AirTag 1 vs. AirTag 2 Buyer's Guide: All 15+ Differences Compared

[Makosuke]

Does this mean that its location gets updated more frequently instead of like once every hour or so?

I doubt the update rate has changed, but the old ones pinged once every 1-2 minutes, not once an hour. Watching a cat wearing one from afar or my luggage making its way through the airport, you can very clearly see the update rate, and it’s vastly faster than hourly—if your updates are that slow either there are no iPhones nearby or there’s something wrong with the tag or the account.

Perhaps they occasionally send a stronger ping, which I suppose could account for infrequent updates if it’s far from the nearest phone, but I’ve never read anything like that so probably not.

My big question is does AirTag 2 accept the "standard" CR2032 battery (i.e., with the bitterant?) The AirTag 1 required one without the bitterant - it was very hard to find, and I threw mine out when the battery died. Would be great if AirTag 2 accepted the most common version of that battery.

That seems incredibly wrong. I do see a few people reporting issues with batteries that have bitterant coating, but just last month I replaced the batteries in three AirTags with Duracell ones that absolutely have the bitterant on them—called out in the few threads I found as an offender, in fact—and all were fine.

 

[Neepman]

Did I miss this before or are the new airtags not seen by any iOS other than iOS26?

 

[RowellE]

Would have liked to see it in a new color.

Space Gray AirTag would be 🔥

 

[deeddawg]

Is there any noticeable difference in the map view experience? Specifically, is it more accurate when locating other iPhones at a distance? UWB 2 sounds great, but I’m trying to understand whether it actually improves performance at longer ranges.

You're conflating two different aspects.

The Find My map view shows the location of the phone which most recently detected the AirTag's bluetooth signal. In a situation where few phones are near an AirTag, greater bluetooth range means gen2 might be detected in circumstances that a gen1 might not. I'd suggest few circumstances would show a discernible difference.

UWB is used for precision finding - giving relative direction and distance - when you're relatively close to the AirTag. In practice you would have to walk room to room in your house until the AirtTag was detected, then zero in on whether it's in the sofa cushions or the recliner. gen2 likely will be detected at a slightly longer distance, but again probably not a truly significant difference in practice.

Not going to buy the new one. Except the longer precision finding range, there is no other real benefit in upgrading. Would have liked to see it in a new color.

Correct - this is an evolutionary upgrade not revolutionary. Someone needing a new AirTag would choose a second gen device, but few first gen owners would see a need to replace existing devices.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

My big question is does AirTag 2 accept the "standard" CR2032 battery (i.e., with the bitterant?) The AirTag 1 required one without the bitterant - it was very hard to find, and I threw mine out when the battery died. Would be great if AirTag 2 accepted the most common version of that battery.

You can remove the bitterant in about two seconds with a wet paper towel. The bitterant turns blue so it’s easy to see that it’s been removed.

 

[DougiePhresh]

Those last two differences were a real stretch

 

[ThrowerGB]

I doubt the update rate has changed, but the old ones pinged once every 1-2 minutes, not once an hour. Watching a cat wearing one from afar or my luggage making its way through the airport, you can very clearly see the update rate, and it’s vastly faster than hourly—if your updates are that slow either there are no iPhones nearby or there’s something wrong with the tag or the account.

Perhaps they occasionally send a stronger ping, which I suppose could account for infrequent updates if it’s far from the nearest phone, but I’ve never read anything like that so probably not.


That seems incredibly wrong. I do see a few people reporting issues with batteries that have bitterant coating, but just last month I replaced the batteries in three AirTags with Duracell ones that absolutely have the bitterant on them—called out in the few threads I found as an offender, in fact—and all were fine.

I've had no problems with bitterant coated batteries. I thought I'd have problems using up my supplies. But: no problems. So I've kept using bitterant coated name brand batteries.

 

[ETL]

“Small” is minimizing this update in my opinion. It’s a simple product, yes, but that makes any features updates more significant.

Almost every headline feature gets an upgrade:

— 50% louder
— 50% improved precision finding range
— Much better wall/obstruction penetration according to 9to5 (12ft vs 36ft)
— Faster to detect apparently thanks to UWB Gen 2
— And because of these chip improvements, crowdsourcing via the Find My network is improved if it gets lost

For me, that’s all big. I’ve had a backpack stolen was able to track several miles away and recover it. Found my luggage was delivered to the opposite side of the airport when the airline made a mistake. It can be hard to hear something when it’s buried. Walls/obstructions definitely get in the way with precision finding. And the time it takes to connect to precision finding can be annoying sometimes.

And I use this to track important items, like my keys, wallet, car, luggage.

I’m definitely upgrading.

 

[hardik7]

• Already own AirTag 1? No real reason to upgrade.
• Buying new and price is close? AirTag 2 makes more sense for future-proofing.
• Buying in bulk or on discount? First-gen still offers excellent value.

Incremental update, not a must-have—but a sensible one for new buyers.

 

[tivoboy]

Just remember, MUST USE IOS 26.x+… it’s such an annoyance that apple does this crap. Just like with the AirPods Pro 3, most features wouldn’t work with anything short of ios 26.

 

[Neepman]

That the airtag 2 does not work with an iOS lower that iOS26 is basically a major FU by apple. I could understand if features were constricted by an older OS but that they don't are 100% not visible is just ridiculous.

 

[erihp]

gotta hit that monthly article quota i guess

 

[erihp]

It's pretty terrible that these don't have 5G as promised. Back to the drawing board, Tim Apple!

yah cellular connectivity on a cr2032...

🙄

 

[doobydoooby]

I have a wonderment.... a major benefit of AirTags is that other people's iphones are silently observing them so that you can locate them pretty much anywhere in the world. But these Gen 2 versions only work with the most recent ios... so does that mean the number of iphones sniffing for them is substantially lower, or will it be the same pool as Gen 1? I know it'll all come out in the wash in a year's time but still...I wonder.

 

[tivoboy]

I have a wonderment.... a major benefit of AirTags is that other people's iphones are silently observing them so that you can locate them pretty much anywhere in the world. But these Gen 2 versions only work with the most recent ios... so does that mean the number of iphones sniffing for them is substantially lower, or will it be the same pool as Gen 1? I know it'll all come out in the wash in a year's time but still...I wonder.

It’s a good thought, but I doubt that the background location beacon requires any current release ios to function. I’m not sure if it’s the find my network, or just a BLE beacon that sends out it’s device id, and then passes that through the random users phones (leveraging their location ID). Etc..