If you’ve ever missed an on-time departure thanks to a set of lost keys or misplaced wallet, you’ll benefit from a Bluetooth tracker. These small devices attach to your stuff and use your smartphone to keep tabs on where they are. AirTags are the best known in the category, tapping into a finding network created through anonymous iPhone pings in the area. Google now has a similar network using nearby Android phones, and Samsung has its own network that employs Galaxy phones. Some third-party trackers work with either Google or Apple’s network and offer additional features to boot. We tested trackers from Apple, Tile, Pebblebee, Samsung and Chipolo, comparing their finding capabilities, sound levels, reliability and design. We think the Chipolo Pop is the best Bluetooth tracker for most people, but a few other trackers have their merits as well.
What to look for in a Bluetooth tracking device
Bluetooth trackers are small discs or cards that rely on short-range, low-energy wireless signals to communicate with your smartphone. Attach one of these gadgets your stuff and, if it’s in range, your phone can “ring” the chip so you can find it. These tracking devices offer other features like separation alerts to tell you when you’ve left a tagged item behind, or where a lost item was last detected. Some can even tap into a larger network of smartphones to track down your device when you’re out of range. Depending on what you want the tracker to do, there are a few specs to look for when deciding which to get.
Device compatibility
Like most things from the folks in Cupertino, AirTags only work with products in the Apple ecosystem. Both Apple and Google have opened up access to the Find My and Find My Device networks to third-party manufacturers, including Chipolo and Pebblebee. Those two companies make device-agnostic models that will work with the larger tracking network from either brand, so iPhone and Android users can buy the same tag. Tile trackers work with either Android or Apple devices, but use Tile’s own Life 360 finding network. Samsung’s latest fob, the Galaxy SmartTag2, only works with Samsung phones and taps into a finding system that relies on other Samsung devices to locate lost tags.
Finding network
Crowd-sourced finding capabilities are what make headlines, with stories about recovering stolen equipment or tracking lost luggage across the globe. Using anonymous signals that ping other people’s devices, these Bluetooth tracking devices can potentially tell you where a tagged item is, even if your smartphone is out of Bluetooth range.
Apple’s Find My network is the largest, with over a billion iPhones and iPads in service all running Apple’s Find My app by default. So unless an iPhone user opts out, their phone silently acts as a location detector for any nearby AirTags. Apple recently increased the AirTag’s finding power by enabling you to share the location of a lost tag with a third party, party, like an airline. Chipolo fobs that work on Apple’s network have the same ability. Google launched its Find My Device network in 2024 and it’s a close second for the largest in the US
Now that Google’s Find My Device network is up and running, it’s a close second for the largest in the US. Like Apple, Android users are automatically part of the network, but can opt-out by selecting the Google services option in their phone’s Settings app and toggling the option in the Find My Device menu. Samsung’s SmartTag 2 and related network also defaults to an opt-in status for finding tags and other devices.
Tile offers a large finding grid that includes Tile users, Amazon Sidewalk customers and people running the Life360 network. Life360 acquired Tile in 2021, and, according to the company, the Life360 network has more than 70 million monthly active users.
In our tests, AirTags and third-party tags using its network, like the Chipolo Pop and Pebblebee Clip Universal, were the fastest to track down lost items. They offered nearly real-time location data in moderately to heavily trafficked spots around Albuquerque, including a bar, bookstore and coffee shops in Nob Hill, along with various outdoor hangouts on UNM’s campus.
Samsung’s SmartTags were able to locate our lost items most of the time, though not with the same precision finding accuracy as AirTags. When we tested Google’s Find My Device network right after launch, it was noticeably slower than Apple’s network when using the community finding feature. Testing it again in 2025, the time it took to locate a lost item was considerably improved, taking just a couple minutes for the community to track a fob. In our tests, Tile’s finding network wasn’t able to consistently locate its lost fobs.
Separation alerts
Here’s where a tracker’s day-to-day utility really shines. A separation alert lets you know when you’ve traveled too far from your tagged items, which is useful if you want to make sure your laptop bag, or jacket or umbrella always comes with you when you leave the house.
These notifications work when you’re out and about too. If you’ve got a Bluetooth tracking device in your wallet and walk out of a restaurant without it, the separation alert should kick in, resulting in fewer lost items. This feature also tells you where your tagged item and phone were last paired, allowing you to retrace your steps if you happen to miss the alert.
Each tracker handles left-behind items differently. AirTags and third-party fobs using its network (such as from Chipolo or Pebblebee) include the feature by default. Tile trackers require a yearly subscription to enable the alerts (currently $30 annually). Tags working with the Google Find My Device network don’t offer the feature at all, but Chipolo Pop tags can issue left-behind alerts using its own Android app. Both AirTags and Tiles allow you to turn off separation alerts at certain locations, meaning you can set your home as a “safe” place where items can be left behind, but alerts will still trigger elsewhere.
In our tests, AirTags and others using the Find My network alerted us between the 600- and 1,400-foot mark. Tiles sent a notification after about an average of 1,500 feet and were more consistent when using an Android phone than an iPhone. Chipolo Pop tags paired with an Android phone and using its own app sent an alert when we got around 450 feet away from our tagged item.
Connectivity, volume and design
The feature you may use most often is the key finder function, which makes the tracker ring when you hit a button in the app. With Apple’s AirTags, you can say “Hey Siri, where are my keys?” and the assistant will ring the tag (assuming it doesn’t mistakenly think you’re asking for directions to the Floridian archipelago). Asking Alexa or the Google Assistant to find your keys will work with Chipolo, Tile and Pebblebee trackers linked to your Android device.
If you have your tag but can’t find your phone, some trackers will let you ring them to find your handset. SmartTag2 fobs reliably rang our Galaxy phone when we double-pressed it. Tile trackers have the same feature. Chipolo Pop trackers can ring your phone, but uses the Chipolo app to do so, which can run concurrently with the Find My or Find My Device connection. AirTags and any third-party tags using only Apple or Google’s networks don’t offer this feature.
The volume of the Bluetooth tracking device may determine whether you can find an item buried in your couch cushions or in a noisy room. AirTags have a reputation for being on the quiet side, and that aligned with what we saw (measuring roughly 65 decibels). Chipolo’s Pop tags and Tile’s Pro model measure between 83 and 86 decibels on average. Pebblebee’s new Clip Universal was the loudest of any tag we’ve tested, clocking in at 91 ear-splitting decibels.
Design will determine what you can attach the tracker to. AirTags are small, smooth discs that can’t be secured to anything without accessories, which are numerous, but that is an additional cost to consider. Chipolo, Pebblebee and Tile offer trackers with holes that easily attach to your key ring, and all three companies also offer card-shaped versions designed to fit in your wallet. Pebblebee Clip Universal tags come with a handy carabiner-style key ring.
Batteries are replaceable for AirTag, Tile Pro, SmartTag2 and Chipolo Pop fobs and each should go for at least a year before needing to be swapped. Tile Mate and card-shaped trackers don’t have replaceable batteries, which means you’ll have to replace the entire unit whenever it dies. Pebblebee trackers are rechargeable in both the disc and wallet variety. They’re also the only tags equipped with onboard LEDs.
Stalking, theft and data privacy
AirTags have gotten a lot of attention and even prompted some lawsuits for Apple due to bad actors planting them on people in order to stalk them. While this fact may not influence your buying decision, any discussion of Bluetooth trackers should note what steps Apple, Google and Tile have taken to address the issue. Last year, all the major players in the Bluetooth tracker business teamed up to combat misuse and standardize how unauthorized tracking detection and alerts work for iOS and Android.
Last year, Tile launched a feature called Anti-Theft Mode, which enables you to render one of its trackers undetectable by others. That means if someone steals your tagged item, they won’t be able to use the anti-stalking features to find and disable the tracker. That sort of negates one of the major ways potential stalking victims can stay safe, so Tile hopes ID verification and a $1 million penalty will deter misuse. Separately, Tile was recently hit by a data breach, raising different privacy concerns. The company issued a statement about the event, which it shared with Engadget:
Similar to many other companies, Life360 recently became the victim of a criminal extortion attempt. We received emails from an unknown actor claiming to possess Tile customer information. We promptly initiated an investigation into the potential incident and detected unauthorized access to a Tile customer support platform (but not our Tile service platform). The potentially impacted data consists of information such as names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and Tile device identification numbers. It does not include more sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, passwords or log-in credentials, location data, or government-issued identification numbers, because the Tile customer support platform did not contain these information types.
We believe this incident was limited to the specific Tile customer support data described above and is not more widespread. We take this event and the security of customer information seriously. We have taken and will continue to take steps designed to further protect our systems from bad actors, and we have reported this event and the extortion attempt to law enforcement. We remain committed to keeping families safe online and in the real world.
As a theft deterrent, a Bluetooth tracker may or may not be the best option. Anecdotal stories abound in which people have recovered stolen goods using a tracker — but other tales are more cautionary. Neither Apple nor Google promotes its trackers or finding networks as a way to deal with theft. GPS trackers, on the other hand, are typically marketed for just that purpose.
How we tested
Before deciding on which trackers to test, we researched the field, looking at user reviews on Amazon, Best Buy and other retailers, along with discussions on sites like Reddit. We also checked out what other publications had to say on the matter before narrowing down our options to Apple AirTag, Tile, and Chipolo trackers. When Samsung’s SmartTag 2 came out in October of 2023, we added that to our testing, along with Pebblebee’s rechargeable Clip tracker. After Google launched its Find My Device, both Chipolo and Pebblebee released trackers in 2025 that work with either network and we tested the Pop and Universal key fob models and updated our top picks accordingly.
Here’s the full list of every tracker we tested:
After acquiring the trackers, I tested each one over the course of a few weeks using both an iPhone 11 and a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. I recreated likely user experiences, such as losing and leaving items behind at home and out in the city. I planted trackers at different spots near downtown Albuquerque, mostly concentrated in and around the University of New Mexico and the surrounding neighborhood of Nob Hill. Later, I conducted tests in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. Each test was performed multiple times, both while walking and driving and I used the measure distance feature on Google Maps to track footage for alerts. I paid attention to how easy the app was to use, how reliable the phone-to-tracker connection was and any other perks and drawbacks that came up during regular use.
Amy Skorheim for Engadget
Format: Disc with hole | Compatibility: Android and iPhone | Water resistance: IP55 (splash and dust resistant) | Battery life: 2 years | Replaceable battery: Yes | Distance for left-behind alerts: 450 ft. | Phone finder function: Yes, via Chipolo app
Chipolo’s previous fob, the Chipolo ONE, was our top pick for a couple years. The release of Samsung’s latest tag, new Tile trackers and other tags compatible with Google’s finding network didn’t manage to nudge it from its throne. The came out in early 2025 and it not only retains all the features we loved about the original tracker, but it also solved our one complaint about the previous model: Chipolo’s limited finding network.
The Pop tracker taps into either Google’s Find My Device or Apple’s Find My network, calling on every nearby Android or iPhone, respectively, to anonymously ping a lost tracker for accurate finding. Not only does it have some considerable lost-in-the wild chops, it’s also louder than an AirTag, can make your phone ring, has 12 different ring tones, comes in cute colors and, notably, has a dang hole unlike Apple’s slippery, accessory-requiring pebble.
It only works with one network at a time, but it’s easy to remove a device that’s connected to, say, an iPhone and then pair it up with a Galaxy handset. Setup was dead simple and fast. For both the iOS and Android tests, just bringing the Pop close to the phone triggered a prompt to pair it. Chipolo’s tag is no longer the loudest tracker we tested (Pebblebee’s Clip Universal holds that honor), but you won’t struggle to hear it — and it has 12 optional ringtones, including three that are holiday-themed.
Neither Apple AirTags nor third-party trackers working with Google’s Find My Device will let you ring your phone by squeezing the fob, but Chipolo Pop will. You’ll have to install the Chipolo app and give it permission to run in the background (doing so didn’t drastically drain either my iPhone or Android phone battery). The feature worked reliably in my tests and was highly appreciated, as my keys tend to stay put when I’m home, but my iPhone likes to roam around the house like a bored housecat.
iPhone users who walk away from an item tagged with the Find My network will get an alert before they get too far away (usually a couple blocks), but Google’s finding network has no similar ability. The Chipolo app enables left-behind (separation) alerts when using an Android phone. In my tests I got about 400 feet away from my stuff before getting a notification I’d forgotten something. That’s actually faster than AirTags’ notification and far quicker than Tile’s. Alerts were consistent whether I was forgetting an item at home, at a coffee shop or inside my car.
As far as losing stuff out in the wild, the Pop paired with Apple’s Find My network possesses the same spooky accuracy as an AirTag. In my iPhone test, I had a friend hide the tag about four blocks away from me next to a relatively busy coffee shop. Once they told me the tag had been stashed, I went to the Find My app to turn on the lost item feature — but no need, the finding network had already located it. I tapped to follow directions in Apple Maps and was taken within about two feet from the bush where it was hidden. Like my AirTags tests, I was both impressed with and slightly unnerved by the accuracy.
The finding skills that rely on the Android network were also impressive. Once the Pop was hidden, I marked it as lost and got a ping that it had been spotted about six minutes later. Again, the directions led me close enough to ring the tracker that I could find it.
Most people won’t need to rely on the finding network on a regular basis, which is why it’s important that Chipolo’s everyday locating abilities work well, too. Tapping the Play Sound function on either an Android or iPhone made the tag chirp almost instantly, and it was able to connect to nearby tags from further away than models from other brands.
- Louder than an AirTag
- Uses either or Apple or Google’s finding networks
- Chipolo app adds useful features
- Colorful disc with a hole
- Enables left-behind alerts for Android phones
$29 at Amazon
Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget
Format: Smooth disc | Compatibility: iPhone | Water resistance: IP67 (water and dust-resistant) | Battery life: 1 year | Replaceable battery: Yes | Distance for left-behind alerts: 1,200 ft | Phone finder function: No
AirTags work with iOS’ Find My app and are registered to your Apple ID, so they don’t require any additional downloads. If you’ve used the Find My app before, you’ll likely understand how this works. These are the quietest of the trackers we tested and each time you press the Play Sound button, the tags only ring for seven seconds. You’ll need to keep pressing if you don’t find your item right away and AirTags can’t be used to ring your phone.
As for separation alerts, AirTags were consistent, always delivering a “left behind” alert when I traveled about 1,200 feet away, or about three square blocks, without an item. You can turn off separation alerts for any given tracker, as well as designate certain locations, such as your home or workplace, as exceptions for the notifications.
One feature that AirTags have that no other tag offers is the ability to tap into the ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless protocol. This allows you to play a fun game of hot and cold with an item when it’s within about 25 feet of your iPhone. Directional arrows and a diminishing distance meter on your iPhone’s screen point you to an item without having to ring it. This worked reliably about 75 percent of the time in my tests; sometimes it was just easier to ring the item when the directional finding couldn’t keep a lock on the tracker.
UWB is supported by iPhone models 11 and later and while newer Galaxy and Pixel phones also support UWB, no Android-compatible tracker has yet been released. In 2021, Tile announced one that would, but has since missed its promised release window of “early 2022.”
AirTag’s ability to locate a lost item out in the city is almost eerie. I had someone (who was not carrying an iPhone) take my bike with a tracker hidden under the seat to a location a little over a half mile away. I set out a few minutes later and toggled on Notify When Found in the Find My app. Within three minutes, I received a notification that the bike had been “seen” near an address. Tapping on Directions navigates to Apple Maps, which took me to a spot about 30 feet from the bike. Had it been obscured from view, I could have then used the Find Nearby button to activate the UWB locating features. Ringing the tag was too quiet to hear on the sidewalk.
Both the Chipolo Pop and the Pebblebee Clip Universal will work with Apple’s Find My network, giving you the same eerily accurate finding capabilities. The Pop goes for the same $29 as the AirTag and the Clip Universal goes for $35, but the former is rechargeable and adds lights to the mix. Both have built-in holes for easier attachment and both ring louder than the AirTags. That said, AirTags are still the gold standard for iPhone users and remain our top pick for iOS devotees.
- Vast finding network
- Accurate UWB for nearby locating
- iPhone only
- Only rings for 7 seconds at a time
- No attachment point
$26 at Adorama
Amy Skorheim for Engadget
Format: Disc with hole | Compatibility: Android and iPhone | Water resistance: IPX6 (water spray resistant) | Battery life: 1 year | Replaceable battery: No (rechargeable) | Distance for left-behind alerts: 800 ft. (iPhone only) | Phone finder function: No
Pebblebee may have landed on the best design of all trackers out there. The Clip Universal feels the sturdiest, with a strong metal ring encircling the fob. Built-in lights help you locate lost items in the dark and it’s one of the few fobs that can be recharged, in this case, using a standard USB-C port. I like that the packaging is entirely plastic free, though I wish it didn’t come with a cable, because really, who among us doesn’t have a surfeit of USB-C cords at this point? But the included metal carabiner key ring is a welcome addition.
Like our top pick, the Chipolo Pop, the Clip Universal is a universal option, working with either Google or Apple’s finding networks and, in the tests where I hid the fob out in the city, the respective apps accurately led me close enough to the tracker to ring it. In tests around the house and in my garage, my tester phones didn’t connect to the Clip quite as quickly as they did to the Chipolo Pop.
In one iPhone test, my helper planted the Clip near a moderately trafficked bakery and I didn’t get a ping for over a half hour, which is far longer than any other Find My network test I’d conducted. Tests using an Android phone produced a connection to the Find My Device network at about the same speed as other fobs I tried, but I wasn’t always sent a notification. Instead I had to check the Find My Device app to see it had been spotted.
One common complaint about AirTags is that they aren’t loud enough. If you want a tracker that’s ear-shatteringly loud, the Clip delivers. My phone’s decibel meter app clocked it at 91dB — a level that can cause hearing damage if you’re exposed to it for too long. Paired with the flashing lights, it’s one of the easiest trackers to find.
Setup wasn’t as automatic as it was with the Chipolo Pop, I had to manually add the Clip, which wasn’t terribly difficult, though having the old Pebblebee app (Pebblebee Tracking) on my iPhone triggered a prompt to download the new app (simply called Pebblebee). The company recommends downloading its proprietary app in order to keep the tracker’s firmware updated and to “unlock its full potential.” But other than the ability to rename the fob or remove it, I didn’t see any additional features.
The app does support one unique feature, however, with . These are stickers with a unique QR code that you can claim and name in the app, then stick to whatever you’d like: a water bottle, hat, sunglasses case and so on. If someone finds the labeled item and scans the code, you’ll immediately get a notification from the Pebblebee app that it was scanned. The person who finds it is taken to a website where they can choose to send you the location of the item, a message and/or a picture. No contact details are shared to keep things more secure. I didn’t test the feature extensively, as it’s a little outside the purview of this guide, but it could be a simple and clever way to keep track of stuff you don’t want to stick a tracker on.
A couple of connection blips during testing and the lack of extra features (like ring my phone and the lack of Android left-behind alerts) put it behind the Chipolo Pop, but if you like the idea of recharging your tracker over throwing away batteries and want a compatible (and loud) tracker with a sturdy design, the Chip Universal is a good option.
- Loudest tracker we tested
- Taps into either Google or Apple’s finding networks
- Rechargeable
- The Pebblebee devices doesn’t offer additional features
- Occasional connection blips
- Not as easy to set up as other trackers
$35 at Amazon
Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget
Format: Oblong fob with hole | Compatibility: Samsung phones | Water resistance: IP67 (water and dust-resistant) | Battery life: 16 months | Replaceable battery: Yes | Distance for left-behind alerts: 1,300 ft. | Phone finder function: Yes
Nothing can beat the vastness of Apple’s Find My network, since it relies on every nearby iPhone to help locate AirTags. The number of Samsung phones in the US may be smaller than the number of Apple handsets out there, but it’s still significant. The new SmartTag 2 relies on those phones to offer a finding network that may not best Apple’s, but is larger than anything else out there for Android at the moment. Of course, once Google unleashes its expanded Find My Device network, everything will change.
The SmartTag 2 only works with Samsung devices and after testing one out with a Galaxy S23, I was impressed how quickly it was able to find tagged items out in the wild, though the precision didn’t quite match that of Apple. Of all the trackers I’ve tried, I like the design of the SmartTag the best. It’s an oblong fob with a big hole for attaching directly to your keys, or you can buy the optional silicone case and ring Samsung offers. Its volume is louder than the AirTag and the Tile Pro, but not as loud as either the Chipolo One or the Pebblebee Clip. You can also change the tag’s ringtone or double squeeze it to ring your handset, both things that you can’t do with AirTags.
Setup is simple as well: once you remove the plastic pull tab, your phone senses the tracker and walks you through the standard permissions (location services, notifications) and warnings (don’t use the tracker on people). The companion app, SmartThings Find, tracks your Samsung devices and the SmartTag with an intuitive and clean Google Maps-based interface.
As for how the tag works in practice, I found the left behind alerts triggered reliably when I got about three blocks (1,200 feet or so) away when walking and about eight blocks away when driving. That’s far longer than Chipolo’s alerts, a little longer than Apple’s notifications and about on par with Tile’s left-behind feature.
When the tag is out of range and you enable Lost Mode, you’ll get an alert when it’s spotted by another Samsung phone. The tag also uses NFC to display your contact info and a custom note to anyone who finds the tracker, regardless of the brand of smartphone they carry. Of course, whoever finds it would need to know to hold it to the back of their phone to get the message, and it was harder to trigger with my iPhone when the tag was in the silicone holder.
To test the finding network, I asked a friend (without a phone in their pocket) to wander a half mile away with the tag. About 12 minutes after turning on Lost Mode, I got a message that the SmartTag was “spotted by a nearby device” with a dropped pin. I tapped Navigate in the app, which opened Google Maps and led me to a point directly across a moderately busy street from where my friend was standing. If I’d left the tag behind somewhere I’d recently been, just seeing the location on the map would have been enough to jog my memory as to where I might have dropped my stuff. But if someone had stolen the tagged item and I was wandering the streets trying to get it back, vigilante style, it may not have been precise enough to help. It may not be as accurate as the iPhone-and-AirTag combo, but the SmartTag 2 is a solid entry in the Bluetooth tracker market and a good option if you have a Samsung phone.
- Finding network is large
- Attractive and useful design
- Only works with Samsung phones
$22 at Amazon
Other trackers we tested
Tile Pro and Tile Mate (2024)
Tile recently came out with a new suite of trackers, replacing the Tile Mate, Tile Pro, Tile Sticker and Tile Slim with updated models. In addition to fun new colors for the Mate and Slim, Tile added an SOS feature that can send a notification to your Life360 Circle when you triple press the button on the tracker. It’s a clever addition that turns your keys into a panic button, something offered by personal safety companies as standalone devices.
There are a few caveats: You and the people you want to notify in an emergency will need the Life360 app installed on your phones. If you want your Tile to also trigger a call to emergency services, you’ll need a $15-per-month Life360 subscription (that’s in addition to a Tile membership, which starts at $3/month or $30 annually). And enabling the SOS triple-press disables the ability to ring your phone with the fob.
I tested the SOS feature and it did indeed send a text message to my Circle, with the message that I had triggered an SOS and a link to a website that showed my current location. I thought it odd that the link didn’t open the Life360 app (which shows the location of users’ phones), but I wasn’t as much concerned with Tile’s personal safety features as I was with the tracking capabilities, which turned out to be less than ideal.
For my tests, I planted Tile trackers in a densely populated area of Seattle (about 15,000 people per square mile). After setting the trackers to “lost” in the Tile app, I waited. After four hours, one of the trackers was not discovered by the finding community, so I went and retrieved it. Another fob I planted alerted me that the tracker had been found by the Tile community after three hours — but the location it gave me was off by a third of a mile. I then decided to plant a tracker in the most populated place I could think of — the dried fruit and nuts aisle of a Trader Joes on a Friday evening before a major holiday. It still took over a half an hour before another Tile user anonymously pinged my lost tracker.
In my tests with Samsung’s trackers and the fobs on Google’s Find My Device network, it took around ten minutes for them to be discovered. AirTags took half that time and all were tested in a far less populated city. Four hours with no ping and over a half hour before getting a hit in a crowded TJs were pretty long stretches.
Our top pick, the classic Chipolo, has virtually no finding network. But if you’re getting a tracker for that feature alone, you should go with AirTags if you have an iPhone or the Google-enabled Chipolo or Pebblebee trackers if you use an Android phone. We prefer the Chipolo because it works with either iOS or Android devices, it rings loud, it’s quick to tell you when you’ve left it behind and it connects nearly instantly when you’re searching for a misplaced tracker around the house.
Tile devices also work with both mobile operating systems and its latest models are indeed louder than they were before. But they aren’t as quick to connect and you need to pay for a membership to activate left-behind alerts. And when you do, those notifications don’t kick in as quickly as they do with competing trackers.
Bluetooth tracker FAQs
Which Bluetooth tracker has the longest range?
Both the Tile Pro and the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 claim a maximum range of around 400 feet, which is longer than the 300-foot claim for Chipolo’s Pop tags. The Pebblebee Clip Universal claims a 500-foot range, though other trackers with a shorter claimed range performed better in our tests. Apple doesn’t make range claims for AirTags. Any Bluetooth signal, of course, is dependent on a few factors. Obstacles like walls and people can block the signal, so a clear line of sight is the only way to achieve the maximum range. Other signals, like Wi-Fi, can also interfere with Bluetooth connections. Even high humidity can have an effect and lessen the distance at which your phone will connect to your tracker.
Remember, when considering the range of Bluetooth trackers, the size of the “finding network” also comes into play. This is the number of nearby phones that can be used to anonymously ping your tracker when your own phone is out of Bluetooth range. As of now, Apple AirTags have the largest network, followed by Google’s Find My Device, Samsung’s finding community and Tile’s Life360 members.
What is the best Bluetooth tracker for a car?
Bluetooth trackers are designed to track small, personal items like keys, jackets, backpacks and the like. All trackers have safeguards to prohibit the tag from being used to stalk people, so most will alert someone if a tracker that does not belong to them is detected following them. That means a car thief may get tipped off that there’s a tracker in the car they’re trying to steal. That said, you’ll see plenty of stories about people finding their car thanks to a Bluetooth tracker. Some police departments have even handed out trackers to combat high rates of carjacking. In most instances, the tracker of choice has been AirTags thanks to their wide finding network. If you’re looking for a tracker for your car, you may want to look into GPS trackers, some of which are designed for just that purpose.
How accurate are Bluetooth trackers?
Accuracy for Bluetooth trackers can be looked at in two ways: Finding items nearby and finding items misplaced outside your home. For nearby items, you’ll most often use the ring function on the device to hunt it down. Two tags, Apple’s AirTags and Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag2, also use ultra-wideband technology, which creates directional navigation on your phone to get you within a foot of the tracker.
Accurately finding lost items outside your home depends on the size of the finding network. Since this relies on the serendipity of a random phone passing within Bluetooth range of your tracker, the more phones on a given network, the better. And since Bluetooth ranges and distance estimates are only precise within about a meter or so, getting pings from more than one phone will help locating items. Here again, it’s worth noting that Apple’s Find My network is the largest, followed by Google, Samsung and Tile (both Chipolo and Pebblebee have fobs that work with the Apple and Google networks).
