After a long wait, Apple today officially unveiled AirTag at its ‘Spring Loaded’ event. AirTag is a simple, small-circular device from Apple that attaches on to things like wallets, bags, and keys and lets you keep a track of them. Let’s take a look at all the best AirTag features.
The Best AirTag Features
Apple finally introduced its Tile-competitor today, known as Apple AirTag. This small device lets you keep a track of your important things, like wallets, keys, bags, or even your pet through the company’s Find My app. These are the best AirTag features you should know.
1. Small Design, Easy to Setup
AirTags are small, quite small actually, with its size close to a bottle cap. It features a plain front, in case you don’t opt for the free emoji engraving, and has an Apple logo on the back. Apple has made IP67 water and dust resistant so you can attach it to your bag, or even to your pet, and not worry about the tags breaking down in bad weather conditions.
The device even has a small speaker inside it, so that it can alert you in case you’re not able to find your AirTag. It comes with a battery life of ‘over one year’ after which the user can replace it. The back of the AirTag snaps out, where you can replace its standard coin cell battery.
The setup of the AirTag, as Apple describes it, is ‘Magical.’ The AirTags will automatically detect your iPhone, and show a setup screen similar to AirPods. You just give it a name, or set a default like “Keys” or “Jacket,” and the AirTag will start showing up under the “Items” section of the Find My app.
2. Precision Tracking
AirTag makes use of Apple’s U1 chip, found in iPhone 11 and the iPhone 12 series, for precision location. With the use of Ultra Wide Band technology and U1 chip, AirTag can accurately measure the distance of them from an iPhone, and return a precise location.
Once you tap on an AirTag in Find My app, it will use the input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, and then will guide the user to AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback. Apple has also added support for the accessibility features into AirTag. For those who blind or low-vision, can utilize the VoiceOver feature which will provide directions to them like “AirTag is 9 feet away on your left.”
3. Find My Network
Apple announced its Find My Network for third-party accessory makers earlier this month, and now the company says ‘approaching a billion Find My Network Apple devices.’ AirTag rely on Bluetooth and U1 chip to return a location to the user.
If an AirTag is separated from the user, the AirTag will send anonymous signals to other Apple devices around it. It will then relay its own location, through the nearest Apple device, to its owner in the background, privately.
4. Lost Mode
If you lose an AirTag, and cannot find its location, you can put the AirTag in the ‘Lost Mode.’ This will create a trigger in Apple’s Find My network, and in case an Apple device comes near to your AirTag, it will relay its location (privately) to your iPhone.
If an AirTag is in the ‘Lost Mode,’ and is found by someone, the user can just tap on the AirTag and it will automatically open up a website on his/her iPhone which will display the details, like phone number, of the owner.
5. AirTag Accessories
Apple also released a number of accessories for AirTag. AirTag does not have an adhesive or a magnetic back, so it relies on accessories to hold it. AirTag can also be thrown in a bag, or a wallet or purse, and it will work just fine. But with objects like keys, it has to be kept in a special keyring.
Apple released a number of first-party accessories for the device, including a Polyurethane Loop, Leather Loop, Leather Key, and some special edition Hermès accessories. The Polyurethane Loop has been priced at $29, the Leather Key Ring has been priced at $35, and the Leather Loop has been priced at $39. The third-party accessory makers will also come out with a number of accessories for AirTag in the coming months.
6. User-Replaceable Battery
AirTags come with a user-replaceable battery. Apple says that AirTag should work fine for ‘over a year,’ after which the user will have to replace its battery. AirTags use the standard CR2032 coin cell battery, which can be easily replaced by taking off its back cover.
7. Privacy
AirTags does not store the location data on the device. It just relays a signal to the nearest Apple device, which is then used to determine an AirTag’s location. Apple says that the data is kept private, and the communication with the Find My Network is end-to-end encrypted.
AirTag also comes with a bunch of other privacy features. If an AirTag detects that it is used for unwanted location tracking, it stops relaying the location to the user. If an AirTag is separated from its owner, the AirTag will play a sound to draw attention to it.
AirTag Pricing and Availability
AirTag will be available to order from April 23 with shipping starting on April 30th. If you buy AirTags from Apple Store, the company is giving you an option to customize it with an emoji, which will be free of cost. Apple has set a price tag of $29 on the new object tracker and is bundling four AirTags for a price of $99.
What are your thoughts on the new AirTags? What are your favorite AirTag features? Are you looking forward to buying them? On which objects would you attach it? Drop a comment and let us know!
