AirTag is a new way to track your belongings in your home. It’s a small, Bluetooth-enabled tag that you put on the item you want to keep track of, like a TV or chair. Then, when you leave the house, your AirTag will automatically connect to the tag of the item you left at home and send you updates about its location. The downside is that AirTag can be expensive—you can buy one for around $30—and it doesn’t work with all devices. But if you’re looking for an easy way to keep track of your belongings and don’t want to spend money on something that won’t work with all of them, AirTag is worth considering.
Apple Leapfrogs Tile
When the AirTag was announced, Tile controlled roughly 80% of the tracker market. Tile was the obvious company to buy from if you wanted to be reunited with a lost item as the market leader. As more people owned Tiles than other trackers, there was a higher chance of someone with the tracker’s app installed coming across your stuff.
But with Apple incorporating AirTags into its Find My network, there are now hundreds of millions of iPhones around the world that can help you find your items. With the chances of locating lost keys, wallets, and bags much higher with AirTags, you shouldn’t spend your money on a Tile unless you own an Android smartphone.
How Do AirTags and Tile Trackers Work?
Apple AirTags and Tile trackers use almost identical technology under the hood. Both utilize Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) to pair to your smartphone, allowing you to ping and locate the tracker in case it goes missing. With the press of an in-app button on your smartphone, the AirTag or Tile’s built-in speaker will start ringing.
The AirTag has an additional tracking feature enabled by the inclusion of Apple’s U1 chip. Using Ultra-Wideband technology, your iPhone (as long as it’s an iPhone 11 or newer) can use spatial awareness to precisely locate the AirTag. It will literally point you in the correct direction and count down the feet to your lost item.
Bluetooth trackers like the AirTag and Tile become invaluable when you’ve truly lost something, not just misplaced it around your home. In addition to detecting your own trackers, your phone anonymously pings other AirTags or Tiles over Bluetooth LE. By using your tracker, you become a member of a larger network.
If the item your AirTag or Tile is attached to goes missing, you can mark it as lost. The moment you do, you will be alerted to its location if someone comes across it. The other person won’t be alerted that they’re near your lost item, but you will be given GPS coordinates to help you navigate to the location that it was last pinged.
RELATED: What Is Ultra Wideband, and Why Is It In the iPhone 11?
AirTags Have a Larger Crowdsourced Network
As mentioned, Bluetooth trackers are most valuable when an item has been lost or stolen. For the highest chance of retrieving it, you’ll want the highest number of people “looking” for it. And this is why—if you own an iPhone—you should buy AirTags over a Tile.
According to Tile, it has sold over 30 million trackers worldwide. Even if this statistic meant that 30 million customers had purchased at least one Tile (and still have the app installed on their phone), it pales compared to the roughly 113 million iPhone owners in the U.S. and 900 million worldwide.
While Tile requires you to install the Tile app to track your accessories (and help others locate their lost belongings), Apple utilizes its built-in Find My app. Basically, without the need to install or set anything up, every iPhone connected to the internet with location services turned on can detect AirTags and report their locations if they’ve been marked as lost.
If you’re worried about your privacy, Apple ensures any location sharing is encrypted and saved anonymously. If your iPhone were to detect someone else’s missing AirTag, the tracker’s location is sent to iCloud using end-to-end encryption and delivered to the owner without any of your personal information.
RELATED: What Is End-to-End Encryption, and Why Does It Matter?
Why You Should Buy a Tile Over an AirTag
Tile has one thing that Apple doesn’t: variety. While there is only a single AirTag as of the product’s release in April 2021, there are four different Tile options (including the Pro, Mate, Slim, and Sticker). While cases and accessories can adapt the AirTag to work with whatever you want to track, Tile’s various form factors allow you to choose which size and shape fits your needs.
The second reason why you might want a Tile is that you use an Android phone. The AirTag’s greatest “flaw” is that it’s locked to the Apple ecosystem. Unlike Tile, which works across platforms, AirTags are only compatible with iPhones. If you switch to Android from an iPhone, you can’t take it with you.
And lastly, if you pay for Tile’s premium subscription, you can share trackers with others. If you want everyone in your home to be able to find the lost TV remote, this feature might be important.
Access to First- and Third-Party Accessories
AirTags and Tile trackers are accessories on their own as they are normally thrown in a bag or attached to your keys. Unlike Tiles that come in different sizes and form factors, the AirTag is one-size-fits-all. To adapt it to fit your needs, there are dozens of first- and third-party accessories.
One example of third-party accessories for an AirTag is Nomad’s glasses strap and keychain (as seen above). Both are made out of high-quality materials and bring extra functionality to your AirTag.
Own an iPhone? Just Get an AirTag
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In line with Apple’s “it just works” mantra, the AirTag is the best Bluetooth tracker for iPhone owners. Between the ease of use that’s comparable to setting up AirPods and the fact that there are hundreds of millions of iPhones capable of finding your lost items, AirTags are simply a better buy than Tile.
Because Apple has opened the Find My Network Accessory Program to third-party device makers, it’s theoretically possible that Tile could one day compete head-to-head with AirTags (including the use of Apple’s Ultra-Wideband tech). Tile CEO, CJ Prober, is worried that Apple will play unfair (as mentioned in a statement to Congress), so it’s not clear if the two companies will collaborate in the future.
