Using AirTag to track old person

[CoolHands]

With dementia. How to do? She and we (family) all have iPhones and Apple account.

Do I make her the main owner don’t doesn’t beep when she’s travelling around. And then we are visitors / friends or whatever?

I haven’t got one yet so don’t know exactly how to set up to do what we need. It will be in her purse.

[i4got]

CoolHands said:

With dementia. How to do? She and we (family) all have iPhones and Apple account.

Do I make her the main owner don’t doesn’t beep when she’s travelling around. And then we are visitors / friends or whatever?

I haven’t got one yet so don’t know exactly how to set up to do what we need. It will be in her purse.

If she's travelling around with her iphone can't you just use find my phone. Need to set the permissions to share her location on her phone.

If she's going to leave her phone behind then there's as much chance I would think of leaving her handbag/purse behind containing an airtag?

[Mr Pointy]

Maybe not the right technology - there are dedicated devices available to do this which offer a more reliable service.

[Durzel]

AirTags aren't GPS devices, they work by being in range of someone with an Apple device. If this old person ended up wandering into a field or anywhere else out of Bluetooth LE range then they wouldn't be traceable beyond the point they were last "spotted".

You also can't disable the beep - it's an anti-stalking measure. If she has an iPhone she would be informed that an AirTag is following her, which might be confusing or disconcerting if she has forgotten a conversation about it being "attached".

[Scabutz]

Look at an app called Life 360. We use it to track the kids.

It works on GPS. Does need a phone signal so if someone wandered very far off the reservation it won't work.

You can create areas and set alerts if people leave them.

[Caddyshack]

I have put air tags on the mother-in-laws car and house keys plus find my phone on her iPhone. She has dementia, I have told her what I have done and why but I doubt she would have a clue now if you asked her what they are.

[Chuffedmonkey]

There are apps available for this. We use something called Life 360 on Android, not sure if available on I Phone but its free for the basic function of seeing where they are. We have this App for our Family, at first I was a bit concerned about being tracked but I have nothing to hide

I may have failed to notice if she does have a mobile phone? If she does get an App.

Noticed Scabutz beat me to it.

[Caddyshack]

Chuffedmonkey said:

There are apps available for this. We use something called Life 360 on Android, not sure if available on I Phone but its free for the basic function of seeing where they are. We have this App for our Family, at first I was a bit concerned about being tracked but I have nothing to hide

I may have failed to notice if she does have a mobile phone? If she does get an App.

Noticed Scabutz beat me to it.

Isn’t that ‘find my phone’ on Apple? Auto loaded on all apples?

[phpe]

You can share the AirTags with multiple people in your friends and family list so that you can all track the tag - it also stops it beeping for the other people

The other option is to remove the speaker entirely - a 5 minute job and plenty guides on the web to show you how to do that.

[CoolHands]

So as phph says - if I make her the owner then it won’t beep will it? And reason for the tag is as she often doesn’t take her phone - we will know where she is as she always has her bag. She isn’t totally mad so doesn’t wander into fields but we need to know if she’s gone to John Lewis, or Chester or some other place etc

Sorry to clarify she has an iphone but often doesn’t take it.

[mikef]

Just don’t forget, when you’re figuring out how to implant the Airtag in her, that you’ll need to change the batteries once a year

[Caddyshack]

mikef said:

Just don’t forget, when you’re figuring out how to implant the Airtag in her, that you’ll need to change the batteries once a year

Wait, do you think my mother-in-law might last more than another year….you stop that kinda talk.

[phpe]

CoolHands said:

So as phph says - if I make her the owner then it won’t beep will it? And reason for the tag is as she often doesn’t take her phone - we will know where she is as she always has her bag. She isn’t totally mad so doesn’t wander into fields but we need to know if she’s gone to John Lewis, or Chester or some other place etc

Sorry to clarify she has an iphone but often doesn’t take it.

Were it me, I would:

Create a new tag with me as main owner
Share the new tag with the Apple IDs of other people you also want to be able to track the person in question
Share the new tag with the Apple ID of the person you want to track (that way, it won't beep for her as an unrecognised tag)
Stuff the tag in a secure location in her handbag - perhaps even have it sewn into a little pocket/pouch somewhere so she's not tempted to bin it.

[CoolHands]

Thankyou. One question! To “Share the new tag with the Apple ID of the person you want to track” how is that done - do they type it in their phone, or do they have to have it near their phone or what?

So if I follow your instructions and buy it here in London and I make myself the new owner, can I then post it to the other person and they can do the step above so it is shared with them?

[mikef]

You send them an invite from your Track My app and they have to accept it on their iPhone/Mac

[the-norseman]

Durzel said:

If she has an iPhone she would be informed that an AirTag is following her

Not just an iPhone, I bought two Airtags to be put in both cars as trackers. I set them up using my work Iphone as none of us have iPhones.

Drove MK to Luton airport and when we got there both mine and my partners Android (Pixel's) both came up with a warning about an Airtag had been following us.

[the-norseman]

This feature is built into both iPhone and Android. On Android you just open maps and share your location with people you can select. When they open maps then they will see an icon where ever you are.

Amazes me that people pay £££ for apps to do this when its built in. Suppose the same people are paying £££ for VPN's to hide the fact that they share cat meme's on Facebook and occasionally read the news on daily mail.

[littleredrooster]

My neighbour has dementia (but is still very mobile) and carries a tracker supplied by one of the Dementia charities which is purpose-designed for the job. No idea of the cost, but my enquiries would be in this direction first.

[phpe]

CoolHands said:

Thankyou. One question! To “Share the new tag with the Apple ID of the person you want to track” how is that done - do they type it in their phone, or do they have to have it near their phone or what?

So if I follow your instructions and buy it here in London and I make myself the new owner, can I then post it to the other person and they can do the step above so it is shared with them?

No need to post the tag to others once you've created it (as I've done here for one put in my laptop bag), you can just use the share function to share the location data with multiple other users - the built in app then sends an invitation to them to accept and they can then see the location, etc

Couldn't be simpler.

Obviously for the person you are wanting to track, it would be easier to do this with them in person to allow their phone to track the tag

It is also a few moments work to crack open the AirTag and physically disable the speaker also, just in case it ever starts beeping and startles/frightens the individual - plenty Youtube guides

[Mars]

the-norseman said:

This feature is built into both iPhone and Android. On Android you just open maps and share your location with people you can select. When they open maps then they will see an icon where ever you are.

Amazes me that people pay £££ for apps to do this when its built in. Suppose the same people are paying £££ for VPN's to hide the fact that they share cat meme's on Facebook and occasionally read the news on daily mail.

Location sharing from Google maps proved very flakey for my family. I have a Pixel and most of my life is in Google's eco-system but this just didn't work as reliably as Life 360 which, by the way, is free.

Maybe the problem was iPhones and Androids trying to work together but we don't have any issues with Life 360.