Tiles, AirTags or Something Else?

December 10, 2024 4:05 PM

I would like to give my grown children some form of electronic thingy that helps them find their stuff. One has an Android, one has an iPhone. It would be nice to buy a 4 pack and split it. Is this doable? If so, with what?

This is for wallets and keys. They're both seriously ADHD (as am I, maybe one of these is for me tbh) and the endless Losing of Things is driving me nuts.

I do not want to pay a subscription. I want to buy one thing and have it work with their different phones. I want them to be able to look at their phones and say, oh, my wallet is in the living room under the couch, or, oh god, my wallet is down at the gas station because it fell off my car. That's all. It would probably also be helpful if they could push a button on their phones and make it beep or something.

If necessary I will buy two things - one for iPhone person and one for Android person, but I'd way prefer to just buy one thing. I've never had one of these, so I am a complete novice.

posted by mygothlaundry to Shopping (4 answers total)

Can confirm, Tiles work much like that. We can tell a wallet is in a bag left in the car because it's at our address yet we can't hear it from inside and the signal reads as weak. We learn that the spare keys are in fact still with the pet sitter by checking the map. We retrieve the remote from between cushions by following its muffled song. This is for Android. Both Tiles and AirTags seemed to have similar uses and limitations though, primary of which is that if the tracker is isolated from its network (which is based on triangulation amongst users of the system, not onboard GPS), it can't help you. So don't drop your backpack on a remote hike and don't count on finding your stolen bike and don't expect to track your cat in real time. But for miscellaneous lost items in urban environments we've been very satisfied. Even just ruling an area out can be a huge time-saver.
posted by teremala at 4:35 PM on December 10 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You're going to have a much easier time buying both AirTags and Tiles.

I have Tile. I purchased AirTags for a family member. You'll need lots of them anyway, I find...

I do not want to pay a subscription.

Tile doesn't require a subscription to use. (If you have one they will replace lost items up to a certain value)

I want to buy one thing and have it work with their different phones.

Seems like you might be able to do this, but you'll get limited functionality and I wouldn't recommend it.

I want them to be able to look at their phones and say, oh, my wallet is in the living room under the couch,


You will be able to see an address, but then you can make the Tile "ring" to find the wallet under the couch cushions...

or, oh god, my wallet is down at the gas station because it fell off my car.

Tile and AirTags can both notify you if you've left something behind somewhere. You have to set that up, though.

if they could push a button on their phones and make it beep or something.

You can do this so long as your phone can connect to the Tile/AirTag.

As a person with ADHD Tile has eliminated so much stress from my life. I have 6 different Tiles in different form factors. It's amazing.

One thing to note: some Tiles have replaceable batteries, others do not. So you'll need to either put in new batteries or buy new Tiles when the time comes. The app reminds you.
posted by skunk pig at 4:50 PM on December 10 [3 favorites]

I only have an Android phone and can confirm that Tiles work great for Android phones for this use case. I have a tile in my wallet and one on my keys and one in my backpack. I also put one in my checked luggage the last time I checked a bag. I can ring them from my phone, or ring my phone from any of them. You can also stick one to the wall that you can poke to get your phone to ring, wherever it is. Or stick it on to your remote. Tile seems to always have weird colors on sale, if you don't care what the color is.

I can't speak to AirTags.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:33 PM on December 10 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've used tiles and AirTags with an iPhone.

Tiles are louder. The app needs to be running for them to keep track of where you left things, which is very occasionally an issue (it runs in the background and doesn't do much or drain battery significantly, but if you kill it you need to restart it). On rare occasions I have had a tile that just refuses to admit its existence (very rare, a handful of times over many years - I don't know whether it's because it needs a software update or something, I never worked out the logic).

AirTags (in the Apple ecosystem) give you a direction and distance when you're looking for them, but the beep is quieter and they seem to be out of range a little more often so you sometimes have to patrol the house looking for the signal.

Honestly, you could buy all tiles or you could buy tiles and AirTags and I don't think you'd be disappointed either way.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 4:16 PM on December 11