Not at all confident in Air Tags after recent Disney trip

[kat.hayes]

I am pretty new to AirTags and have tried them out in my house and my phone showed me in real time what direction to go in to find them and how far away I was. I just got back from two days at Disneyland and attached them to both of my kids shoe laces. I had two times where they got away from me in a crowd and I tried to use it, though it did not work.

Multiple times it stated "Searching for signal...Try moving to a different location" This makes no sense, I was in a hugely crowded area where presumably there were thousands of iPhones.

Next, when the signal did work, it did not show me the real time feature that I expected, and instead showed me a route, like you might see when routing a trip with Maps, though it did not take me to the right location...

Is there something that I may be missing here?

 

[deeddawg]

I am pretty new to AirTags and have tried them out in my house and my phone showed me in real time what direction to go in to find them and how far away I was. I just got back from two days at Disneyland and attached them to both of my kids shoe laces. I had two times where they got away from me in a crowd and I tried to use it, though it did not work.

Multiple times it stated "Searching for signal...Try moving to a different location" This makes no sense, I was in a hugely crowded area where presumably there were thousands of iPhones.

Next, when the signal did work, it did not show me the real time feature that I expected, and instead showed me a route, like you might see when routing a trip with Maps, though it did not take me to the right location...

Is there something that I may be missing here?

I think the main part you're missing is that AirTags aren't really intended for tracking people - particularly not in real-time.

As for the "searching for signal" - that's the phone looking for the AirTag bluetooth / UWB signals - which is limited range - and even more limited in a crowd of people. Since it'd recently seen the airtags close by thats the first mechanism used.

As for location reporting via the FindMy network, that is not realtime. When a phone detects an Airtag, it may be several minutes before it reports the location to the FindMy servers. Of course a child will likely no longer be at the same location by the time the FindMy location is updated.

Next time I'd suggest something like the T-Mobile SyncUP Tracker or any of the other myriad GPS/cellular based tracking device intended for real time location tracking.

On a longer term basis, an Apple Watch cellular model can provide real time tracking as well, via Family Setup if you don't wish to provide the child with a phone as well.

 

[kat.hayes]

I thought that Airtags use nearby iPhone signals to send signal? Which is why I was surprised that I received that message.

I did not realize that AirTags were not real time…Like I mentioned, I tested them at home, and it seemed real time, though I guess that was because the air tag had been located in the same spot long enough to track it…

Thanks

 

[MisterSavage]

I thought that Airtags use nearby iPhone signals to send signal? Which is why I was surprised that I received that message.

I did not realize that AirTags were not real time…Like I mentioned, I tested them at home, and it seemed real time, though I guess that was because the air tag had been located in the same spot long enough to track it…

Thanks

They are real time when they're physically close and reachable via Bluetooth. That's what the searching for signal message was referring to. Pinging strangers' iPhones is for getting a general location of where your Air Tag is.

 

[deeddawg]

@kat.hayes They're real-time if you're within UWB/bluetooth range -- That you saw "Searching for Signal" means the airtags were already out of range -- which in a crowd of people isn't going to be very far since people's bodies tend to attenuate such signals.

From my experience, the FindMy network part tends to have lag. Which is fine when using Airtags for the intended purpose of finding stuff you've lost / left behind. If trying to real-time track a child, Airtags are not the tool for that purpose and aren't marketed as such.

 

[kat.hayes]

Thanks everyone for the response. The whole within bluetooth range makes sense, and I did not realize that.

 

[MisterSavage]

Thanks everyone for the response. The whole within bluetooth range makes sense, and I did not realize that.

Hiding the airtags in the house and letting the kids find them with the phone is actually a fun activity!

 

[jcdDigix]

I think the main part you're missing is that AirTags aren't really intended for tracking people - particularly not in real-time.

As for the "searching for signal" - that's the phone looking for the AirTag bluetooth / UWB signals - which is limited range - and even more limited in a crowd of people. Since it'd recently seen the airtags close by thats the first mechanism used.

As for location reporting via the FindMy network, that is not realtime. When a phone detects an Airtag, it may be several minutes before it reports the location to the FindMy servers. Of course a child will likely no longer be at the same location by the time the FindMy location is updated.

Next time I'd suggest something like the T-Mobile SyncUP Tracker or any of the other myriad GPS/cellular based tracking device intended for real time location tracking.

On a longer term basis, an Apple Watch cellular model can provide real time tracking as well, via Family Setup if you don't wish to provide the child with a phone as well.

Thanks for the info deeddawg. Very helpful post.

 

[JPack]

The short answer is AirTags were designed for extremely low power consumption. They were never designed for real-time tracking because it depends on latching on to an iPhone for network.

To save power, AirTags don't reach out to multiple iPhones at any one time. So the presence of a thousand iPhones makes no difference. The other issue is refresh rate. It often takes a few minutes before updating the location. Again, this is to save power. The end result is when you have a sea of people moving around, it might connect with one iPhone which quickly moves out of Bluetooth range. So AirTags has to wait a few minutes for another iPhone to latch on to.

AirTags use a CR2032 battery with 235 mAh capacity and are designed to last a year. Typical cellular-based trackers use a battery about 4X larger and need to be recharged every week.

 

[Macative]

I am pretty new to AirTags and have tried them out in my house and my phone showed me in real time what direction to go in to find them and how far away I was. I just got back from two days at Disneyland and attached them to both of my kids shoe laces. I had two times where they got away from me in a crowd and I tried to use it, though it did not work.

Multiple times it stated "Searching for signal...Try moving to a different location" This makes no sense, I was in a hugely crowded area where presumably there were thousands of iPhones.

Next, when the signal did work, it did not show me the real time feature that I expected, and instead showed me a route, like you might see when routing a trip with Maps, though it did not take me to the right location...

Is there something that I may be missing here?

So you tried to use AirTags for something they are in no way designed to be used for, and then think that's a problem with AirTags?

 

[iHorseHead]

Mine often shows totally wrong address or place.

 

[deeddawg]

Mine often shows totally wrong address or place.

That’s an artifact of the delay in FindMy reporting from iphones which’ ve “seen” the AirTag

Still gets you the general area tho.

 

[pauljbax]

Are we all better off with a TILE?

 

[jav6454]

I thought that Airtags use nearby iPhone signals to send signal? Which is why I was surprised that I received that message.

I did not realize that AirTags were not real time…Like I mentioned, I tested them at home, and it seemed real time, though I guess that was because the air tag had been located in the same spot long enough to track it…

Thanks

No, UWB has a defined range in the spectrum. When too many devices share it, there is all sorts of interference. Furthermore, I can't believe I am saying this and most important, an AirTag is not meant to track kids down.

 

[ymarker]

Same experience at disney, air tags were not that useful. The apple watch cellular on family mode using an apple watch se, barely lasted half a day before the battery went to reserve mode and would only display the time and nothing else. So now the kidos have apple watch, disney magic band, air tag band - just helping apple and disney stock

 

[joeytitans]

So you tried to use AirTags for something they are in no way designed to be used for, and then think that's a problem with AirTags?

Why are you so needlessly rude and belittling? Go look at the landing page for AirTags - there is no clear directive saying that it is not ideal for tracking something continuously moving.

I’m very much aware Apple has come out and not recommended using them for purposes like this, however the average consumer shouldn’t have to read every single statement a company puts out on a product before using it. Maybe instead of placing blame on the consumer, there should be clearer recommendations and cautions about the use cases on the product and the product’s landing page. It is not an unreasonable expectation that something marketed as a tracking device should be able to perform in the way OP describes.

 

[Macative]

Why are you so needlessly rude and belittling? Go look at the landing page for AirTags - there is no clear directive saying that it is not ideal for tracking something continuously moving.

I’m very much aware Apple has come out and not recommended using them for purposes like this, however the average consumer shouldn’t have to read every single statement a company puts out on a product before using it.

I'm not in the business of coddling lack of accountability.