How Far Can You Track An Apple AirTag: Explained

AirTags are a convenient accessory to keep track of your stuff, and since I have the unfortunate luck of losing my keys and other stuff quite often, I decided to get a few for myself.

Before I made the purchase, I wanted to know how far you could track the AirTag and what else it could do.

I also wanted to know what let the AirTag keep an eye on my stuff and how good that underlying technology was.

So to know more, I watched a ton of videos where people talked about the AirTag and visited a few forums where people were giving their feedback on how these devices were.

To wrap everything up, I spent a few more hours on my own, researching the product in detail.

This article compiles all of my research and everything else that I found so that you’ll be able to know precisely how far you can track your Apple AirTag.

AirTags only have low-power Bluetooth, so they use the Find My network after your phone gets past the 800 ft Bluetooth range. The Find My network will give you a rough idea of where the tag is.

Read on to discover what limitations AirTags have and where they are used best.

How Do AirTags Work?

The primary way that AirTags communicate is by sending out a Bluetooth signal that any iPhone in the vicinity can pick up.

When you first set up the device, it becomes part of your Find My network, and you can later find them with the Find My app like you would an iPhone or an iPad.

It also has NFC when put in Lost Mode, so if someone finds it, they can get your contact information by tapping the AirTag with the back of their phone.

Your iPhone can also detect someone else’s AirTag in the phone’s Bluetooth range and alert you if it is away from the owner’s phone.

This lets AirTags be found even though it doesn’t have any GPS technology.

It uses Bluetooth signals from other iPhones around you to find and locate the tag.

This means that you don’t need to be near your stuff that has the AirTag on it to find it.

Downsides Of Bluetooth

AirTag uses Bluetooth 5.0, so it is advertised to be effective to at least 800 feet.

But this is entirely dependent on your environment, and if there are a lot of obstructions like concrete walls and large metal objects, this range can go down.

This means that the AirTag needs to be close to your iPhone before it starts alerting you or other iPhone users that it has been lost, which is entirely possible if you leave the tag in your backpack or attached to your keys.

Bluetooth isn’t as accurate as having the actual GPS location of the tag because when someone’s iPhone finds your AirTag, the Find My service uses that phone’s GPS to find where your AirTag attached thing is.

This might be inaccurate because, as we’ve seen before, these tags have considerable range, especially when outdoors.

GPS isn’t used because it can draw a lot of power, but newer low-power Bluetooth transmitters like the one used in the AirTag can last almost a year while consistently sending out Bluetooth signals.

What Can’t An AirTag Do?

AirTags look perfect for anyone looking not to lose their stuff, but there are some things they cannot do.

Since they don’t have GPS and transmit using low power signals, the rate at which its location is updated is pretty slow compared to using GPS.

Bluetooth cannot be used to find stuff, so the AirTag relies on the GPS signals of iPhones around it to send its location.

You cannot rely on this 100% either because you won’t know if the GPS on the iPhone that finds the AirTag is having issues or not.

The last but most important feature that the AirTags don’t have is the ability to track and store location data.

Apple claims the AirTag cannot be tracked because it doesn’t store its location data on the device itself or the cloud.

Tracking With AirTag

Since the AirTag doesn’t have GPS, and Apple strictly designed it not to be a tracking device, an Airtag can’t be used to track anything.

Even if you make it think it’s lost, it will send notifications to nearby iPhones and start making sounds if it is ignored for too long.

Thanks to this, illegally tracking someone or something is out of the picture, which is a bonus privacy-wise.

No one will also know what device found the AirTag or its location, and Apple has confirmed that only the owner of an AirTag can accurately determine the location of that AirTag.

Where Would AirTags Be Useful

AirTags would be best to keep track of any electronics and other expensive things you’d be sorry if you lost.

What you shouldn’t use them for is to track people without their knowledge; Apple recommends against doing this, and it can be illegal in some states to do so.

You can put your AirTag in your backpack, your Nintendo Switch case, or your musical instrument case to keep track of any of these.

It is really up to your imagination where you use the AirTags; just don’t use them on people.

You can even use the AirTag as a contact card; ask the person you want to share your information with to hold their NFC-capable phone against the AirTag.

They’ll be taken to a website with all the information you want to share.

You can also attach them to your pet’s collar if you don’t want to microchip them, and you’ll be alerted if they stray too far from your home.

If someone finds your lost pet, they can use the AirTag to contact you.

Final Thoughts

AirTags are an excellent piece of technology that adds peace of mind when carrying around expensive or important stuff with you.

Understand what the AirTag can do and what it cannot, and you’ll never have to worry about losing track of your belongings.

Thanks to the feature updates that Apple occasionally pushes to all AirTags, we may see new features added as time goes on.

We might even see a new AirTag with GPS with an even better battery life in the future.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Apple AirTag have GPS?

Apple AirTags do not have GPS; instead, they use the Find My network to help locate themselves on a map and relay that information to you.

Can I use AirTag to track my car?

You can track your car with AirTag, but keep in mind that it will alert you if you’re too far away from the car.

It is a cheap way to track your car, but I would still recommend GPS tracking if available.

Why does my AirTag beep randomly?

Your AirTag is beeping randomly because it thinks it’s away from the owner’s iPhone.

You can access its settings from the Find My app and turn these alerts off.

Do you have to charge AirTag?

You don’t need to charge your AirTags because they don’t have rechargeable batteries.

After a year or so, you can replace its CR2032 batteries by yourself.

Does the Apple AirTag make noise?

AirTags make noise when it thinks that it is away from the owner.

This helps anyone near it find it and contact the owner of whatever it is attached to.