Tell me about airtags

[munmun]

With reports of luggage problems I am considering getting Airtags. We don't have apple phones, I have a Samsung.

Please can Dibbers give me some advice on how they work and if they are useful.

Thank you

[Hudson]

I have a couple of Samsung smart tags.
The air tags are picked up by apple phones and Samsung smart tags are picked up by Samsung phones. They both rely on their own brands sending or logging their location at the time of coming in range of a device.
I have a smart tag on my car keys and my cat. If the cat is in the woods, fields etc I won't know but if he is in a garden and someone in the house has a Samsung device then I will know approximately were he is/was.

[Sew109]

I have AirTags and they are in my opinion mediocre, I have them on car keys and wallet the beep is not loud enough and the directions can be misleading.

What benefit are you after regarding problems with luggage ? I can’t see a benefit you either have it or you don’t and if you used the air tag as a way of showing where they were I am it sure the airline would give it any credence. Also certainly in the air they probably would, not work.

[Hudson]

With the airtags you're not able check the location history... it's only in real time.
With the smart tags you can check the location history.
We do have an airtag too, on my youngest son's house keys in case he loses them.
As the previous poster said the airtags are mediocre... the smart tags are marginally better

[sky13]

I have a few Airtags that I use in daily life (for things like my wallet, work access cards, bag).

They work really well where I am (densely populated city with high prevalence of iPhone usage). Probably won't work as well in less densely populated places though!

For my next vacation I'll probably slip the Airtags I already have into my luggage. I figure it should work decently well in airports (lots of human traffic which should include a decent number of people with iPhones) and will hopefully at least tell me the general location of my luggage! Especially as I suspect my next vacation will involve a number of airport transits and plane changes (at least 1 if not 2 on the way out and same on the way back)...

[munmun]

Read on BA Flyertalk a passenger who arrived in T3 and no bags arrived, at the BA desk he checked his app and realised his bags were in T5, he told the BA baggage claim staff who located the baggage for all the passengers and had it shipped across to T3!

[YorkshireT]

Yes good idea I’m considering putting one in as I have bought 4 recently. I have one hidden in each car as a back up in case car stolen (someone recovered a car with one in recently) and will have one in my hand luggage/ camera bag and will put one in a case.
They basically pick it up when it’s in the vicinity of an iPhone. I’ve found that they are picked up much more than you’d think. In an airport they’ll be picked up a lot.
So my logic is we are flying internally as well and when you land if the cases are not there- where are they?

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by YorkshireT

Yes good idea I’m considering putting one in as I have bought 4 recently. I have one hidden in each car as a back up in case car stolen (someone recovered a car with one in recently) and will have one in my hand luggage/ camera bag and will put one in a case.
They basically pick it up when it’s in the vicinity of an iPhone. I’ve found that they are picked up much more than you’d think. In an airport they’ll be picked up a lot.
So my logic is we are flying internally as well and when you land if the cases are not there- where are they?

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So they need to be near an iPhone (any iPhone) to work?

Thanks

[munmun]

Originally Posted by Rac20

So they need to be near an iPhone (any iPhone) to work?

Thanks

See more...

From what I've read and youtubed, it depends what phone you have what type of airbags you get there are two different systems, each system works with the operating system on you phone.

Once in place they rely on phones being close by a bit like the traffic updates that look at the speed phones are going to check the traffic.

They emit a signal that is passed to nearby phones and then onto the app on your phone.

Planning to get some for about £20 each they may help locate our bags

[Orlando Soon]

Air tags with ba are at least £80 if not more. I have a “tile” attached to my key ring (£15) and it is paired with my phone. It has location history and works within 250 ft. I am going to throw my keys in my suitcase and then check when I get on the plane if my case is locatable ( I will not let the pilot fly off until it is . )