AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

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gavinsiu
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AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

I do not advocate using AirTag to track and spy on your family but was concerned that during vacation my little kids might get separated. I thought I can see if AirTags can be used in this matter.

It cannot. The tag is good at triangulating a general location, but the pointer only works within 20 feet or so and the target cannot be moving, which kids and pets will not be doing.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by GoldenFinch »

That is good to know. It sounds like they might give people a false sense of security.
Doctor Rhythm
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Doctor Rhythm »

Not advocating this, but the parent of a young child (too young to remember a phone number) with a penchant for wandering off would write her phone number on his arm with a Sharpie. It worked when we were at Disneyland, and her child promptly wandered off.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by WOMoney »

This might be a little off topic, but airtag is similar to Tile. There was a speech at a symposium, where they used a tile to find a hiker.
They used BLE connection messages to stim his tile and locate the rough area where he was from a helicopter using grid search.

I know a little off topic, but cool.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by snackdog »

Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by toomanysidehustles »

gavinsiu wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:24 pm
It cannot. The tag is good at triangulating a general location, but the pointer only works within 20 feet or so and the target cannot be moving, which kids and pets will not be doing.
False. We have one on our indoor cat who likes to escape outdoors. The only reason she isn't coyote food is due to location pinpoint within feet! Doesn't work well in a three story home though.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by EZ James »

I have both AirTag and Tile pro 2020.

The Tile has about 150' range on bluetooth, the AirTag about 30'.

The Tile is much louder. It shows signal strength but not direction. I find the Tile much more useful to locate my companion in a store.

When traveling she takes both. When I ping her sometimes both respond but with different locations since the network lag time varies for each.
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Harry Livermore
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Harry Livermore »

Doctor Rhythm wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:01 pm
Not advocating this, but the parent of a young child (too young to remember a phone number) with a penchant for wandering off would write her phone number on his arm with a Sharpie. It worked when we were at Disneyland, and her child promptly wandered off.
When we took our youngest to Disney, we wrote up a bunch of those "Hello, My Name Is..." type stickers with his name and both of our cell numbers. We would stick a fresh one on the underside of his shirt each day. I can't remember how old he might have been... 5 or 6? Of course, we never let him "wander away", but better safe than sorry.
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gavinsiu
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

toomanysidehustles wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:22 pm

False. We have one on our indoor cat who likes to escape outdoors. The only reason she isn't coyote food is due to location pinpoint within feet! Doesn't work well in a three story home though.
When I try testing it, the find my app kept saying that pinpointing was impossible because the target was moving. Was your cat staying put?
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

snackdog wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:22 pm Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
We don’t either, but when I was a kid I was prone to running off by myself when my parents attention wandered for even a minute. I think one time I was missing for an hour. In those days, you never see leashes that you see some parents carry today. My kids fortunately did not inherit my behavior in this area.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by oxothuk »

As a toddler, I once wandered off on my grandfather's farm and ended up half a mile away, on the other side of a creek. Or so I'm told.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by illumination »

I get the impression that Apple has had to dial down the effectiveness of AirTags because a small amount of people have used it as a stalking tool.

I bought a set almost exclusively to just be a key tracker in the home. Even at that easy task, it barely works. But it's better than nothing.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by ihelosec »

AirTag Precision Finding is only available for iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14 models. All other iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Macs without a U1 chip can also locate an AirTag, but with less precision (iOS 14.5 or later).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210967
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by mega317 »

I wonder what you'll be doing that you need technology to track your kids instead of just watching them.

I like those backpack/leash things for little kids. They're basically pets anyway.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

ihelosec wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:33 pm AirTag Precision Finding is only available for iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, and iPhone 14 models. All other iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Macs without a U1 chip can also locate an AirTag, but with less precision (iOS 14.5 or later).

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210967
I have a latter phone but even that has a limited range of 20 to 30 ft.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

mega317 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:14 pm I wonder what you'll be doing that you need technology to track your kids instead of just watching them.

I like those backpack/leash things for little kids. They're basically pets anyway.
Think of wondering around super dense cities where people are pack together like sardines. The leash might get tangled up. When they were younger I could just carry them.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Doctor Rhythm »

mega317 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:14 pm I wonder what you'll be doing that you need technology to track your kids instead of just watching them.

I like those backpack/leash things for little kids. They're basically pets anyway.
I’m usually checking the S&P 500 when my child or pet wanders off. Or maybe they’re staying perfectly still, and I’m the one wandering. It’s all relative, right? Anyway, I guess the answer is to use mutual funds instead of ETFs, so I only need to check once a day at market close.

Or I could wear the leash, I suppose.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by mega317 »

Doctor Rhythm wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 2:40 pm
mega317 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:14 pm I wonder what you'll be doing that you need technology to track your kids instead of just watching them.

I like those backpack/leash things for little kids. They're basically pets anyway.
I’m usually checking the S&P 500 when my child or pet wanders off. Or maybe they’re staying perfectly still, and I’m the one wandering. It’s all relative, right? Anyway, I guess the answer is to use mutual funds instead of ETFs, so I only need to check once a day at market close.

Or I could wear the leash, I suppose.
Got to refresh BH.org at least every 15 min to see if it's a RBD. Helps to travel overseas when your activities with children won't overlap with US trading hours.

How old are these kids? Some other ideas for OP depending on age: hold their hand. Carry something very noticeable like a bright red umbrella and open it if you can't see your kid. (Helps if it's not raining.) Burner phone (probably need to be at least 6 or 7). Emergency plans ("If you lose me, go to the northwest corner of these 2 streets and don't move.")
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Texanbybirth »

As the parent of a prone-to-wonder 4 yo, my takeaway from this thread - aside from a few chuckles - is the write your phone number in Sharpie on child's forearm idea. Brilliant! :beer
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Watty »

Texanbybirth wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:07 pm As the parent of a prone-to-wonder 4 yo, my takeaway from this thread - aside from a few chuckles - is the write your phone number in Sharpie on child's forearm idea. Brilliant! :beer
Don't forget to set your cell phone to not automatically block calls, or send to voice mail, numbers that are not in your contact list.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Stubbie »

Texanbybirth wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 3:07 pm As the parent of a prone-to-wonder 4 yo, my takeaway from this thread - aside from a few chuckles - is the write your phone number in Sharpie on child's forearm idea. Brilliant! :beer
I do this. Also, zip up in his pocket the smallest burner iPhone I can find. As long as it's on a cell network I can track him with "find my iPhone".
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by TravelGeek »

EZ James wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:57 pm
The Tile has about 150' range on bluetooth, the AirTag about 30'.
WOMoney wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:21 pm This might be a little off topic, but airtag is similar to Tile. There was a speech at a symposium, where they used a tile to find a hiker.
They used BLE connection messages to stim his tile and locate the rough area where he was from a helicopter using grid search.

I know a little off topic, but cool.
I must be misunderstanding this - did they fly the helicopter within 150 ft off the hiker in order to connect to the Tile tracker?
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by quantAndHold »

gavinsiu wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:58 am
snackdog wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:22 pm Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
We don’t either, but when I was a kid I was prone to running off by myself when my parents attention wandered for even a minute. I think one time I was missing for an hour. In those days, you never see leashes that you see some parents carry today. My kids fortunately did not inherit my behavior in this area.
We lost a 50 year old engineer in Beijing that way. His wife wasn’t paying attention, and he wandered off. We didn’t see him the rest of the day. Fortunately, he had some cash and the business card for the hotel.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Stinky »

quantAndHold wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:01 am
gavinsiu wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:58 am
snackdog wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:22 pm Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
We don’t either, but when I was a kid I was prone to running off by myself when my parents attention wandered for even a minute. I think one time I was missing for an hour. In those days, you never see leashes that you see some parents carry today. My kids fortunately did not inherit my behavior in this area.
We lost a 50 year old engineer in Beijing that way. His wife wasn’t paying attention, and he wandered off. We didn’t see him the rest of the day. Fortunately, he had some cash and the business card for the hotel.
You're kidding - right?
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by pshonore »

We have a Tile device taped to our TV remote which has a habit of disappearing from time to time. Works great. I suggested to spouse that we should find a device that could attached to the door frame of the TV room. Anyone getting close to leaving the room with the remote would receive a reminder to leave it. :D
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by quantAndHold »

Stinky wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:02 am
quantAndHold wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:01 am
gavinsiu wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:58 am
snackdog wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:22 pm Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
We don’t either, but when I was a kid I was prone to running off by myself when my parents attention wandered for even a minute. I think one time I was missing for an hour. In those days, you never see leashes that you see some parents carry today. My kids fortunately did not inherit my behavior in this area.
We lost a 50 year old engineer in Beijing that way. His wife wasn’t paying attention, and he wandered off. We didn’t see him the rest of the day. Fortunately, he had some cash and the business card for the hotel.
You're kidding - right?
Not at all. We lost him in the Forbidden City, and didn’t realize it until we were outside and couldn’t go back to get him. We paged him, waited like 20 minutes, and then went to lunch and left him to find his own way out and back to the hotel.

He got fascinated by some weapon, and didn’t realize we had left him behind, until he heard the loudspeaker calling his name.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by tunafish »

toomanysidehustles wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:22 pm
gavinsiu wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:24 pm
It cannot. The tag is good at triangulating a general location, but the pointer only works within 20 feet or so and the target cannot be moving, which kids and pets will not be doing.
False. We have one on our indoor cat who likes to escape outdoors. The only reason she isn't coyote food is due to location pinpoint within feet! Doesn't work well in a three story home though.
I have been looking for a tracker for my cat as I dread a pet getting lost, but the tags all seem uncomfortably big for a cat.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by EverydayWallSt »

An AirTag saved my dog’s life. My family and I were on an international vacation when we got a panicked call from the dog sitter that our old, nearly blind poodle had snuck out the front gate in the dark. I pulled out my phone and started tracking him and texting our dog sitter screen shots of his location.

We don’t live in a super dense area, so the updates only came in very few minutes, but it was enough to see that he had wandered over a mile and crossed many streets (miraculously). We also started texting the tracking to friends who lived nearby to where he had wandered.

It was 15 minutes of panic and feeling pretty helpless, but it worked! Our dog sitter found him where the Find My said he was - eating scraps from a dumpster behind a restaurant, over a mile from home, in the dark.

We bought AirTags for all our family’s pets. And we got a new dog sitter.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by skeptical »

Not advocating this :-), but I use Tractive for my dog. Works pretty much anywhere (in theory, worldwide), works most of the time, and provides real time tracking when needed.

It is 3"x1", 40 grams, costs $35 for the device, and you can a monthly plan (it uses a SIM card) for as little as $6 per month.

Just need to put it in a pocket. Does need to be charged daily.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by baconavocado »

tunafish wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 12:42 pm
toomanysidehustles wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:22 pm
gavinsiu wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:24 pm
It cannot. The tag is good at triangulating a general location, but the pointer only works within 20 feet or so and the target cannot be moving, which kids and pets will not be doing.
False. We have one on our indoor cat who likes to escape outdoors. The only reason she isn't coyote food is due to location pinpoint within feet! Doesn't work well in a three story home though.
I have been looking for a tracker for my cat as I dread a pet getting lost, but the tags all seem uncomfortably big for a cat.
Our cat is like Houdini when it comes to getting out of a collar.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by WOMoney »

TravelGeek wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:52 am
EZ James wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:57 pm
The Tile has about 150' range on bluetooth, the AirTag about 30'.
WOMoney wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:21 pm This might be a little off topic, but airtag is similar to Tile. There was a speech at a symposium, where they used a tile to find a hiker.
They used BLE connection messages to stim his tile and locate the rough area where he was from a helicopter using grid search.

I know a little off topic, but cool.
I must be misunderstanding this - did they fly the helicopter within 150 ft off the hiker in order to connect to the Tile tracker?
They found a rough area, but then used direction finding antennas to get closer and eventually locate the hiker.
Had a subpoena for his tiles' Mac address so they could get pass the randomization MAC.

They plan to put this on drones and such. Very much a work in progress.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Dusn »

They might be useful to put in your checked in luggage though. So that you know what cities your clothes are vacationing in.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

EverydayWallSt wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:20 pm An AirTag saved my dog’s life. My family and I were on an international vacation when we got a panicked call from the dog sitter that our old, nearly blind poodle had snuck out the front gate in the dark. I pulled out my phone and started tracking him and texting our dog sitter screen shots of his location.

We don’t live in a super dense area, so the updates only came in very few minutes, but it was enough to see that he had wandered over a mile and crossed many streets (miraculously). We also started texting the tracking to friends who lived nearby to where he had wandered.

It was 15 minutes of panic and feeling pretty helpless, but it worked! Our dog sitter found him where the Find My said he was - eating scraps from a dumpster behind a restaurant, over a mile from home, in the dark.

We bought AirTags for all our family’s pets. And we got a new dog sitter.
I am curious. Did the air tag basically provide a general pinpoint info and then provide a direction arrow when you get close? In my case my case the arrow did not appear until the tag stop moving.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

Return on a trip with my family and lost track of my son for a brief moment when we were rushing to get to a terminal. With a lot of luggage, hand holding may not be possible. The usual strategy we employ is to have have 1 parent lead while the other parent follow the kids to make sure they are following the lead. My son disappeared for a brief moment because someone in front looked like mom and he started following the wrong person which is why there is a trailing parent to make sure this doesn’t get too far.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by toomanysidehustles »

gavinsiu wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:51 am
toomanysidehustles wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:22 pm

False. We have one on our indoor cat who likes to escape outdoors. The only reason she isn't coyote food is due to location pinpoint within feet! Doesn't work well in a three story home though.
When I try testing it, the find my app kept saying that pinpointing was impossible because the target was moving. Was your cat staying put?
She stays put long enough to register a direction arrow and distance! Typically under our deck, neighbors deck or under neighbors patio furniture. Works well enough for us!
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by michaeljc70 »

EZ James wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:57 pm I have both AirTag and Tile pro 2020.

The Tile has about 150' range on bluetooth, the AirTag about 30'.

The Tile is much louder. It shows signal strength but not direction. I find the Tile much more useful to locate my companion in a store.

When traveling she takes both. When I ping her sometimes both respond but with different locations since the network lag time varies for each.
Please correct me if I am wrong as this is what I've cobbled together in reading various articles.

Both Airtags and Tile use BT for when the tag is fairly close to you.

AirTags will use potentially any iPhone in the area of the tag to help find the tag. That means millions of potential receivers. Obviously, if you're in a remote area this becomes less useful.

Tile will use any phone that has the Tile app on it to help find a Tile. This is a much, much smaller number of potential receivers.

I am hoping Google comes out with Tags similar to AirTags.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by EverydayWallSt »

gavinsiu wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:14 pm
EverydayWallSt wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 1:20 pm An AirTag saved my dog’s life. My family and I were on an international vacation when we got a panicked call from the dog sitter that our old, nearly blind poodle had snuck out the front gate in the dark. I pulled out my phone and started tracking him and texting our dog sitter screen shots of his location.

We don’t live in a super dense area, so the updates only came in very few minutes, but it was enough to see that he had wandered over a mile and crossed many streets (miraculously). We also started texting the tracking to friends who lived nearby to where he had wandered.

It was 15 minutes of panic and feeling pretty helpless, but it worked! Our dog sitter found him where the Find My said he was - eating scraps from a dumpster behind a restaurant, over a mile from home, in the dark.

We bought AirTags for all our family’s pets. And we got a new dog sitter.
I am curious. Did the air tag basically provide a general pinpoint info and then provide a direction arrow when you get close? In my case my case the arrow did not appear until the tag stop moving.
I never got within 1,000 miles (I was out of the country). I just used the Find My map in Lost Mode and location and kept sending screenshots to my dog sitter and friends in the area until they found him. Would have been impossible without it.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by gavinsiu »

michaeljc70 wrote: Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:30 am Please correct me if I am wrong as this is what I've cobbled together in reading various articles.

Both Airtags and Tile use BT for when the tag is fairly close to you.

AirTags will use potentially any iPhone in the area of the tag to help find the tag. That means millions of potential receivers. Obviously, if you're in a remote area this becomes less useful.

Tile will use any phone that has the Tile app on it to help find a Tile. This is a much, much smaller number of potential receivers.

I am hoping Google comes out with Tags similar to AirTags.
Yes, this is how the airtag works. The more iphone in the area, the more accurate it is.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by bertilak »

How do any of these devices compare to a cat/dog GPS collar?

I have one (Tractive brand) for my cat and it works quite well. It uses a cellular data plan to report GPS position to Tractive's server which is quickly shown on a map on your Tractive cell phone app. This also shows a history of the cat's roaming. GPS gets you somewhat close. Once you are within Bluetooth range you can, with a little eyeballing, find the cat. The app's Bluetooth helps pinpoint with a signal strength display.

If the cat is within Wi-Fi range of your router, the collar saves battery power by not using GPS nor the data plan. You should then be able to find your cat by eye with the help of Bluetooth. Note that the collar does not connect with your Wi-Fi but only senses its presence. You need to do some setup to let it recognize your specific Wi-Fi.

Potential problem for tracking lost or stolen items:
  1. The rechargeable battery only lasts maybe 10-12 hours when using GPS so you would want to be sure it is fully charged before putting your goods at risk of loss. The battery recharges via USB in about an hour. The charge only lasts a very long time (2-3 days?) when within Wi-Fi range, when you probably wouldn't need it for loss prevention anyway.
  2. It is expensive and requires a subscription to a data plan. You pay, Tractive manages.
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by Finridge »

I have to disagree with the OP. Any iPhone can geolocate an Airtag that it comes in range with. Ditto with any phone running the Tile app with regard to the Tile.

You do not need need to be within range of the tag/tile yourself--it's enough that some other phone is. You can be 100 miles away or on the other side of the world, and it still works.

And YES, I have used one of these to quickly find a child after we became separated at a large public venue. It worked well.

In my opinion, every pet should have one of its collar. And when going to somewhere where it's easy to get lost or separated, it is a good idea to put these on kids.

It won't provide continuous location updates--there may be lags between pings. And the more other people around the better since you will get pinged only after another phone listening for the tag/tile comes into close proximity with it. (It's pretty much useless if they are lost in the wilderness.) But it is a useful tool and gives you a much better chance...
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Re: AirTags are not useful as a people/creature tracker

Post by chazas »

snackdog wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:22 pm Oh gosh, we don’t let our kids wander off in places like that. Too many weirdos out there.
A, that’s a little judgy. B, the idea that there are “weirdos” just waiting to pounce is demonstrably untrue, and contributes to people focusing on the wrong risks. The issues more often arise from someone you know.

Anyway, actionably, I got a couple of free AirTags at a conference and was going to put them on my cats so I could find them in the house. I soon realized that wasn’t really the proper use.
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