Apple AirTags are super helpful for keeping track of your keys, backpack, and other frequently misplaced items, but there are some pretty clever things you can do with them beyond finding regularly used stuff.
Apple sells its smart trackers — small, circular white discs 1.26 inches in diameter and 0.31 inches thick — in single ($29) and four packs ($99). They are often on sale at Amazon and other online stores. The multipack is the better deal if you need more than one, as it brings the individual AirTag cost down to $24.75 at most. Maybe you only need one, but there are at least 20 ways to use Apple's new smart trackers, so you might want to stock up!
- Buy on Amazon: Apple AirTag - Individual ($29)
- Buy on B&H Photo: Apple AirTag - Individual ($29)
- Buy on Amazon: Apple AirTags - Four-Pack ($99)
- Buy on B&H Photo: Apple AirTags - Four-Pack ($99)
How AirTag Works
To be clear, an AirTag is not an iPhone, so it cannot communicate with the Find My app or network on its own. Instead, it connects to other devices on the Find My network using Bluetooth. To get a hit on Find My, a device on the Find My network must be within Bluetooth range of the AirTag.
But that's the beauty of AirTag. Unlike AirPods, it's not just your devices AirTags communicate with. Any device running at least iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, or macOS Big Sur 11.1 can receive signals from your AirTags. That means all an AirTag needs to do to refresh its location on Find My is connect to a nearby device on the Find My network. Think about how many millions of iPhones, iPads, and Macs can do that.
You can even place the AirTag in Lost Mode so that if someone finds it, they can tap and hold the top of their smartphone to the AirTag and wait for a notification that takes them to a webpage with your phone number or email address. That works for iPhones and Android devices that support NFC, so you'll have the help of virtually the entire smartphone community.
Apple also prioritizes privacy. All communication between your AirTag and a stranger's products is entirely encrypted and anonymous. No location data is stored in the AirTag. The AirTag's Bluetooth signal identifiers frequently rotate to prevent unwanted tracking, so there's no risk that a hacker will compromise your security.
An AirTag will also send unwanted tracking alerts (with instructions for removing the AirTag's battery) to a nearby user's iPhone when the iPhone thinks the AirTag is following them. This prevents people from using AirTags to maliciously track people without their knowledge. And as of May 13, 2024, Android phones running Android 6.0 and later can also receive these alerts.
If you're looking for your AirTag on your own, it's a similar experience to tracking down an item on Find My unless you have an iPhone with the U1 chip (iPhone 11 and newer) with Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology. These devices support Precision Finding with AirTag; you'll see an arrow on your iPhone's display, letting you know exactly how close you are to that AirTag and its direction. It's a feature we think will be helpful in more than a couple of the scenarios below.
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- Expose Government Secrets
- Detect Trespassers
- Monitor Important Equipment
- Find Your Medication
- Track Your Pets
- Track Your Children
- Track Yourself
- Track People with Dementia
- Track Your Stuff
- Create High-Tech Scavenger Hunt Clues
- Make Beacons for the Visually Impaired
- Locate Items Underwater
- Find Your Luggage (When the Airline Loses It)
- Find Your Luggage (On the Carousel)
- Keep Tabs on Traveling Pets
- Locate Your Children's Toys
- Track Down Your Stolen Bike
- Track Down Your Stolen Car
- Locate Your Parked Car
- Keep Tabs on Your Non-Apple Electronics
1. Expose Government Secrets
In January 2022, security researcher and activist Lilith Wittmann uncovered a front organization for a German intelligence agency, and she used an AirTag to do it.
After discovering Germany's mysterious Federal Telecommunications Service (BST), a federal authority Wittmann was unfamiliar with, she tried locating it. Through extensive research, Wittman concluded that it was actually a secret camouflage authority for the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), a German domestic intelligence service. The nail in the coffin was the AirTag she mailed to the BST's address, which was routed and tracked to the BfV's address.
If an AirTag can expose a secret government front organization, what other government secrets can it reveal? Maybe you can find out. Just note that anyone along the AirTag's travel path may get alerts on their iPhone or Android phone that your AirTag is tracking them. Still, it won't matter much until it reaches the destination (where they could eventually remove the AirTag's battery).
In the U.S., it's a federal offense for someone to open mail not intended for them, and postal inspectors can only open First-Class mail if there's probable cause to believe it violates federal law. Also, you aren't required to mark mail going on domestic surface routes as containing Lithium coin cell batteries as long as the batteries are in the AirTag, which makes the letter or parcel less conspicuous.
2. Detect Trespassers
By dropping an AirTag in a specific location, you can get alerts when nearby Apple devices cross its path. For example, if you'd like to know if people are visiting an abandoned property, hide an AirTag there and see how often its location updates. The AirTag should still send signals to people's devices using Bluetooth if it's a remote area without Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity. Then, those devices will update Find My when they next connect to the internet.
It's worth pointing out again that iPhone and Android users may receive unwanted tracking alerts if they're there for a while, so people could find your AirTag and remove its battery.
3. Monitor Important Equipment
On the same lines as people detecting, you can hide an AirTag inside something important that you don't want anyone to mess with. For example, if you're a skydiver, you might put AirTags in your skydiving rigs and place them in a low-traffic area, out of sight, out of mind. If the timestamp ever updates on Find My and none of your Apple devices are near your rigs, you might want to double-check your parachute to ensure it hasn't been tampered with.
4. Find Your Medication
If you or a loved one is severely allergic to anything, put an AirTag with your EpiPens to make your own lifesaver beacon. The same goes for any other life-saving medication you may need to take at a moment's notice. Or you can use it on any of your medication to help you locate it more quickly when it's not where it's supposed to be, which is extra important in a household with children who might take things and hide them away for later.
When you have family or friends living with you, it's important to share medication AirTags with them (you can share an AirTag with up to five people) so they can use Find My on their own devices to locate life-saving medicine for you instead of everyone frantically upending the house. And you can help your family and friends if they share AirTags with you.
5. Track Your Pets
If you don't want to go through the process of microchipping your pet, there's a less invasive option to keep track of your furry friend: AirTag. Apple's Bluetooth trackers are a perfect pet companion since they're IP67 water-resistant, small enough for a cat's collar, and hardly noticeable on a dog's. And they're not just good for locating a lost pet — they can also help you find where your outdoor pets keep running off to.
When you already have a collar for your pet, you can get an AirTag case with a loop, keyring, or small carabiner. If you don't know whether a keyring or carabiner would work best, Kordiz sells a pack of AirTag cases with both. There are also slide-on options from Moogrou, Caisateq, Dlenp, Swincho, and Pup Culture. You can even get a waterproof case that screws onto most collars.
If you want a collar with a built-in case for AirTag, FollowPaw and AirCollar make leather ones. Rhxofyang and Taporse sell reflective nylon collars with neoprene lining. And you can even find tactical collars for AirTag.
6. Track Your Children
Like pets, children have a mind of their own and can run off at a moment's notice. If you put your attention elsewhere for half a second, you'll spend half your afternoon looking for your kids.
For an easy way to keep track of kids who aren't old enough for smartphones yet, think about pairing them with an AirTag. You can simply throw one in their backpack or pocket, but a case is less likely to be left behind and will protect the AirTag from damage (kids do tend to destroy things).
A case with a loop, keyring, or small carabiner can attach to pretty much anything, a slide-on case can be secured to any strap, and a screw-on case or pin-on case can latch onto fabrics and other materials. There are even nylon and silicone wristbands that support AirTag you could have your kid wear, as well as necklaces.
While AirTag's anti-stalking feature won't be much of a concern for a child without a smartphone, you should still let your young ones know they have an AirTag tracker and why.
- Popular Option: Typecase Nylon Wristband with AirTag Protective Cover
7. Track Yourself
Maybe you've listened to one too many true crime podcasts and want a little extra security in your life. You can pick up an AirTag for your bag or pants pocket to keep yourself on other people's radar, whether you share the AirTag with them, share an Apple ID account, or have your AirTag set up from their device.
Another layer of security never hurts when you think you might be walking into a dangerous situation. Emergency SOS might not be good enough, 911 on your Apple Watch can easily be stopped, custom panic buttons in Shortcuts might not be usable in time, and your iPhone can be shut off to disable tracking. However, an attacker or assailant might not even realize you have a personal locator beacon on you, and their own Apple devices might even help track you down. If your iPhone is nearby and powered on, kidnappers shouldn't receive any unwanted tracking alerts to tip them off.
8. Track People with Dementia
People with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia can lose their ability to recognize familiar places, so it's not uncommon for them to wander off and get lost and confused. There are GPS trackers for people with special needs and dementia, but they cost more than an AirTag, so why not try an AirTag and save money? Just ensure they know they have an AirTag, just like you should do with kids.
As with children, you can attach a loop, keyring, or small carabiner to most anything, secure a slide-on case to most straps, fasten a screw-on case or pin-on case to most fabrics, or give them a nylon and silicone wristband to wear. If they always have their wallet on them, you can even place a holder shaped like a credit card in with their other cards.
9. Track Your Stuff
Apple designed AirTag to help you keep track of your belongings. Like other smart trackers, AirTag enables you to find things you easily misplace daily. But have you considered everything in your life that an AirTag can help you keep tabs on?
- keys
- remote (try an adhesive AirTag holder)
- AirPods charging case (older models without Find My built-in)
- wallet (try a credit card-size AirTag holder)
- purse
- employee badge
- student ID
- laptop bag
- and many other things
10. Create High-Tech Scavenger Hunt Clues
Have some cash to spend? Looking for some high-tech fun? Consider picking up a four-pack of AirTags and using them as scavenger hunt clues. Your contestants can use their iPhones — especially ones with the U1 chip — to tell if they're getting warmer to an AirTag and, subsequently, to the next clue. This probably works best for the first clue in a scavenger hunt, as the players might get confused seeing multiple AirTags on the map. However, you could always name each AirTag appropriately to prevent such confusion.
11. Make Beacons for the Visually Impaired
The Find My app supports various accessibility settings built right into the iPhone. These include VoiceOver, inverted colors, larger text, and compatibility with braille displays. VoiceOver is possibly the best accessibility feature to use with AirTag since an iPhone (with a U1 chip) can give step-by-step instructions out loud with Precision Finding, which offers blind or low-vision users spoken directions like "AirTag is five feet away on your right." It's definitely a faster way for people with visual impairments to find items faster.
12. Locate Items Underwater
AirTag is IP67-rated for water resistance. That doesn't mean it's waterproof, but it does give you some leeway when it comes to a liquid encounter since AirTag should continue to function at a maximum depth of one meter (about three feet) for up to 30 minutes.
Given that, consider attaching an AirTag to any items you're concerned about losing when in water. If you're going boating, swimming, or any other activity that could result in a wallet, backpack, or other possession falling into shallow water, an AirTag might be what gets it back to you. You'll need an iPhone with a U1 chip since Ultra Wideband technology will better penetrate water than Bluetooth.
If IP67 isn't good enough for you, some keyring and carabiner cases will make your AirTags even more waterproof. Temdan makes an IP68-rated case; Citymore, Supfine, and Sevrok have IPX8 ones; and DDJ and Dovick have unrated versions. There are also waterproof AirTag cases for straps and collars.
13. Find Your Luggage (When the Airline Loses It)
If the airline can't find your bag on its own, maybe it can locate it with a beeping AirTag inside. Use this tip at your own discretion, of course, since some airlines might not take too kindly to demands to listen for a chirping noise inside their luggage area. That said, it isn't the only time an AirTag can help you with your luggage at the airport.
14. Find Your Luggage (On the Carousel)
It's a universal struggle to watch endlessly for your luggage on the airport carousel, wondering if that bag that looks like your bag really is your bag (spoiler: it probably isn't).
Stop waiting and guessing by popping an AirTag in your bag before you hand it off to the airline. When it comes time to pick up your luggage, you can use your U1-equipped iPhone and Precision Finding to know precisely when the bag has entered the area from the back.
15. Keep Tabs on Traveling Pets
Combining the "Track Your Pets" and "Find Your Luggage" tips, having an AirTag on your pets is a good idea when traveling with them. At airports, it's especially useful whenever they have to travel in the cargo area, where there's always the possibility that your pet could be misplaced. If you're worried about strapping a battery around their neck during flights, hide it with the travel cage in a protective case.
16. Locate Your Children's Toys
No more flipping over couch cushions or ducking underneath the bed looking for that lost stuffed animal, race car, or security blanket. If you can find a way to attach an AirTag to your kids' favorite toys that always go missing, you should. Of course, ensure it's hidden and not removable by the kid. An AirTag could pose a choking hazard depending on their age, but an AirTag sewed into a teddy bear or wooby won't even be accessible to them.
17. Track Down Your Stolen Bike
If you take your bike out and about town, you likely have a lock or chain to keep it safe. That said, if a lock or chain could stop all bike thefts, we wouldn't be here, would we?
To add extra security to your bicycle while left unattended, hide an AirTag somewhere inconspicuous. That way, if someone steals it, all you need to do is track the AirTag to find your bike — with or without the thief. Moment has AirTag holders with adhesive backs that can mount to flat and curved surfaces, so you can hide one under the sear or even on one of the bars. Aimtel, Pelican, Elago, and Lizhi also sell adhesive-backed AirTag cases.
Even better, some companies make AirTag mounts just for bikes. Toovren and Izi have cases that strap under your bike's seat, while Laut makes a saddle mount. TagLock, Tusita, and PerfiPro sell AirTag bike mounts that look like reflectors, so bike thieves won't even notice anything wrong. Anmuka, Elevation Lab, Grapid, Supmega, and Tentoku have ones you conceal behind your water bottle holder. Dog River Tools, Efeall, and Nicedack sell stem mounts to camouflage your AirTag. There's even an AirTag case disguised as a bicycle bell for your handlebars.
- Popular Option: TagLock AirTag Bike Mount Disguised as Reflector
Since AirTags were not created to be anti-theft trackers, the thieves may eventually receive unwanted tracking alerts on their iPhone or Android phone, tipping them off that there's an AirTag somewhere on your bicycle (that they'll eventually find and dismantle). But AirTags can still help you track it down before they receive any such alerts.
Some bikes even have tracking technology built-in that works with the Find My network, if you're worried about an AirTag being seen.
18. Track Down Your Stolen Car
As with bikes, AirTag is perfect as a cheap anti-theft device for your car or truck. There are plenty of places to sneak an AirTag into your vehicle so an unsuspecting thief would never notice. Glove box, under a seat, in the center console, with the spare tire in the trunk, you name it. They think they just got away with the perfect crime, but little do they know you can track their every move.
Of course, there are GPS trackers you can buy specifically for vehicles, but they're expensive and usually require a monitoring subscription. And again, since AirTags were not created to be anti-theft trackers, the thieves may eventually receive unwanted tracking alerts on their iPhone or Android phone, tipping them off that there's an AirTag somewhere in your vehicle (that they'll eventually find and turn off). But AirTags can still help you track it down before they receive any such alerts.
19. Locate Your Parked Car
You don't need a thief in the picture for your vehicle to go missing. You're perfectly capable of misplacing your car or truck all on your own, thank you very much.
To avoid a Seinfeld parking situation, just entrust your location to that hidden AirTag! Your U1-equipped iPhone with Precision Finding will lead you right back to your car, so you no longer need to worry about memorizing garage floor numbers, remembering cross-street names, or trying to get "Show Parked Location" in Apple Maps to work.
- Popular Option: Mars Outpost's AirTag Cover with Neodymium Magnet for Vehicles
20. Keep Tabs on Your Non-Apple Electronics
If you have a Windows PC or Chromebook without Apple Find My security, you can easily use an adhesive AirTag holder on the outside of the shell to keep tabs on your computer with your iPhone. One Reddit user even tore down their AirTag, removed the speaker, and placed the rest of the insides in their Windows laptop. Another user shoved one in their Steam Deck while another pushed one into a crevice in their remote control. If there's a space for it, why not?
What Kind of Batteries Do AirTags Take?
The batteries in AirTag last around one full year, but once they're dead, you don't need to buy a whole new AirTag. In a very un-Apple move, AirTag batteries are user-replaceable and run on the CR2032 coin cell battery.
CR2032 batteries are essentially the AA battery of coin batteries. They're in every grocery and convenience store, but the chances are that most of the products in your life don't take them, aside from your key fobs, children's toys, and old-style Apple remotes. With AirTags, you finally have a reason to grab a pack.
- Amazon: Energizer CR2032 Lithium 3V Coin Cell Batteries (6 Count) ($7.99)
Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for Podcasts, News, Books, and TV, as well as important security improvements and fresh wallpapers. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.5 update.
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