Apple airtags as a tracker?

[Shaun Witts]

I have an old iPhone secreted in my van and hard-wired to the leisure battery, which works as well as an AirTag. Obviously it’s bigger, and may get found, so I have added another ”layer” with an AirTag. Of course, while the iPhone is still in my van, the AirTag doesn’t make any noise, and there will be no notifications on other devices because they are both linked to the same account.
Strangely, my wife says that the AirTag appears to be more accurate than the phone…?

 

[t6blo]

Another day of testing - not that impressed today….

The wife continues to be the Guinea pig as she uses an Android phone so the tag needs other Apple people detecting it to update its location.

She drove into town and parked, but the tag was reporting about half a mile away and stayed there for over an hour after she’d parked. Then it updated to the car park.

Next she went to a local garden centre then to her mums house (who also uses android) and the tag showed she was at the garden centre about a mile from her mums house for around 2 hours but in that time she had driven to her mums, talked shite for about 90 mins and then it only updated once she was driving home as she passed someone with an Apple device.

These inaccuracies could be the difference between finding the van and not if it had been nicked and parked. Maybe it would have updated the location eventually but obviously this would have taken a lot longer.

I will leave it in the van and hope it is never needed.

 

[Loz]

If you want to just self track, then you might as well get a back2you.

Guardian Extra - Live Tracking - 4 Month Battery - Set Up Ready To Track

Magnetic GPS Tracker with long battery life up to 4 months on one charge. Fully set up ready to track. Just hide in your vehicle track on your phone or PC

back2you.com

 

[phantom-uk]

Another day of testing - not that impressed today….

The wife continues to be the Guinea pig as she uses an Android phone so the tag needs other Apple people detecting it to update its location.

She drove into town and parked, but the tag was reporting about half a mile away and stayed there for over an hour after she’d parked. Then it updated to the car park.

Next she went to a local garden centre then to her mums house (who also uses android) and the tag showed she was at the garden centre about a mile from her mums house for around 2 hours but in that time she had driven to her mums, talked shite for about 90 mins and then it only updated once she was driving home as she passed someone with an Apple device.

These inaccuracies could be the difference between finding the van and not if it had been nicked and parked. Maybe it would have updated the location eventually but obviously this would have taken a lot longer.

I will leave it in the van and hope it is never needed.

When I did some research on using the airtags for this purpose I read that Apple will eventually allow them to be “noticed” by android run devices too, when that will be is anyone’s guess but that should make the product a lot more useful as a vehicle tracker I think

 

[roadtripper]

When I did some research on using the airtags for this purpose I read that Apple will eventually allow them to be “noticed” by android run devices too, when that will be is anyone’s guess but that should make the product a lot more useful as a vehicle tracker I think

You can sort of do this but not in way that is useful as a vehicle tracker.

Unfortunately certain people started using the airtags for nefarious tracking so there is an Android App that can detect airtags near you that someone may be trying to track you with without your knowledge, but it's an app you have to specifically run and scan, it's not part of the hidden mesh network running in the background of all modern iPhones that allow the Apple servers to use everyone's phones to locate airtags globally in real time.

 

[t6blo]

I’ve had 3x AirTags in our cars now for nearly 6 months.

As I noted above, not that useful as a vehicle tracker particularly if time is of the essence because if you use Android, waiting for an iPhone user to be near the vehicle to get a ping and update the location could be the difference between locating the vehicle or not.

My wife only recently got a notification on her android phone that there was an AirTag nearby when driving her car - first time since I installed them so not sure why it decided to alert her now.

The one in my van is slightly more useful as the location is constantly updated by my iPhone and I get an alert when I leave the van after parking it to say it has been left behind.

Not had any low battery alerts yet.