Smart tag recommended best one is decided.What is the first place for iOS and Android?[2021 latest version]

I want to put it on this and that.

A smart tag (anti-lost tracker) is a super-convenient item that allows you to track and monitor the location of your lost items from your smartphone, tablet, or PC. There are various shapes such as a card type that fits in your wallet and a key holder type, and the Bluetooth connection range and cloud search network scale also differ depending on the manufacturer.

What is important when choosing a smart tag is "ease of use" and "searchability" in case of emergency. So this time, we will introduce the latest Bluetooth smart tag products carefully selected by the Wirecutter editorial department!

---

For people who tend to panic in their busy days, "Where are my keys?" or "I forgot my wallet somewhere!" If you don't lose anything, it will be a waste of money, but just having it gives you a sense of security as an amulet.

As a result of Wirecutter's staff scrutinizing such various smart tags, Apple's AirTag was decided as the recommended product for iPhone users! This is the latest smart tag that makes full use of the huge network of Apple devices, sometimes using other people's smartphones as relay points, to passively search for lost items and accurately track them. However, it will not work unless paired with an Apple device, so if you do not have an iPhone, we recommend the Tile Mate (2020) series, which is now synonymous with smart tags and boasts the world's second largest cloud search network. !

Recommended smart tag list and basic information

Bluetooth smart tag recommended for iPhone users. AirTag uses Apple's huge device network to search for lost items. Pinpoint exact location.

Apple's AirTag connects to a paired Apple device via Bluetooth, which uses ultra-wideband wireless technology, and tells you where your lost items are in centimeters.

Latest Apple AirTag

3,800 yen

Even if the tag is out of the Bluetooth connection range, it will search in cooperation with other Apple devices, so 1 billion Apple users around the world can search for your belongings together. How it works. The chances of finding a lost item are pretty high. No other smart tag can detect such a wide range and with such accuracy.

The best Bluetooth smart tags for Android users. The Tile Mate has a great connection range and makes a sound to let you know where your "lost item" is. The smart tag is the most "findable" non-Apple tracker.

A wide variety of Tile products that can be used for different purposes. Tile has a variety of products for different purposes, such as Tile Mate, Tile Slim, and Tile Sticker (also sold in sets as “Tile Essentials” overseas).

AirTag doesn't work on non-Apple devices, so if you're an Android phone user, we recommend the Tile series, such as Tile Mate (2020), Tile Slim (2020), and Tile Sticker (2020). "Tile" is no longer synonymous with smart tags. It has the second largest cloud search network in the world and the widest connectivity. Even if you lose your important smartphone, it is also a point that you can remotely sound a notification sound from Tile. This is a feature that Airtag does not have.

Tile Mate (2020) Battery replacement version Find what you're looking for/Smartphone loss prevention No.1 market share in Japan and the US Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japan authorized distributor] RE-19001-AP

2,015 yen

Tile Slim (2020) Find what you're looking for/smartphone Lost prevention No.1 market share in Japan and the US Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japanese authorized distributor] RE-23001-AP

3,034 yen

Tile Sticker (2020) 2-pack Find what you're looking for/smartphone Lost prevention No. 1 market share in Japan and the United States Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japan authorized agent product] RE-25002-AP

4,361 yen

Let's take a closer look at the features and how to use each recommended smart tag product!

The latest smart tag for iPhone users: Apple AirTag

If you are an iPhone user and want a smart tag to prevent lost items, the Apple AirTag is your best bet. AirTag has two big recommendations that other competing products don't have.

The first is a huge device network unique to Apple. And the second is the accuracy that pinpoints the position of the target item in cm units. By making full use of these two functions, it demonstrates search power that sets it apart from other Bluetooth tracking systems.

Latest Apple AirTag

3,800 yen

If you don't know where you lost it, use the vast Apple network to search for it

If you lose something outside of the Bluetooth range and you don't know where it is! Your turn. When an AirTag is approached by another iPhone user, its location is notified to the owner. For example, if you forget your AirTag key at a café, even if you are far away, if someone with an iPhone or Apple device is nearby, you can use that device as a relay point to notify them of the location of the tag. They will do it for you. Of course, the anonymity of the relay device is preserved, and the transmitted location information is also completely encrypted.

When "Lost Mode" is turned on, the contact information can be displayed to the finder

By holding a smartphone equipped with short-range wireless communication (Android is also OK) over the AirTag, information about the AirTag (serial A website will open where you can see your number. In addition, if the owner turns on the AirTag's "Lost Mode", it can display a message "If you find it, please call here" and a contact phone number, so you can tell the person who picked it up where it is. It is also possible to receive it. That page also describes how to disable the AirTag, so even if you have an AirTag in your bag that you don't recognize, you can disable it.

If you are searching at a short distance, UWB will tell you the direction and distance.

If the AirTag is within the Bluetooth connection range, the ultra-wideband wireless communication technology "UWB (Ultra-Wide Band)" will be used. It is possible to pinpoint the exact position of the target by short-range search using .

For example, if you go to a cafe where you left your AirTag behind and search for the target device from the "Find My Items" tab in the "Find My" app on your iPhone, the direction and distance from your smartphone to the AirTag will be displayed. Also, if you tap "Play Sound", the AirTag itself will emit a "beep..." sound to tell you where it is. By the way, you can just say "Hey, Siri, look for XX". In my test, it took me a while to catch the AirTag's tracking signal, but once connected, I was blown away by how accurate the system was, as it showed me where it was in centimeters.

Apple has not announced specific figures for AirTag's Bluetooth connection range, but the measured value is about 9m. It's considerably narrower than Tile's smart tag, and it's the lowest range Bluetooth supports. However, it is necessary and sufficient when actually looking for things in the office or at home. More important than that is Apple's massive tracking network and the accuracy of its detection capabilities.

The AirTag has a shiny white plastic face and a metal back. At first glance, the design looks like a pin badge attached to a denim jacket or backpack. It's slightly larger in diameter than a quarter coin and slightly thicker than an iPhone, but its rounded design makes it feel thinner than it actually is. You can optionally engrave up to 4 characters (or pictograms) of your choice, and if you purchase a set of 4, you can put different characters on each.

Settings and operability are "as expected of Apple"

The operability of setup and pairing is truly Apple's word. Just take the new AirTag out of the box and place it next to the phone or tablet you want to pair with, and a connection screen will pop up just like AirPods and Apple Watch. When you tap the "Connect" button and decide the name of the AirTag, you can register it with your Apple ID. There are no difficult settings or menus, and pairing work is completed in about 1 minute. Tile is relatively easy to set up, but since you have to manually launch the app first, AirTag is less hassle.

All AirTag tracking and manipulation is done in the Find My app, where you can also see all tag locations and options. Renaming and deleting AirTag can also be operated on the same screen. The deletion procedure completely removes and unpairs it from your Apple ID so it can be reused by someone else like new. You can connect up to 16 AirTags to your account.

The AirTag has a replaceable battery, and the app notifies you when the battery is low. In that case, twist the metal part on the back and replace it with a new button battery (CR2032). By the way, Apple announces that the battery life is about 1 year like Tile. It also supports waterproof performance "IP67", so it can be submerged in water for 30 minutes at a depth of 1m. However, according to Apple, water resistance and dust resistance are not permanent, and it may wear out with normal use, so it seems safer to avoid water and dirt as much as possible.

Points of concern

Unlike other companies' products such as Tile, AirTag cannot ring your smartphone, so if you lose your iPhone itself, you will have to search for it with the Find My app on another device. Become. Also, since each AirTag can only be paired with one Apple ID, multiple people cannot share the same tag. For example, if you share a key with a partner or roommate, the Find My app will only track one of them.

The so-called "separation alert" that notifies you when you forget your belongings in the house is not installed, so it may be a bit inconvenient not to be able to use it to prevent things left behind. In addition, the AirTag body does not have a hole for a key ring or adhesive material, so you have to purchase additional accessories as needed, which incurs extra costs. Apple's genuine key rings and loops are about the same price as the main unit, and Hermes models are expensive at 41,800 yen or 53,800 yen, so if you don't want to spend money here, buy a third-party product. recommend. I would like to test various holders for AirTag in the near future and report the results.

The 'synonym of smart tags' for Android users: the Tile series

AirTag is exclusive to Apple devices, but that doesn't mean there aren't good smart tags for Android users. The Tile series, such as Tile Mate (2020), Tile Slim (2020), and Tile Sticker (2020), which are now synonymous with smart tags, are also popular products and have a large search network next to Apple. The connection range is wide and the alarm sound is easy to reach your ears.

The great appeal of the Tile series is the variety of sizes and designs that are easy to use. The TileMate has a keychain hole, the Tile Slim slips easily into your wallet, and the Tile Sticker has an adhesive backing so you can stick it directly to the target item.

Tile Mate (2020) Battery replacement version Find what you're looking for/Smartphone loss prevention No.1 market share in Japan and the US Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japan authorized distributor] RE-19001-AP

2,015 yen

Tile Slim (2020) Find what you're looking for/smartphone Lost prevention No.1 market share in Japan and the US Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japanese authorized distributor] RE-23001-AP

3,034 yen

Tile Sticker (2020) 2-pack Find what you're looking for/smartphone Lost prevention No. 1 market share in Japan and the United States Smart speaker compatible [Compatible with Alexa certified product] [Japan authorized agent product] RE-25002-AP

4,361 yen

Tile community with 6 million "discovered" every day

If the Tile is out of the Bluetooth connection range, you can display the location where it was last connected to your smartphone on the map. You can get an idea of ​​where you dropped it. If you still can't find it, or if you've moved away from the last detected location, launch the Tile Community.

When other users running the Tile app receive radio waves emitted from Tile, their location information is notified to the owner's app. In other words, the more Tile users, the easier it is to find lost items. According to Tile, more than 35 million smart tags have been sold so far, but not all of them are active due to dead batteries, so it can be said that Apple's community is overwhelmingly larger. . Still, 6 million lost items are found by Tile every day, and 90% of the items tagged as lost are returned to their owners.

The AirTag design is one type with a round shape like a button, but the Tile series has a wide variety. The Tile Mate is the most versatile, with a hole in the upper left corner to attach keychains, lanyards, etc. Tile Slim is a thin design that can be put in a square wallet with rounded corners, and the shape looks like a credit card, but the thickness is 2.4 mm, which is about the same as three cards. The width is about 3.5 cm and the thickness is about 0.6 cm. The Tile Sticker is a small circular smart tag that looks like four stacked quarters. It has an adhesive backing and can be attached directly to items you don't want to lose. This sticker is small and inconspicuous, and it is very convenient because it can be attached to items that cannot be attached with a key ring.

The Bluetooth connection range is sufficient and highly functional

When I tested the Bluetooth connection range, it averaged 46.3m, which is sufficient. It seems that there is not much need to spend extra money on Tile Pro. Tile advertises a maximum connection range of about 60m, which is much narrower than actual measurements, but even at 46m, it's about 1.5 times the range of a basketball court, which is more than enough for normal processes and looking for things in the office. Tile Slim was about 44m and Tile Sticker was about 37m.

While the detection accuracy isn't quite as precise as the AirTag, the Tile's Bluetooth range is far greater and it's pretty good at 'finding nearby things'.

When you ring the Tile Mate, the notification sound is a little over 104 dB, and the Slim is 99.5 dB, 103.9 dB, so it's loud enough to hear from end to end in an office or apartment.

Tile Mate uses a button-type lithium battery (CR1632), which can be easily replaced by sliding the lid on the back. Batteries can be purchased for around 100 yen per unit, and they seem to last for about a year. This is almost the same as AirTag. By the way, even if you are using an old Tile that is not battery-replaceable, you can still buy a new battery-replaceable Tile at a discounted price by registering as a Tile user and using the reTile program. Tile Slim and Tile Sticker do not have a battery replacement version, but the battery will last for 3 years.

The Tile Mate is not "completely waterproof" due to the openable back cover. Even so, it is water resistant, so there is no need to worry about it breaking even if it is dropped in a puddle or left in the rain. In Tile's test, it survived 1,000 blows in the dryer, so it probably won't die before the battery. In any case, the Slim and Mate are compliant with the waterproof standard IPX7, so they can withstand up to a depth of 1m.

Subscription Service for Further Functionality

Tile has a subscription service “Tile Premium” for 360 yen per month and 3,600 yen per year that covers all Tile products you own. The service includes free battery replacement, warranty extension (1 year → 3 years), SMS-based support, etc. Other features include 30-day location history, unlimited sharing, and smart alerts that notify you when you leave your Tile at home. Smart alerts can be used by registering your home address, but in this test, the notification was only about 500m away from home, so it didn't seem very user-friendly. By the way, AirTag does not have such a function.

Last year, Tile also announced the rollout of a $100 annual “Premium Protect.” In addition to the Tile Premium service content, we have started a service that refunds up to $ 1,000 (about 110,000 yen) in one year if lost items are not returned. It hasn't been launched in Japan yet, but it might be a valuable content for items that are a big burden when lost.

Setting up Tile is pretty simple. Even if you don't use the settings menu on your smartphone, you can complete everything by installing the Tile app (Android, iOS). After launching the app and completing preparations on the smartphone side, such as registering the type of Tile device, you can start pairing by pressing the button in the center of Tile. AirTag may have a more automated setup, but both processes are simple and fast.

In the app, you can give each Tile a name and image of your choice. For example, if you add an image of the backpack to the Tile Mate attached to the backpack, you may be able to intuitively operate it. All paired Tile devices are displayed in list and map mode on the app. Run the Tile app to see smartphones and tablets that share the same account. The number of pairings is unlimited, but only 4 Tile devices can be actively communicating with Android via Bluetooth at a time.

Because the Tile uses standard Bluetooth, the AirTag with its ultra-wideband technology is more accurate at close range. In fact, Tile claims that Apple's monopoly is detrimental, saying, ``When announcing AirTag, Apple has monopolized the data necessary for detailed location detection.'' In April 2021, Tile's general counsel, Kristen Dull, told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing (*PDF) that Apple would not be able to connect with the iPhone, even though the company was already developing products with broadband technology. testifies that it hinders compatibility with

What about privacy and security?

Being able to track the location of an item naturally raises concerns about privacy and security. I'm worried about the location information being held by the smart tag manufacturer, and it's a little scary to think about someone misusing it or sneaking a smart tag into my bag.

Of course, both Apple and Tile have taken steps, but their approaches are different. Apple claims that AirTag was built with privacy in mind. Location data is consistently encrypted, so no one else (including Apple) can know the location of a particular AirTag.

When Apple once announced the release of AirTag and its details, it also disclosed possible abuse cases and the company's prevention measures. For example, if someone puts an AirTag in someone else's bag without permission, the iPhone will detect it and issue an alert. In this test, we were not yet able to measure the time until the alert sounded.

Furthermore, according to Jon Gruber, a well-known blogger who writes articles for Daring Fireball, Apple has designed AirTags to beep after three days of being away from the owner as an anti-stalking measure. . Apple claims that people who don't have an iPhone can now find other people's AirTags.

Some people say it's not safe enough. The Washington Post (subscription required), which has extensively tested AirTag's privacy features on the iPhone, also concluded that "the features Apple has added to limit stalking are not as effective a deterrent as one might hope." attached. The bottleneck is the period of 3 days. That's enough for someone with bad intentions to pinpoint your location. Also, if an item with an AirTag is stolen, an alert after 3 days may cause the thief to disable tracking or destroy the AirTag. By the way, Tile does not have such a system, so even if Tile is installed near you, you will not be able to notice it.

A Tile representative said the company will only use user location data in four cases:

1. Identify the positional relationship (distance and direction) between the item and the app-equipped smartphone
2. Regularly identify the position of each smart tag
3. Others lost it If you are within the connection range of the attached tag, record the location
4. Identify the approximate location of the PC or device based on the IP address (only when contacting Tile's support center)
li>

Since it is a device whose purpose is to identify the location, it cannot be said that the act of identifying and recording the location is particularly harmful. Tile states that its products and services "do not use advertising (revenue-generating) that grants third parties access to specific information for financial gain."

We read both companies' privacy policies and weighed the most significant concerns about smart tags from both.

	AirTag	Tile
Maker access smart tag location Can you do it?	No	Yes
Is location data on the network anonymized and encrypted?	Yes	Yes
Do you sell or share customer or location data with third parties?	No	No
Has there been a data breach in the last two years?	No	No
Is your privacy policy easy to read?	Yes	No

The Future of Smart Tags

Apple in 2021 In April, the company announced it would expand its Find My app service to third-party accessories. With Apple's approval, device makers can now search for lost items over a network of iPhones and iPads. So far, third-party products entering Apple's Find My network are Chipolo's ONE Spot smart tag, Belkin's Soundform Freedom wireless earbuds, and VanMoof's e-bike.

More! Competing products that unfortunately missed the ranking

Tile Pro (2020) is slightly larger and more expensive than the Tile series, and features a wide connection range of about 122m. In this test, there were no interruptions in communication anywhere in the 58m office. It's true that the wider the connection range, the better, but it doesn't really need to be that wide for home or office use, so the Tile Mate is fine. If you live in a mansion or if you need about 120m because the parking lot is far away, you can add about 1,000 yen and choose Pro.

The Chipolo One (2020) is very similar to the Tile Mate, but with a much smaller network for exploration and less connectivity.

Orbit develops various types of smart tags, such as Orbit Glasses for eyeglasses and sunglasses, and Orbit Card, which is thinner than Tile Slim. The ability to track certain items is intriguing, but unfortunately Orbit's network is still limited and I see no reason to choose Orbit over Tile.

Actually, I once lost my sunglasses with an Orbit Glasses tracker. The location is New York City, where there is a lot of traffic and technology. I flagged it as 'lost', thinking it was time for a smart tag, but no other Orbit user ever reported 'found it!' Additionally, I didn't get a notification when my Orbit Card was running low on battery, so if I lost my wallet with my Orbit Card at that time, I wouldn't have been able to find it.

The TrackR Pixel is about 2.5 cm in diameter, about the size of a dollar coin, much smaller than the Tile Mate, and about three quarters thick. In our June 2017 test, the TrackR Pixel had an average connection range of 13.7m, not even as good as the Tile series products, and TrackR missed out on our list of recommended products in terms of connection range and network scale.

Cube offers three designs: Cube, Cube Pro, and Cube Shadow. Shadow is slim enough to fit in your wallet. The connection range of Cube Shadow is equivalent to Tile Slim, and Cube and Cube Pro are about half of Tile Mate and Tile Pro, and the network scale is also higher in Tile than in the Cube series.

©2021 WIRECUTTER, INC. A NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY.