interest to one's own tags, but that any iPhone could unobtrusively contribute observation of tags.

freitasm

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#2985382 20-Oct-2022 16:09

Big noise because people have been using the tags to track people without them knowing, so Apple made them very visible if they are around someone for long periods of time.

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boosacnoodle

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#2985480 20-Oct-2022 19:52

They're not really advisable to use for tracking stolen items for this reason. The anti-stalking protection is rather overbearing. It's more like to find where you misplaced your keys.

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MadEngineer

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#2985632 21-Oct-2022 00:02

I’ve put one on our dog and it’s been used twice to track her, unfortunately. Luckily she only went across the road to the neighbours. Problem in this situation is that the tracking seems to pin her to our home address rather than showing her actual location. The beeper solves that however.

Works especially well when you’ve trained her to come running for a treat when you hit the play sound button. Have used that a few times to retrieve her from the back yard.

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everettpsycho

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#2985690 21-Oct-2022 07:07

We use the Samsung ones and they are good enough, got a pair free woth our phones when we upgraded.

They do exactly the same thing but rely on Samsung phones to call home and track the location. One thing someone above me fioned they do offer ks family sharing, so we have one each on our keys and can track how far each other are from home to knows if we should serve up dinner or wait as the others not far off.

Only suggestion is funny bother with the plus model, the uwb tracking is a novelty I never use and the battery life is awful because of it. I've had to replace the Carter twice while the normal one is on the original. You also need a phone with uwb which most phones don't have.

freitasm

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#2985712 21-Oct-2022 08:27

everettpsycho: We use the Samsung ones and they are good enough, got a pair free woth our phones when we upgraded.

They do exactly the same thing but rely on Samsung phones to call home and track the location. One thing someone above me fioned they do offer ks family sharing, so we have one each on our keys and can track how far each other are from home to knows if we should serve up dinner or wait as the others not far off.

Only suggestion is funny bother with the plus model, the uwb tracking is a novelty I never use and the battery life is awful because of it. I've had to replace the Carter twice while the normal one is on the original. You also need a phone with uwb which most phones don't have.

Correct. If you don't have a UWB-capable phone then just get the Smarttag, not the Smarttag+.

As I said, the OP question was "do Apple tags work? My friend uses a Samsung so would need to change phones" when the correct answer to the OP would (and I posted before):

"Don't change phones, use the Samsung tags instead, problem solved"

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johno1234

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#2985904 21-Oct-2022 16:44

This is a clever idea:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004527338940.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.48eb5ce8JwXu6G&algo_pvid=d52dbc51-a425-4892-91d6-2a6f78bca5e3&algo_exp_id=d52dbc51-a425-4892-91d6-2a6f78bca5e3-22&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000029481751828%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21NZD%210.89%210.49%21%21%212.64%21%21%402101e9d516663157401285639e87e4%2112000029481751828%21sea&curPageLogUid=afhlDmeo9Khg

The nice Apple Airtag keyrings are insanely expensive - more than the Airtag itself but they are only a dollar or two for aftermarket ones. Also carriers for pet collars, wallet cards etc.

Tinkerisk

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#2986916 23-Oct-2022 15:17

House keys, car keys, car itself, bicycle, (hunting-)dog, wallet (card sized) and travel bag. 4 AirTags and 3 airtag compatible devices.

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#2986960 23-Oct-2022 19:05

johno1234:

This is a clever idea:

… even more clever … fully integrated and with AirTag sound suppressor. Nevertheless you have to act quickly before the thief gets the message (thanks to Apple) that there is a foreign AirTag in his vicinity.

The most important thing: a 0.7L wine bottle fits in the holder.

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