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If you’re lucky, the $30 you spend on a Bluetooth tracker will be wasted money. These tags are helpful only when you need to find your stuff—if you never lose things, they’re just ornamental. But if you’re often scrambling to locate your keys or bag as you’re heading out the door, a Bluetooth tracker can be a lifesaver. iPhone users should choose Apple’s AirTag, which employs a huge network of Apple devices to passively search for lost goods and enable precision finding features, making it more likely that you’ll recover what you’ve misplaced. If you use an Android phone, go with Tile trackers, including the Tile Mate (2022). With the second-largest crowd-finding network, Tile is the best option for those who don’t use Apple’s phones.
AirTags leverage Apple’s huge network of devices to find lost goods, and they’re impressively accurate in pinpointing an item’s precise location.
Bluetooth trackers let you monitor the location of whatever they’re attached to from a phone, tablet, or computer. For iPhone owners, Apple’s AirTag is an easy top pick. When the tracker is out of range of your phone, it’s designed to work in unison with other Apple devices, which means there’s nearly a billion devices constantly looking for lost items. This vast network makes it more likely that something you drop will be found. When your AirTag is in range of your phone, it also uses technology beyond regular Bluetooth to show you where your lost item is—within inches. No other tracker can compete with the broad scope and precision finding that an AirTag offers.
The Tile Mate has a long range, is quite loud, and gives you a better chance of finding your lost stuff than other non-Apple trackers.
The Tile Essentials set bundles two Tile Mates, the Tile Slim, and the Tile Sticker in a bundle that’s more affordable than buying them separately.
AirTags don’t work with Android phones, but Tile’s trackers, including the Tile Mate (2022), the Tile Slim (2022), and the Tile Sticker (2022) (also available in a bundle) are the best alternative. As a company, Tile has become synonymous with trackers the same way Kleenex is with facial tissue. Its trackers offer the second-largest crowd-finding network, as well as impressive range. You can also use a Tile to remotely trigger a lost phone to ring, something you can’t do with AirTags.
Over the past few years, we’ve tested more than a dozen Bluetooth trackers. The major players in this category are well known. But to make sure we didn’t miss any, during our research for a previous version of this guide, we turned to Amazon and Google. The latter search turned up some great comparative reviews from Tom’s Guide, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Wired, and Yahoo.
Here’s what we look for in a great Bluetooth tracker:
Prior to the 2021 introduction of Apple’s AirTag, the most important test we conducted was to determine each tracker’s potential range—how far away from the tracker we could move a paired smartphone before we lost the Bluetooth connection. In 2019, we tested the range in Wirecutter’s 190-foot-long office in Long Island City, New York. We set each tracker on a shelf, triggered it to ring, and then walked away with our paired iPhone while noting the distance using a measuring wheel. Once the tracker’s smartphone app showed the tracker as out of range—or we physically hit the wall—we recorded the distance. We repeated this test at least five times per tracker and calculated the average distance for each across the measurements. Because AirTags leverage a much larger network and are more precise once you’re in range, we still test the effective distance, but it’s not as important.
AirTags leverage Apple’s huge network of devices to find lost goods, and they’re impressively accurate in pinpointing an item’s precise location.
If you use an iPhone and want to track your stuff, Apple’s AirTag is easily the best option. Compared with the competition, this tracker has two distinct strengths that make it our top choice: The AirTag utilizes Apple’s huge network of devices to assist in finding the area where you left your lost item, and precision tracking makes it easier for you to locate the exact spot. Taken together, these two features mean you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for with the AirTag than with any other Bluetooth tracking system.
Each AirTag runs on a removable, user-replaceable battery. It’s the only Apple-designed product to make the process easy.
Apple isn’t the first company to utilize a crowd-finding network for tracking purposes, but with a billion devices, its network has by far the largest number of devices that can look for your stuff. Since 2019, Apple’s Find My app has used Bluetooth in every iPhone, iPad, and Mac that’s on the network to passively and anonymously find lost iPhones, Macs, and even contacts who share their location. Now AirTags can use the same system to report the location of any item you attach them to. In practical terms, this means if you leave your AirTag-equipped keys at the coffee shop, for example, as long as someone there at some point has an Apple device, the keys’ location will be reported to you (and the person with the iPhone or other Apple device who identified it will never know). Although Tile’s trackers work the same way, they do so on a far smaller scale—it’s much more likely that the customer sitting one table over has an iPhone than a Tile.
The other key feature of the AirTag works once you know your tracker’s general location. Like the iPhone 11, 12, 13, and 14 lineups, AirTags support a wireless connection known as Ultra Wideband, which allows for precision locating at relatively short distances. Once you’re in the general vicinity of your AirTag (say, the coffee shop where you left your keys), you can tap the Find button in the Find My app. The app then shows you the direction and distance to the AirTag in question, and your phone vibrates as you get closer and allows you to play a sound to assist in your search. In our testing the AirTag’s tracking signal took a moment to lock on, but once it did we were thoroughly impressed by the system’s accuracy.
Noticeably absent is any sort of attachment mechanism such as a key-ring hole or adhesive back. Instead, you have to buy an extra accessory.
Compared with Tile’s trackers, AirTags have a much shorter Bluetooth range. Apple doesn’t state any specific figures, but we found that the tracker maintained a connection to our test iPhone for only 30 feet or so. On the face of it, that doesn’t sound great, but wandering around your office or home looking for your keys isn’t that different from using a Tile with a 100-foot range. And we think Apple’s much, much larger crowd-finding network and precision locating are more important factors, since that’s what will make it more likely that you’ll recover stuff you’ve truly lost.
With its glossy, white plastic front and metal back, the AirTag looks and feels a lot like a pin-back button you might put on a jean jacket or backpack. The diameter is a little larger than a quarter, and the tracker is actually about a millimeter or two thicker than many iPhones, although its curved design makes it feel thinner. You have the option to add custom engraving when you order from Apple, with up to four characters (letters and/or numbers) or selected emoji; if you buy the four-pack, you can get different text on each. Noticeably absent is any sort of attachment mechanism such as a key-ring hole or adhesive back. Instead, you have to buy an extra accessory. Of course, Apple sells a handful of its own, and plenty of third-party companies sell all sorts of designs, as well.
If you lose an AirTag (or an item containing or attached to one), you can use the Find My app or ask Siri to trigger an audible alert from the AirTag. The tune plays for about six seconds, with a repeating series of beeps. We found both the tone and the volume sufficient to help us find the AirTag when it was hidden around our testing space, comparable to what we’ve experienced with Tile trackers. If your AirTag is buried under a pile of clothes, for instance, you may not hear it, but the tone should otherwise be audible as long as you’re in the same room.
Thanks to Apple’s control over both the hardware (the iPhone or iPad and the AirTag) and the software, the setup process to activate a new AirTag is foolproof. When you unpack a new AirTag and place it next to your phone or tablet, a pop up appears on your screen, much like when you’re pairing a set of AirPods or an Apple Watch. Once you tap Connect, you can set a name for the AirTag and register it to your Apple ID. There are no settings or menus, and the entire process takes under a minute. Tile’s setup isn’t any more difficult, but you do need to manually launch the Tile app first, which is an extra step.
You track and manage your AirTags in Apple’s Find My app, where you can see the location and options for each tag. You can also rename or remove an AirTag on this screen, with the latter option resetting it completely, unpairing it from your Apple ID and allowing someone else to use it as if it were new. Up to 16 AirTags can be connected to an account.
One surprising but much-appreciated feature: Each AirTag runs on a removable, user-replaceable battery. It’s the only Apple-designed product to make the process easy. When the battery runs low (Apple says you should expect about a year out of it, roughly the same as a Tile battery), the Find My app notifies you, and you can swap in a new CR2032 battery by twisting off the AirTag’s metal back, removing the old battery, and popping the new one in. Even with this accessible design, AirTags are IP67 rated, so they should survive being under 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes, although Apple warns: “Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear.”
You can tap any relatively recent iPhone or Android phone against an AirTag, which will trigger a website showing the serial number of the tracker and instructions on how to disable it (by removing the battery). The wireless connection that happens here is the same kind—near-field communication, or NFC—that lets you tap an iPhone or Apple Watch near a store’s payment terminal to use Apple Pay. In this case, NFC serves to identify lost goods attached to the tracker, or to help you determine whether someone might be using the AirTag to track you without your knowledge. If the AirTag has been set to lost mode, the owner’s phone number will appear on your screen so that you can call them to return their lost item.
In fall 2021, Apple updated the AirTags’s firmware to include separation alerts, which notify you if you leave your keys behind, for example. This is a common feature among Bluetooth trackers, but it was omitted when the AirTags first launched. It’s very well implemented here. You can toggle the alerts on and off per device, and you can set exceptions—say, if you don’t need to be alerted every time you leave home without your AirTag-armed backpack—with small, medium, or large separation radiuses, depending on the sensitivity level you need.
Unlike Tile’s trackers (and some others), the AirTag doesn’t have any way to ring your phone if it’s nearby. So if it’s your iPhone that’s lost, you’ll have to rely on the Find My app on another Apple device to find it.
There’s no way to share an AirTag with another person because the tracker can be associated with only one Apple ID, even if you use Apple’s Family Sharing plan. If you share a set of keys with a partner or roommate, for example, only one of you will be able to track them in the Find My app.
Because AirTags don’t have any way to attach to your stuff directly, the actual cost is higher than the price of the tracker itself, unless you plan on just tossing one loose into a bag or pocket. Apple’s key rings and loops all cost at least as much as a single AirTag, effectively doubling the price. Obviously, you can save quite a bit by buying from a third-party accessory maker. We’ll be testing some holders soon and including a few of our favorites in an update to this guide.
The Tile Mate has a long range, is quite loud, and gives you a better chance of finding your lost stuff than other non-Apple trackers.
The Tile Essentials set bundles two Tile Mates, the Tile Slim, and the Tile Sticker in a bundle that’s more affordable than buying them separately.
AirTags don’t work with Android phones, but that doesn’t mean non-Apple folks don’t have a good tracker option. Tile’s Bluetooth trackers, including the Tile Mate (2022), the Tile Slim (2022), and the Tile Sticker (2022) (also available packed together in the Tile Essentials bundle), are the next most popular, so they have the second-largest crowd-finding network. They also offer impressive range and alarm volume, and are sized and shaped in more convenient ways: You can put a Tile Mate on a keychain without buying an extra holder, slip a Tile Slim into your wallet, or attach a Tile Sticker to any flat surface.
If your Tile is out of Bluetooth range, you can view a map displaying its location the last time your phone made contact with it. If your phone is no longer at that location—or if you’re worried that it won’t be—you can mark the item as lost, which invokes Tile’s crowd-finding feature. Tile tells us it has sold more than 50 million trackers. That doesn’t mean all of them are currently active, and a big portion likely aren’t; early Tile trackers didn’t have replaceable batteries, which meant the entire device had to be replaced annually. So the total number of Tile units that make up its crowd-finding network is a tiny fraction of Apple’s. According to the company’s figures, however, “millions of items” are found daily, and of those marked as lost, Tile says 90% are found. In fall 2022, Tile opened its network up to parent company Life360’s 42 million smartphone users, who can choose to opt in to help Tile members find their trackers. If they do so, that would expand Tile’s crowd-finding network by up to 10x.
AirTags come in only one round, button-like design, but the Tile line offers more options. The Tile Mate has the most general-purpose design, with an opening in the top-left corner that lets you attach a keychain, lanyard, or similar tether. It’s a round-cornered square that’s around 1.49 inches across and 0.28 inches thick—smaller than a matchbook. The Tile Slim is designed to slide easily into a wallet; it’s in the shape of a credit card, and at 2.5 millimeters, it’s as thick as three of them. The Tile Sticker is roughly the size of five quarters stacked, and the small, round tracker sticks with adhesive to whatever you want to track. This makes the Sticker a good option for anything that doesn’t have a key ring or tether, and because this tracker is so small, you can attach it in a discreet spot.
In our distance test, all four Tile variations offered impressive range. We placed them at one end of Wirecutter’s 190-foot-long office, and all remained connected to our phone as we walked to the other end. We were able to hear them chirping from that far, too, which means you’ll likely be able to hear them in most houses or apartments (190 feet is more than double the length of a basketball court).
While the previous-generation Tile Mate ran on a user-replaceable CR1632 lithium battery, the newest edition has a sealed-in battery that’s supposed to last for up to three years. Tile insists that the tracker is recyclable at the end of its life, but we can’t help but see this as a step backward in terms of hardware longevity. Unfortunately, neither the Tile Slim nor the Tile Sticker use a replaceable battery either, though Tile says their batteries also last for up to three years. (The Tile Pro has a replaceable battery that should last you about a year before you’ll need a new one.) The entire Tile lineup is rated IP67, so each tracker is protected against dust and should survive being submerged in water up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes.
The Tile Mate, the Tile Pro, and the Tile Slim now have QR codes on the back that read, “Scan me if found.” When scanned, a website that says the attached item is lost pops up on the finder’s phone; doing so sends the Tile’s location to its owner. The owner can also choose to put the Tile in lost mode and share their phone number and a message so that the finder can text or call them to return what’s been lost.
Tile offers Tile Premium, an optional, $3-per-month (or $30-per-year) subscription plan that covers as many Tiles as you own. The service includes free battery replacements shipped to you each year (for the Tile Mate and the Tile Pro), an extended warranty (from one year to three), and SMS-based support. On the software side, it offers a 30-day location history, unlimited sharing of your Tile trackers’ locations, and smart alerts that let you know when you’ve left home without any of your Tiles. (The last feature is based on entering your home address, and in our testing we could get a third of a mile away before receiving the alert, which isn’t super handy.) Aside from separation notifications, Apple doesn’t provide any of these features with an AirTag. For $100 a year, Tile also offers Premium Protect, which has the same features plus a $1,000-per-year reimbursement for (most) registered items that are lost. Tile Premium is an unnecessary expense for most people, but Premium Protect may be worth the investment if you’re tracking something valuable.
Setting up any Tile is simple: Instead of having to go into your phone’s Settings menu to add the Tile, the Tile app (Android, iOS) handles everything. You just launch the app, tap a button to add a new Tile, and press firmly on the Tile’s center button when prompted. If you have an iPhone, Apple’s AirTag setup may be a little more automatic, but both processes are fast and simple.
In the app, you can name each Tile whatever you like and add a photo; for example, if you have a Tile Mate in your backpack, you can add a photo of the backpack for that particular Tile. You can view your devices—all Tiles, your paired phone, and any other phones and tablets running the Tile app under your account—in list or map mode. You can pair an unlimited number of Tiles with a phone, but only four Tiles can actively communicate with an Android phone (via Bluetooth) at once. An unlimited number of Tiles can communicate with an Apple device at once.
Tiles have less precision than AirTags over short distances because they use a standard form of Bluetooth, without the layer of Ultra Wideband technology that makes the Find My app so accurate. In oral testimony to Congress (PDF) presented by its general counsel Kirsten Daru in April 2021, Tile said it had developed a product that uses Ultra Wideband technology but that Apple was preventing compatibility with iPhones.
Chipolo will release new Google Find My Device-compatible Bluetooth trackers, the $28 Chipolo One Point and the $35 Chipolo Card Point trackers, on May 27. These are some of the first trackers on the market to use the global network of Android devices to track items, similar to the way Apple's AirTags use the iOS Find My network. We plan to test them as soon as they become available to see how they compare to our current Android tracker pick, the Tile Mate.
Apple shared details about its upcoming iOS 17 rollout at its June Worldwide Developers Conference. The new iOS will introduce increased shareability for Apple's AirTags, which will be shareable with up to five other users. Once you’ve chosen a group of friends or family to share an AirTag with, everyone in the group will be able to track that AirTag in the Find My app, as well as have an AirTag play sound and use Precision Finding to find the exact location of a nearby AirTag. iOS 17 is expected in the Fall, likely timed alongside new iPhones in September.
Striking a balance between privacy and security with an item meant to track your stuff is difficult, and a device that tracks your location presents a number of concerns. Beyond the worry about what the tracker maker does with your location information, there’s also the potential for intentional misuse and abuse by bad actors. Apple and Tile take different approaches on both fronts.
Apple says it designed the AirTag with privacy in mind. Because the location data is encrypted end-to-end, no one other than you—not even Apple—can see where your AirTag is. Back when Apple made the AirTag announcement and released the details, the company also outlined the device’s built-in protections intended to prevent AirTags from enabling certain types of abuse. For example, if someone tries to track you surreptitiously by throwing an AirTag into your bag, your iPhone (if you use one) will notice a foreign tracker following you around and send you an alert on your phone. If you're an Android user, you can download Apple's free Tracker Detect app from the Google Play Store to scan for AirTags that may be surreptitiously spying on you. According to CNET, the AirTag will start beeping within eight to 24 hours of being separated from the owner’s phone.
Soon after release, The Washington Post (subscription required) tested the AirTag privacy features with iPhones, and concluded that the features Apple added to limit stalking may not deter bad behavior as much as one might hope. A New York Times (subscription required) report noted, “In recent months, people have posted on TikTok, Reddit and Twitter about finding AirTags on their cars and in their belongings.” Vice had similar findings when combing through police reports. Since launch, Apple has tweaked this behavior to shorten the time before the AirTag starts beeping, tuned the sound the AirTag makes so it’s easier to hear, and expanded on its documentation for how to handle unwanted tracking.
Tile has a “Scan and Secure” feature in its mobile app that allows you to manually scan for nearby Tile devices, which is similar to the AirTag app for Android. To scan for an unknown Tile device, you’ll need to download the app, accept permissions requests for either Bluetooth or location, and then drive (or walk) around for 10 minutes before you get a report on whether or not a Tile tracker is traveling with you.
Tile representatives have told us that the company uses your phone’s location data in four ways: determining where you are in relation to your stuff, periodically determining the location of each tracker, noting your location if you’re in range of someone else’s lost tracker, and (if you contact Tile’s support staff) determining the approximate location of your computer or other device by IP address. We don’t think any of these uses is particularly invasive for a device that you’re purchasing to locate you and your lost items, and Tile told us it doesn’t “use revenue generating advertising in our products or services that could give third parties access to certain information for monetary gain.”
In February 2023, Tile rolled out a new feature called Anti-Theft Mode, which is supposed to make it easier to find a stolen item with a Tile attached to it by hiding its presence notification when someone scans for nearby Tiles. This would make it more difficult for thieves to find the Tile on the item they’ve stolen and remove it. Tile requires anyone setting up Anti-Theft Mode to go through a rigorous identification verification process, including providing government-issued ID and biometric verification. This process is designed to deter Tile owners from using the devices for illegal activity, like stalking, through a lack of anonymity.
We combed through the privacy policies of both companies and reached out with clarifying questions about our most critical concerns regarding these types of trackers. Here’s how they compare:
Chipolo’s One Spot uses Apple’s Find My network, meaning it’s just as likely that someone’s iPhone will anonymously find your lost tracker as it is with an AirTag. But the One Spot has only one advantage over the AirTag—a keychain hole as part of its design—and a number of disadvantages. It doesn’t have the precise finding capabilities, it’s not as resistant to the elements, and it’s physically larger. Unlike the Chipolo One (2020) (which is physically identical but uses Chipolo’s crowd-finding network instead of Apple’s), the One Spot can’t be used to trigger an alert on your phone, nor can it let you know if you’ve left something behind. There’s no reason to choose the One Spot over the AirTag, especially since they cost about the same.
The Tile Pro (2022) is a more expensive and slightly larger, fob-shaped version of the Tile tracker, with a longer range. Tile says this model will stay connected for up to 400 feet, or 40 feet longer than the length of a football field. In our tests the Tile Pro remained connected for the entire length of our 190-foot office. Though a longer range is better, we’ve concluded that in almost any scenario around a home or office, the Tile Mate is sufficient. If your house is longer than 400 feet, you can swing the extra $10 for the Tile Pro. The Pro is also the only current Tile tracker that uses a replaceable battery, but it lasts only one year, compared to the other models’ three.
Orbit offers a number of tracker styles, including the Orbit Glasses tracker, which fits on eyeglasses or sunglasses. Unfortunately the Orbit network is just too limited for us to recommend choosing Orbit over Tile. Anecdotally, I lost a pair of sunglasses that were outfitted with the Orbit Glasses tracker in busy and tech-heavy New York City. And despite marking them as lost in the app in hopes of an Orbit user passing by and finding them, I never received a notice that the sunglasses were found.
Cube offers three designs of its tracker: the Cube, the Cube Pro, and the Cube Shadow, the last of which is a slim, wallet-friendly size. Though the Cube Shadow promises the same range as the Tile Slim, the Cube and Cube Pro offer half the range of the Tile Mate and Tile Pro, respectively, and the entire Cube family has a smaller crowd-finding network than Tile’s trackers.
Nick Guy is a former senior staff writer covering Apple and accessories at Wirecutter. He has been reviewing iPhones, iPads, and related tech since 2011—and stopped counting after he tested his 1,000th case. It’s impossible for him not to mentally catalog any case he sees. He once had the bright idea to build and burn down a room to test fireproof safes.
by Kaitlyn Wells and Nick Guy
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