Air Tags (or similar) - worth it?

[Countdown]

Now that the kids are older and paying their own way (Praise Jeebus!) me and Mrs C are able to take more holidays.

A potential 1st world problem is luggage going astray and i was wondering whether it would be useful to buy a set of apple air tags or something similar. Whilst it might not prevent the luggage from going astray it should hopefully give us a greater chance of being reunited with it. The questions I had were

- If you have them have you found them useful?
- which brand did you go for?
- any annoyances or problems in usage?
- do you think they're worth the money?

Thanks in advance

[Freakuk]

I cannot comment here, however I do have the same thoughts.

In fact we flew back from holiday at the weekend into Manchester which is renowned for taking an age to get the baggage to you, it certainly raised the worry level as to whether our luggage was on the plane with us. There was a girl waiting at the carousel by my side who clearly had airtags in her bags as she had the app open and she could see they were at the airport at least and it did get us thinking if it was a worthwhile investment.

[ecsrobin]

I have the Eufy tags which integrate into Apple find my. Often down at £25 for 2 on Amazon.

Very good and you can set it to alert you when you leave it behind and can also setup to not alert you if it’s at home as an example.

We have had 1 fail out of warranty out of 5 devices and despite a battery change no joy but happy with the low cost to buy another.

I wouldn’t say they’re useful until something goes missing but it’s nice to have one in each suitcase.

[MesoForm]

- If you have them have you found them useful?
We use them for keys and bags rather than luggage and find them useful for that, we haven't "lost lost" anything with one on yet but my wife is always leaving her keys and bags in random places in the house so we find it useful for finding keys quickly when we should've been out of the house 10 minutes ago...

- which brand did you go for?
Apple AirTag with Belkin holders, we both have Apple phones so it makes life easier going with Apple

- any annoyances or problems in usage?
We had an odd issue when first trying to share a tag across our phone but that turned out to be my wife being logged onto her iPad and that hadn't been updated

- do you think they're worth the money?
I see them as safety blankets like my escape hammer in my car or the torch under the stairs for when there's a power cut - not really a good use of money until it's a life-saver.

Just be aware of their limitations - they will only track when in bluetooth range of another phone so will be fine in a town, airport, etc. but not out in the woods, on an empty beach, etc.

[2172cc]

My brother in law has the early signs of dementia and goes walkabout every now and again. Forgets to charge his phone so we have no idea where he is going. The Air Tag attached to his keyring located him easily about 5 miles away last week and then we picked him up. Certainly worthwhile in these situations but only if he doesn't forget his keys next time.

[Countdown]

Freakuk said:

I cannot comment here, however I do have the same thoughts.

In fact we flew back from holiday at the weekend into Manchester which is renowned for taking an age to get the baggage to you, it certainly raised the worry level as to whether our luggage was on the plane with us. There was a girl waiting at the carousel by my side who clearly had airtags in her bags as she had the app open and she could see they were at the airport at least and it did get us thinking if it was a worthwhile investment.

Good example - a very similar thing happened to us earlier this year on the way back from Hurghada. We were waiting absolutely ages for our cases to come out, to the point where i was sure they had gone astray. It's the stress levels gradually being dialled up that I want to avoid

[Countdown]

MesoForm said:

- If you have them have you found them useful?
We use them for keys and bags rather than luggage and find them useful for that, we haven't "lost lost" anything with one on yet but my wife is always leaving her keys and bags in random places in the house so we find it useful for finding keys quickly when we should've been out of the house 10 minutes ago...

- which brand did you go for?
Apple AirTag with Belkin holders, we both have Apple phones so it makes life easier going with Apple

- any annoyances or problems in usage?
We had an odd issue when first trying to share a tag across our phone but that turned out to be my wife being logged onto her iPad and that hadn't been updated

- do you think they're worth the money?
I see them as safety blankets like my escape hammer in my car or the torch under the stairs for when there's a power cut - not really a good use of money until it's a life-saver.

Just be aware of their limitations - they will only track when in bluetooth range of another phone so will be fine in a town, airport, etc. but not out in the woods, on an empty beach, etc.

- thanks, that's good to know

[Countdown]

ecsrobin said:

I have the Eufy tags which integrate into Apple find my. Often down at £25 for 2 on Amazon.

Very good and you can set it to alert you when you leave it behind and can also setup to not alert you if it’s at home as an example.

We have had 1 fail out of warranty out of 5 devices and despite a battery change no joy but happy with the low cost to buy another.

I wouldn’t say they’re useful until something goes missing but it’s nice to have one in each suitcase.

Thanks for the suggestion - will google

Is this what you were referring to

[Trustmeimadoctor]

im not sure why google havent released their version yet so your not tied into the manufacturer s app

[Countdown]

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

[TheRainMaker]

Countdown said:

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

They will still work but will be reliant on other people's devices.

[2172cc]

Countdown said:

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

That's correct, my sister and nephew have iPhones which work great but I have an Android and can't. I haven't found out how to do it yet

[TheRainMaker]

2172cc said:

Countdown said:

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

That's correct, my sister and nephew have iPhones which work great but I have an Android and its not compatible

But you can still log into your iCloud account and track them that way.

Scrap that. You can only track your devices through your cloud account online, not airtags.

Edited by TheRainMaker on Tuesday 24th September 12:01

[SP_]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

im not sure why google havent released their version yet so your not tied into the manufacturer s app

It already exists. Google find my network, via Chipolo etc.

Also Samsung have their own variant, SmartTags, which work equally as well IME

[Countdown]

TheRainMaker said:

2172cc said:

Countdown said:

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

That's correct, my sister and nephew have iPhones which work great but I have an Android and its not compatible

But you can still log into your iCloud account and track them that way.

Just to check - the non-android users would need to log into MY iCloud account in order to track the tags?

Actually I assume that they can only be allocated to one account so even though one of my kids has an IPhone she wont be able to track the tags if they're connected to MY IPhone account ???

Im confused

[TheRainMaker]

Countdown said:

TheRainMaker said:

2172cc said:

Countdown said:

Fugdesickles

Mrs C has just pointed out that she, Child Number 2 and Child Number 3 have "non-Apple" devices

- does this mean that Apple Airtags wont work?
- if so which is the best non-Apple tag? (those Eufy ones look OK tbh)

That's correct, my sister and nephew have iPhones which work great but I have an Android and its not compatible

But you can still log into your iCloud account and track them that way.

Just to check - the non-android users would need to log into MY iCloud account in order to track the tags?

Actually I assume that they can only be allocated to one account so even though one of my kids has an IPhone she wont be able to track the tags if they're connected to MY IPhone account ???

Im confused

Sorry, I just changed my reply; it seems you can only track your devices through iCloud online, not air tags.

[TheRainMaker]

Countdown said:

Actually I assume that they can only be allocated to one account so even though one of my kids has an IPhone she wont be able to track the tags if they're connected to MY IPhone account ???

Im confused

If you all have iPhones, you can share the airbags.

My parents have one in their Camper for example, and I can see it under shared items.

[Countdown]

TheRainMaker said:

If you all have iPhones, you can share the airbags.

My parents have one in their Camper for example, and I can see it under shared items.

Thanks

[thebraketester]

Ive got a load of apple ones, on keys and in cases/bags. Helps because I am utterly forgetful and its peace of mind that I know where my things are.

[ecsrobin]

Countdown said:

Thanks for the suggestion - will google

Is this what you were referring to

That’s them although £20 cheaper on Amazon, you do have to set them up in eufys app from
Memory prior to importing them into find my but it was a quick and painless process.

https://amzn.eu/d/4QzktL6