What's the Best Wallet Tracker? FindMy and AirTag Demystified

July 2024
Location trackers have been around for awhile, but now there are more choices than ever, including Apple's popular AirTag. Contrary to popular belief, most trackers don't have GPS in them. Here I'll touch on how they work and highlight a few of the pros and cons of the various solutions out there. I'll also mention one additional precaution you should take that most folks miss.

Want a shortcut to making a decision? Just consider the form-factor. That's why I designed the Passport Wallet to hold both AirTags and card-style trackers. It places either one in the center of the wallet in order to minimize bulk.
Passport Wallet on Kickstarter
AirTags tend to work the best but using a credit card form factor is going to minimize bulk.

How do AirTags and Other Location Trackers Work?

Let's start with a bit of history- you may be familiar with Tile, who popularized the tracker category. With its key fobs and credit card format trackers, millions of folks (including me) adopted them as a way to easily find their things.

It's useful to examine how the system works because the basic approach is now used by all the trackers available. First, you pair the device with your phone through Bluetooth and register it through the mobile app. Then there are three main ways it helps you track and find your item:

Locating by Bluetooth

If you loose the item, you use the app to try to find it. It searches within bluetooth range and makes the item play a noise that leads you to it. To a certain extent, it also shows the item on a map. But the accuracy of it is limited (more on that later).

Left Behind Alert

Another thing the trackers can do is alert you if the item is left behind. Lets say you're leaving work, but leave your wallet on your desk, as you walk away the app will recognize that it can't see the item anymore and alert you. This option is usually controlled in settings so, for example, it's not going to alert you that you left your suitcase in your closet every day.

Location History

Oftentimes, apps will also keep track of where an item was last seen. So whether or not an alert was triggered when it was separated, it can keep a record of the last place the app recorded that it was. But this is also sometimes inaccurate since it relies on the item's connection to the phone and usually isn't being constantly updated.

Network Finding

But what happens if your item is out of Bluetooth range? And the last location is either not recorded or isn't right? If you've ever walked away from your device while listening to music, you know about what the range of Bluetooth is.

Essentially, within your house at best. If you're outside of that, that's where the magic happens. You mark the item as lost and then other people using the app will (unknowingly) start to search for your item if it pops up within range of their bluetooth.

Let's say you drop your wallet on a bus. You try to search for it when you get home, but it's not going to be able to play a sound. And by then it'll be far away from the "last seen" location. Once you mark it as lost, other phones will use the app in the background to anonymously look for the item. So next time someone with the same app (let's say Tile) gets on the bus, you'll get an alert that the item was seen.

FindMy

In addition to the approaches outlined above, Apple's Find My layers in two more technologies to enhance its effectiveness.

First, its AirTags leverage an additional bandwidth to Bluetooth in order to help you find things. It's higher accuracy, but shorter range. So Apple's FindMy app will use the Bluetooth to get you close to the AirTag. Then the other chip in the AirTag takes over and switches to "Precise finding". Pretty smart, huh? This is the cool demo you may have seen where there's an arrow that leads you right to the thing.

The second difference to the FindMy approach is that they've opened up the platform so other devices can also leverage the FindMy network of iOS devices to help locate your item, even if the tracker is not an AirTag.

But there's a catch... None of the 3rd party devices I've seen so far include the precise finding feature.
While you may see the FindMy logo on 3rd Party devices, that doesn't mean it has all of the functionality of an AirTag

Should I Use an AirTag or 3rd Party Tracker?

Ok, so it seems like there are a lot of little differences, but which kind of tracker should you get and use? Since most of the 3rd party trackers, especially ones that use FindMy are essentially the same, I'll just address the general differences so you can choose AirTag or not- then if you don't want an AirTag you can look more deeply into the alternatives.

Reasons to consider AirTag

  • Privacy (trusting Apple more than others)
  • Seamless app
  • Precise Finding

Why you might not want an AirTag

  • Not available in credit card form factor
  • Not rechargeable (yet only a few card-style ones are)
  • Android experience not available on older devices and isn't as seamless
To help you make the final decision, let's return to the example of leaving your wallet on a bus since that's a pretty challenging use case. Since you're pretty much relying on the network of other phones to locate the item, it's much more likely that someone with an iPhone is going to get on the bus than someone using a particular tracker app. In that case, any FindMy device is probably going to give you better odds than a device that just relies on a smaller network like Tile.

Let's say by the end of the day, your FindMy app shows that the wallet is in the bus yard. If somehow you make your way there, an AirTag would probably be more likely to lead you to the exact bus and position on the bus where you left it- or tell you which room in the building it's in if it were brought to lost and found.
So I'd recommend AirTags in terms of accuracy and reliability. BUT using a card-style one with FindMy may be almost as good for most use cases. And they're more slim and potentially rechargeable depending on the model.

One More Thing

See what I did there? But this truly is critical- you should put your name and phone number prominently on something in your wallet so if someone finds it, they can call or text you. I think in the vast number of cases, folks are just trying to get your item back to you so make it easy for them to do that. At the end of the day, it may be the human approach that gets your item back to you as opposed to all of the technical wizardry in these trackers.

Hopefully this gives you a good idea of how the trackers work, why you might want one, and whether AirTag is best for you or not.

Let me know which you use and why in the comments below!