How To Use Apple’s AirTags To Track Your Stuff

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let's talk about the new Apple AirTag.

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So the newest product by Apple is this little AirTag. It's basically a Bluetooth tracker. You can use it to track things that you own like your keys, a backpack, or a purse. They cost $30 for one or you can get a pack of four for $100. I bought the pack of 4. You can see here it comes in standard Apple packaging. Once you open it up you can take the plastic out that then connects the battery and activates the AirTag. Then setting it up is really easy. If your iPhone is nearby it's just going to be automatic. The screen will come up. You give it a name and now this AirTag is registered to your phone and your Apple ID. 

Now to use it you need iOS 14.5 on your iPhone. You can also track it using your Mac and you'll need macOS 11.3. This basically just gives you an extra section in the Find My App for items and that's where you'll find the AirTags that you have registered to your Apple ID. There's an extra function that requires the iPhone 11 or 12 that's called Precision Finding and we'll look at that in a minute. But other functions will work just fine if you have an older iPhone as long as you're running 14.5. 

The idea here is that you put one of these in your backpack or your purse or your luggage or you attach it to a little case that is kind of a keychain and attach that to your keys or outside of a backpack of any other object. Then you can track that item. There are three different ways to track it. One is using the same Find My Mac functionality that we've had for a longtime now to be able to track iPhones and other devices, being able to track people that have shared their location with you. So you're probably familiar with this interface. It just brings up a map and shows you where the item is located. So the AirTag appears just the same way that an iPhone or a Mac or something would appear. 

The other thing you could do is when you're nearby you could have this play a sound. It has the ability to chirp. So if you've lost this item and you know it's nearby you can use your iPhone to have it start to chirp and then you can locate it by listening for it. Now if you have an iPhone 11 or 12 there's something called Precision Finding. This brings up a map and shows you with an arrow and the distance exactly where the item is. So in this case the AirTag has a direct connection to your phone and you're basically just walking around until you're right on top of it. So you can see it's pretty easy to find what it is you've lost. This will help you find your keys if you drop them between the cushions of the sofa. Things like that. 

So how does this work? Well, in the most direct way it's communicating with your iPhone. So it can tell that it's nearby and it can tell it's location. But if it's not within the range of your iPhone it works by talking to other people's iPhones. So basically each one of these has an ID number. The ID number changes on a regular basis which is important for privacy. But even when it changes it's still unique to this device. So it sends a signal out. Somebody walking by with another iPhone will pick up the signal and that iPhone will then send that information to Apple. It will send the location and the ID that this is sending out. But it won't identify itself. So it is like an anonymous report. Apple doesn't know what device reported this. It just knows the location and the ID of the device. Then you could go and look in the Find My App and Apple will match the ID of this with the ID that your Apple account knows and then be able to tell you, oh!, this was spotted at this location just three minutes ago or whatever. So, you get a location on a map. 

Now this is the way that Bluetooth trackers have always worked except that in the past people have to have the app on their device for it to work. So, if you loose your backpack and it has one of these and it's in the park somewhere you have to get lucky and have somebody that's using the same tracking app that you are walk by it. But AirTag doesn't need that. It just needs an iPhone, any iPhone. So you don't have to have the app installed. You don't have to be using AirTags. It simply will use the whole network of a billion iPhones across the planet to locate lost items. So it's important to realize there's no GPS in this and there is no way for this to communicate with WiFi or with a cellular phone network. So it's relying completely on this little Bluetooth signal it's sending out. Only the other iPhones have a location. This thing doesn't know where it is. It's basically just crying out its ID number all the time.

There's also a Lost Mode. So you can go into the Find My App and then if you've lost the object that the AirTag is attached to or inside of you can then put it into the Lost Mode. Then you'll get a notification the next time it's spotted by another iPhone. 

Now this also works with NFC, near field communications just the way those little tags that I've talked about in the past do. So if somebody sees one of these and they put their iPhone or Android phone up against it it will send out a little signal and give a message. On an iPhone, normally, that would allow them to contact you, the owner of it, and say hey, I've found this device. But if you put it into Lost Mode you can actually provide a message and even somebody with an Android phone would get that message and you could provide information to help get the item back to you. 

Apple has thought a lot about how these could be abused and used for stalking people. For instance, somebody could slip one of these into somebody else's backpack or purse or other item and then track where they go. So there are a few features built-in to prevent that. One is that if  this is no longer with the owner but is traveling with somebody else who has an iPhone that iPhone will alert them after a period of time that an item is following them around. An item that's no longer with its owner. So if it is still with you, if it's with you on a train or a plane or a car it's not going to do that. But if it's no longer with you but it's with somebody else the their iPhone identifies the item as always being with them they'll get an alert. Now even if they don't have an iPhone after three days this will start to emit a sound and they could find it and see that there's this thing that they don't know what it is and it's been with them this whole time. As further prevention there is a way to identify who this belongs to. So, if somebody were to slip this into somebody's backpack, track them for three days, then they get the beep. They can take this to authorities and the person that owns it can then get in trouble for tracking that other person. So it's not a good option for a stalker to use to track somebody. 

Now another thing people may want to use this for it an anti-theft device. Putting it on something like say a bike so if it's stolen they could track it. But the thing is as soon as this is traveling with somebody else or somebody else discovers it, they could disable the tracking. So you think, well then a thief could just disable it. What good is it. That really doesn't matter. If a thief could find this on whatever it is they stole, they don't need to disable it. They could just toss it or take the battery out or something. So it's really not good as an anti-theft device although properly hidden on something like a bike it could help. For instance, if a thief steals a bike and takes it back to their home and then discovers that it's tracking them, they'd disable it. But you've already figured out where the bike went. So it's probably better than nothing as an anti-theft device but far from perfect. Remember there's no GPS in this and there's no way for this to send a signal all by itself. So out in the middle of nowhere, if there's no other iPhone around, it's not going to really do anything.

Also, people may want to use this to put on their dogs or cats so if they get lost they can track them. Apple advises against this for those same reasons. If a dog runs away in the woods there's really going to be no way to figure out where the AirTag is located. However, in the city situation it could actually be used as a better than zero chance of finding a dog or cat. So if it's the difference between not having any kind of tracking on them or having this people may still opt to have this on them. 

Now here's some other things you should know. If you give this to somebody to track them with their permission it can sort of work. They'll get an alert on their iPhone saying something is tracking them but they can pause that alert for a day. But if they are a family member, part of your Apple ID Family Plan, they can pause it indefinitely. So you can have a Shared item, say a laptop bag, that is used by two people. The other person will get the alert and say okay don't alert me about this anymore. So now two people on the same Family Plan can actually carry the AirTag with them. Only one can track it but the other person won't be bothered by alerts saying that this is with them. The same thing can be used for kids. You can put it in your kid's backpack or have them carry it in their pocket and if they don't have an iPhone, of course, they won't know about it can chances are they won't be away from you for more than three days so it will be fine. It's just that it may not be reliable as a way to track them if they aren't other people with an iPhone around. It's no substitute for an actual GPS tracker but some people may still use it because it's better than nothing. 

Another thing you should know about this is there is a battery inside and it's a standard and inexpensive battery. It's the CR 2032 battery which you can get just about anywhere they sell batteries. Changing it is really easy. The bottom just twists off and when it does reveals the battery. You could see the battery here and it should last about a year. Easy to replace. You can get these in large packs for less than a dollar a piece. Also if you're trying to decide whether to put this inside your backpack or strap it to the outside using some sort of keychain case you want to strap it to the outside. Why? Well, because somebody who finds your backpack can see it on the outside and use their iPhone, put it up against it, and then be able to get the item back to you. If it's inside the backpack probably no one will realize it has an AirTag on it. So having it on the outside has it's advantages. 

Now as an experiment I went for a walk leaving my phone in the car recording the screen and just having the AirTag on me. As I walked around the park I could see, in the recording later, that it was indeed picked up by various people with iPhones that were also in the park. So I've already tested this and it actually works out pretty well. 

Now Apple can make adjustments to how the whole system works. For instance the three day thing for making a sound. That's not set in stone. There's a lot of different intricacies about it. Like, for instance, what if you leave a bunch of these at home while you're traveling. After three days they won't be with you. Will they start beeping. It turns out No because they have to move for that to happen. So a stationary AirTag won't actually start beeping after three days. It's only a moving AirTag that will. The whole process is very intricate. There's a lot of different aspects to how these work. All of us, including Apple, will be learning more over the coming weeks and months as people use them and abuse them and adjustments can be made. So only time will tell how useful these devices are or what other problems may come up.