The general public recall to mind AirTags once they image a Bluetooth tracker. And certainly, Apple’s little white discs was essentially the most succesful choice, depending on an infinite discovering community of close by iPhones to pinpoint misplaced tags. However now, each Google and Samsung have carried out discovering networks of their very own. And different Bluetooth tracker corporations, like Chipolo and Pebblebee, now have trackers that pair with both Google or Apple’s community too. Briefly, you’ve were given numerous choices for tagging and monitoring your keys, backpacks, baggage and extra. So we examined all of the primary manufacturers available in the market to look how they paintings and put in combination a information that will help you get essentially the most from your selected tracker. Listed here are the most efficient Bluetooth trackers you’ll be able to purchase.
Desk of contents
Absolute best Bluetooth trackers for 2025
Amy Skorheim for Engadget
Structure: Disc with hollow | Compatibility: Android and iPhone | Water resistance: IP55 (splash and dirt resistant) | Battery lifestyles: 1 12 months | Replaceable battery: Sure | Distance for left-behind indicators: 450 feet. | Telephone finder serve as: Sure, by the use of Chipolo app
Chipolo’s earlier fob, the Chipolo ONE, was once our best select for a pair years. The discharge of Samsung’s newest tag, new Tile trackers and different tags well suited with Google’s discovering community didn’t organize to nudge it from its throne. The Chipolo Pop got here out in early 2025 and it now not best keeps all of the options we beloved concerning the authentic tracker, however it additionally solved our one grievance concerning the earlier type: Chipolo’s restricted discovering community.
The Pop tracker faucets into both Google’s In finding Hub or Apple’s In finding My community, calling on each close by Android or iPhone, respectively, to anonymously ping a misplaced tracker for correct discovering. No longer best does it have some substantial lost-in-the wild chops, it’s additionally louder than an AirTag, could make your telephone ring, has 12 other ring tones, is available in adorable colours and, significantly, has a dang hollow not like Apple’s slippery, accessory-requiring pebble.
It best works with one community at a time, however it’s simple to take away a tool that’s attached to, say, an iPhone after which pair it up with a Galaxy handset. Setup was once useless easy and speedy. For each the iOS and Android exams, simply bringing the Pop with reference to the telephone brought about a recommended to pair it. Chipolo’s tag is now not the loudest tracker we examined (Pebblebee’s Clip Common holds that honor), however you received’t battle to listen to it — and it has 12 non-compulsory ringtones, together with 3 which might be holiday-themed.
Neither Apple AirTags nor third-party trackers running with Google’s In finding Hub will assist you to ring your telephone via squeezing the fob, however Chipolo Pop will. You’ll have to put in the Chipolo app and provides it permission to run within the background (doing so didn’t enormously drain both my iPhone or Android telephone battery). The function labored reliably in my exams and was once extremely preferred, as my keys generally tend to stick put after I’m house, however my iPhone loves to roam round the home like a bored housecat.
iPhone customers who stroll clear of an merchandise tagged with the In finding My community gets an alert sooner than they get too a ways away (in most cases a pair blocks), however Google’s discovering community has no an identical skill. The Chipolo app allows left-behind (separation) indicators when the use of an Android telephone. In my exams I were given about 400 ft clear of my stuff sooner than getting a notification I’d forgotten one thing. That’s if truth be told quicker than AirTags’ notification and a ways faster than Tile’s. Signals had been constant whether or not I used to be forgetting an merchandise at house, at a espresso store or inside of my automotive.
So far as dropping stuff out within the wild, the Pop paired with Apple’s In finding My community possesses the similar spooky accuracy as an AirTag. In my iPhone take a look at, I had a chum cover the tag about 4 blocks clear of me subsequent to a reasonably busy espresso store. After they instructed me the tag were stashed, I went to the In finding My app to show at the misplaced merchandise function — however little need, the discovering community had already positioned it. I tapped to apply instructions in Apple Maps and was once taken inside about two ft from the bush the place it was once hidden. Like my AirTags exams, I used to be each inspired with and somewhat unnerved via the accuracy.
The discovering talents that depend at the Android community had been additionally spectacular. As soon as the Pop was once hidden, I marked it as misplaced and were given a ping that it were noticed about six mins later. Once more, the instructions led me shut sufficient to ring the tracker that I may in finding it.
The general public received’t want to depend at the discovering community regularly, which is why it’s necessary that Chipolo’s on a regular basis finding skills paintings smartly, too. Tapping the Play Sound serve as on both an Android or iPhone made the tag chirp virtually immediately, and it was once ready to hook up with close by tags from additional away than fashions from different manufacturers.
- Louder than an AirTag
- Makes use of both or Apple or Google’s discovering networks
- Chipolo app provides helpful options
- Colourful disc with a hollow
- Permits left-behind indicators for Android telephones
Photograph via Valentina Palladino / Engadget
Structure: Easy disc | Compatibility: iPhone | Water resistance: IP67 (water and dust-resistant) | Battery lifestyles: 1 12 months | Replaceable battery: Sure | Distance for left-behind indicators: 1,200 feet | Telephone finder serve as: No
AirTags paintings with iOS’ In finding My app and are registered in your Apple ID, so that they don’t require any further downloads. When you’ve used the In finding My app sooner than, you’ll most likely know the way this works. Those are the quietest of the trackers we examined and every time you press the Play Sound button, the tags best ring for seven seconds. You’ll want to stay urgent for those who don’t in finding your merchandise immediately and AirTags can’t be used to ring your telephone.
As for separation indicators, AirTags had been constant, all the time handing over a “left in the back of” alert after I traveled about 1,200 ft away, or about 3 sq. blocks, with out an merchandise. You’ll be able to flip off separation indicators for any given tracker, in addition to designate sure places, similar to your house or place of work, as exceptions for the notifications.
One function that AirTags have that no different tag provides is the facility to faucet into the ultra-wideband (UWB) wi-fi protocol. This lets you play a amusing recreation of cold and warm with an merchandise when it’s inside about 25 ft of your iPhone. Directional arrows and a diminishing distance meter for your iPhone’s display level you to an merchandise with no need to ring it. This labored reliably about 75 % of the time in my exams; now and again it was once simply more uncomplicated to ring the article when the directional discovering couldn’t stay a lock at the tracker.
UWB is supported via iPhone fashions 11 and later and whilst more recent Galaxy and Pixel telephones additionally strengthen UWB, no Android-compatible tracker has but been launched. In 2021, Tile introduced one that will, however has since ignored its promised unencumber window of “early 2022.”
AirTag’s skill to find a misplaced merchandise out within the town is nearly eerie. I had any individual (who was once now not wearing an iPhone) take my motorbike with a tracker hidden underneath the seat to a location a little bit over a part mile away. I set out a couple of mins later and toggled on Notify When Discovered within the In finding My app. Inside 3 mins, I gained a notification that the motorbike were “observed” close to an cope with. Tapping on Instructions navigates to Apple Maps, which took me to a place about 30 ft from the motorbike. Had it been obscured from view, I may have then used the In finding Close by button to turn on the UWB finding options. Ringing the tag was once too quiet to listen to at the sidewalk.
Each the Chipolo Pop and the Pebblebee Clip Common will paintings with Apple’s In finding My community, giving you a similar eerily correct discovering functions. The Pop is going for a similar $29 because the AirTag and the Clip Common is going for $35, however the former is rechargeable and provides lighting to the combination. Each have integrated holes for more uncomplicated attachment and each ring louder than the AirTags. That stated, AirTags are nonetheless the gold same old for iPhone customers and stay our best select for iOS devotees.
- Huge discovering community
- Correct UWB for close by finding
- iPhone best
- Most effective rings for 7 seconds at a time
- No attachment level
Amy Skorheim for Engadget
Structure: Disc with hollow | Compatibility: Android and iPhone | Water resistance: IPX6 (water spray resistant) | Battery lifestyles: 1 12 months | Replaceable battery: No (rechargeable) | Distance for left-behind indicators: 800 feet. (iPhone best) | Telephone finder serve as: No
Pebblebee will have landed on the most efficient design of all trackers available in the market. The Clip Common feels the sturdiest, with a robust steel ring encircling the fob. Integrated lighting mean you can find misplaced pieces at nighttime and it’s probably the most few fobs that may be recharged, on this case, the use of a typical USB-C port. I really like that the packaging is fully plastic unfastened, despite the fact that I want it didn’t include a cable, as a result of in reality, who amongst us doesn’t have a surfeit of USB-C cords at this level? However the integrated steel carabiner key ring is a great addition.
Like our best select, the Chipolo Pop, the Clip Common is a common choice, running with both Google or Apple’s discovering networks and, within the exams the place I concealed the fob out within the town, the respective apps correctly led me shut sufficient to the tracker to ring it. In exams round the home and in my storage, my tester telephones didn’t connect with the Clip rather as briefly as they did to the Chipolo Pop.
In a single iPhone take a look at, my helper planted the Clip close to a rather trafficked bakery and I didn’t get a ping for over a part hour, which is a ways longer than some other In finding My community take a look at I’d carried out. Exams the use of an Android telephone produced a connection to the In finding Hub community at about the similar pace as different fobs I attempted, however I wasn’t all the time despatched a notification. As an alternative I needed to test the In finding Hub app to look it were noticed.
One commonplace grievance about AirTags is they aren’t loud sufficient. If you wish to have a tracker that’s ear-shatteringly loud, the Clip delivers. My telephone’s decibel meter app clocked it at 91dB — a degree that may purpose listening to harm for those who’re uncovered to it for too lengthy. Paired with the flashing lighting, it’s probably the most perfect trackers to search out.
Setup wasn’t as automated because it was once with the Chipolo Pop, I needed to manually upload the Clip, which wasn’t extraordinarily tough, despite the fact that having the previous Pebblebee app (Pebblebee Monitoring) on my iPhone brought about a recommended to obtain the brand new app (merely known as Pebblebee). The corporate recommends downloading its proprietary app to be able to stay the tracker’s firmware up to date and to “free up its complete possible.” However instead of the facility to rename the fob or take away it, I didn’t see any further options.
The app does strengthen one distinctive function, alternatively, with Hyperlink Labels. Those are stickers with a singular QR code that you’ll be able to declare and title within the app, then keep on with no matter you’d like: a water bottle, hat, shades case and so forth. If any individual reveals the categorized merchandise and scans the code, you’ll in an instant get a notification from the Pebblebee app that it was once scanned. The one who reveals it’s taken to a web page the place they may be able to make a selection to ship you the site of the article, a message and/or an image. No touch main points are shared to stay issues extra protected. I didn’t take a look at the function broadly, because it’s a little bit outdoor the purview of this information, however it can be a easy and artful method to stay observe of things you don’t need to stick a tracker on.
A few connection blips all the way through trying out and the loss of additional options (like ring my telephone and the loss of Android left-behind indicators) put it in the back of the Chipolo Pop, however for those who like the speculation of recharging your tracker over throwing away batteries and desire a well suited (and loud) tracker with a strong design, the Chip Common is a great choice.
It is price noting that during June, the Pebblebee added non-public security measures to the Common fob. It’s a unfastened function you’ll be able to use after a instrument replace and works with the Clip Common. While you squeeze the tag 5 instances, it triggers a noisy siren, brilliant flashes from the LED mild and sends a notification to the folk you designate throughout the Pebblebee app.
- Loudest tracker we examined
- Faucets into both Google or Apple’s discovering networks
- Rechargeable
- The Pebblebee gadgets does not be offering further options
- Occasional connection blips
- No longer as simple to arrange as different trackers
Photograph via Amy Skorheim / Engadget
Structure: Rectangular fob with hollow | Compatibility: Samsung telephones | Water resistance: IP67 (water and dust-resistant) | Battery lifestyles: 16 months | Replaceable battery: Sure | Distance for left-behind indicators: 1,300 feet. | Telephone finder serve as: Sure
Not anything can beat the vastness of Apple’s In finding My community, because it will depend on each close by iPhone to assist find AirTags. The selection of Samsung telephones in the USA could also be smaller than the selection of Apple handsets available in the market, however it’s nonetheless important. The brand new SmartTag 2 will depend on the ones telephones to supply a discovering community that won’t best possible Apple’s, however it was once the primary tag to supply anything else with reference to Apple’s community.
After all, now that Google has it is personal expanded In finding Hub community, Samsung’s community falls to 3rd position relating to dimension.
The SmartTag 2 best works with Samsung gadgets and after trying out one out with a Galaxy S23, I used to be inspired how briefly it was once ready to search out tagged pieces out within the wild, despite the fact that the precision didn’t rather fit that of Apple. Of all of the trackers I’ve attempted, I just like the design of the SmartTag the most efficient. It’s a rectangular fob with a large hollow for attaching immediately in your keys, or you’ll be able to purchase the non-compulsory silicone case and ring Samsung provides. Its quantity is louder than the AirTag and the Tile Professional, however now not as loud as both the Chipolo One or the Pebblebee Clip. You’ll be able to additionally trade the tag’s ringtone or double squeeze it to ring your handset, each issues that you’ll be able to’t do with AirTags.
Setup is understated as smartly: whenever you take away the plastic pull tab, your telephone senses the tracker and walks you thru the usual permissions (location services and products, notifications) and warnings (don’t use the tracker on folks). The better half app, SmartThings In finding, tracks your Samsung gadgets and the SmartTag with an intuitive and blank Google Maps-based interface.
As for the way the tag works in follow, I discovered the left in the back of indicators brought about reliably after I were given about 3 blocks (1,200 ft or so) away when strolling and about 8 blocks away when riding. That’s a ways longer than Chipolo’s indicators, a little bit longer than Apple’s notifications and about on par with Tile’s left-behind function.
When the tag is out of vary and also you allow Misplaced Mode, you’ll get an alert when it’s noticed via every other Samsung telephone. The tag additionally makes use of NFC to show your touch information and a customized word to any individual who reveals the tracker, without reference to the logo of smartphone they bring about. After all, whoever reveals it will want to know to carry it to the again in their telephone to get the message, and it was once tougher to cause with my iPhone when the tag was once within the silicone holder.
To check the discovering community, I requested a chum (with no telephone of their pocket) to wander a part mile away with the tag. About 12 mins after turning on Misplaced Mode, I were given a message that the SmartTag was once “noticed via a close-by machine” with a dropped pin. I tapped Navigate within the app, which opened Google Maps and led me to some degree immediately throughout a rather busy boulevard from the place my good friend was once status. If I’d left the tag in the back of someplace I’d lately been, simply seeing the site at the map would had been sufficient to jog my reminiscence as to the place I would possibly have dropped my stuff. But when any individual had stolen the tagged merchandise and I used to be wandering the streets seeking to get it again, vigilante genre, it won’t had been actual sufficient to assist. It is probably not as correct because the iPhone-and-AirTag combo, however the SmartTag 2 is a forged access within the Bluetooth tracker marketplace and a excellent choice when you have a Samsung telephone.
- Discovering community is huge
- Sexy and helpful design
- Most effective works with Samsung telephones
What to search for in a Bluetooth monitoring machine
Bluetooth trackers are small discs or playing cards that depend on short-range, low-energy wi-fi indicators to keep up a correspondence along with your smartphone. Connect the sort of devices your stuff and, if it’s in vary, your telephone can “ring” the chip so you’ll be able to in finding it. Those monitoring gadgets be offering different options like separation indicators to let you know while you’ve left a tagged merchandise in the back of, or the place a misplaced merchandise was once final detected. Some will also faucet into a bigger community of smartphones to trace down your machine while you’re out of vary. Relying on what you wish to have the tracker to do, there are a couple of specifications to search for when deciding which to get.
Tool compatibility
Like maximum issues from the parents in Cupertino, AirTags best paintings with merchandise within the Apple ecosystem. Each Apple and Google have unfolded get right of entry to to the In finding My and In finding Hub networks to third-party producers, together with Chipolo and Pebblebee. The ones two corporations make device-agnostic fashions that may paintings with the bigger monitoring community from both logo, so iPhone and Android customers can purchase the similar tag. Tile trackers paintings with both Android or Apple gadgets, however use Tile’s personal Lifestyles 360 discovering community. Samsung’s newest fob, the Galaxy SmartTag2, best works with Samsung telephones and faucets right into a discovering gadget that will depend on different Samsung gadgets to find misplaced tags.
Discovering community
Crowd-sourced discovering functions are what make headlines, with tales about improving stolen apparatus or monitoring misplaced baggage around the globe. The use of nameless indicators that ping people’s gadgets, those Bluetooth monitoring gadgets can doubtlessly let you know the place a tagged merchandise is, even supposing your smartphone is out of Bluetooth vary.
Apple’s In finding My community is the biggest, with over a billion iPhones and iPads in carrier all operating Apple’s In finding My app via default. So until an iPhone person opts out, their telephone silently acts as a location detector for any close by AirTags. Apple lately larger the AirTag’s discovering energy via enabling you to percentage the site of a misplaced tag with a 3rd occasion, occasion, like an airline. Chipolo fobs that paintings on Apple’s community have the similar skill. Google introduced its In finding My Tool community in 2024 and has since renamed it In finding Hub, which, like Apple’s fining app, combines gadgets and folks discovering in a single position. That community is now an in depth 2d for the biggest in the USA
Now that Google’s In finding Hub community is up and operating, it’s an in depth 2d for the biggest in the USA. Like Apple, Android customers are robotically a part of the community, however can opt-out via deciding on the Google services and products choice of their telephone’s Settings app and toggling the choice within the In finding Hub menu. Samsung’s SmartTag 2 and similar community additionally defaults to an opt-in standing for locating tags and different gadgets.
Tile provides a big discovering grid that comes with Tile customers, Amazon Sidewalk consumers and folks operating the Life360 community. Life360 bought Tile in 2021, and, in keeping with the corporate, the Life360 community has greater than 70 million per thirty days energetic customers.
In our exams, AirTags and third-party tags the use of its community, just like the Chipolo Pop and Pebblebee Clip Common, had been the quickest to trace down misplaced pieces. They presented just about real-time location information in rather to closely trafficked spots round Albuquerque, together with a bar, book place and low retail outlets in Nob Hill, in conjunction with quite a lot of outside hangouts on UNM’s campus.
Samsung’s SmartTags had been ready to find our misplaced pieces more often than not, despite the fact that now not with the similar precision discovering accuracy as AirTags. Once we examined Google’s In finding Hub (then known as In finding My Tool) community proper after release, it was once noticeably slower than Apple’s community when the use of the group discovering function. Checking out it once more in 2025, the time it took to find a misplaced merchandise was once significantly progressed, taking only a couple mins for the group to trace a fob. In our exams, Tile’s discovering community wasn’t ready to constantly find its misplaced fobs.
Separation indicators
Right here’s the place a tracker’s day by day software in reality shines. A separation alert permits you to know while you’ve traveled too a ways out of your tagged pieces, which turns out to be useful if you wish to make certain your computer bag, or jacket or umbrella all the time comes with you while you go away the home.
Those notifications paintings while you’re out and about too. When you’ve were given a Bluetooth monitoring machine on your pockets and stroll out of a cafe with out it, the separation alert will have to kick in, leading to fewer misplaced pieces. This option additionally tells you the place your tagged merchandise and speak to had been final paired, permitting you to retrace your steps for those who occur to leave out the alert.
Every tracker handles left-behind pieces another way. AirTags and third-party fobs the use of its community (similar to from Chipolo or Pebblebee) come with the function via default. Tile trackers require a once a year subscription to allow the indicators (recently $30 every year). Tags running with the Google’s In finding Hub community don’t be offering the function in any respect, however Chipolo Pop tags can factor left-behind indicators the use of its personal Android app. Each AirTags and Tiles assist you to flip off separation indicators at sure places, which means you’ll be able to set your house as a “protected” position the place pieces may also be left in the back of, however indicators will nonetheless cause in other places.
In our exams, AirTags and others the use of the In finding My community alerted us between the 600- and 1,400-foot mark. Tiles despatched a notification after about a median of one,500 ft and had been extra constant when the use of an Android telephone than an iPhone. Chipolo Pop tags paired with an Android telephone and the use of its personal app despatched an alert once we were given round 450 ft clear of our tagged merchandise.
Connectivity, quantity and design
The function you could use maximum regularly is the important thing finder serve as, which makes the tracker ring while you hit a button within the app. With Apple’s AirTags, you’ll be able to say “Howdy Siri, the place are my keys?” and the assistant will ring the tag (assuming it does not mistakenly assume you might be soliciting for instructions to the Floridian archipelago). You’ll be able to additionally use the In finding Merchandise app on your Apple Watch to ring your fob. Asking sensible house/non-public assistants like Alexa or the Google Assistant to search out your keys will paintings with Chipolo, Tile and Pebblebee trackers connected in your Android machine.
When you’ve got your tag however can’t in finding your telephone, some trackers will assist you to ring them to search out your handset. SmartTag2 fobs reliably rang our Galaxy telephone once we double-pressed it. Tile trackers have the similar function. Chipolo Pop trackers can ring your telephone, however makes use of the Chipolo app to take action, which will run similtaneously with the In finding My or In finding Hub connection. AirTags and any third-party tags the use of best Apple or Google’s networks don’t be offering this selection.
The amount of the Bluetooth monitoring machine would possibly decide whether or not you’ll be able to in finding an merchandise buried on your sofa cushions or in a loud room. AirTags have a name for being at the quiet facet, and that aligned with what we noticed (measuring kind of 65 decibels). Chipolo’s Pop tags and Tile’s Professional type measure between 83 and 86 decibels on reasonable. Pebblebee’s new Clip Common was once the loudest of any tag we’ve examined, clocking in at 91 ear-splitting decibels.
Design will decide what you’ll be able to connect the tracker to. AirTags are small, clean discs that may’t be secured to anything else with out equipment, which can be a large number of, however this is an extra price to imagine. Chipolo, Pebblebee and Tile be offering trackers with holes that simply connect in your key ring, and all 3 corporations additionally be offering card-shaped variations designed to slot in your pockets. Pebblebee Clip Common tags include a at hand carabiner-style key ring.
Batteries are replaceable for AirTag, Tile Professional, SmartTag2 and Chipolo Pop fobs and every will have to move for no less than a 12 months sooner than wanting to be swapped. Tile Mate and card-shaped trackers don’t have replaceable batteries, this means that you’ll have to interchange all of the unit every time it dies. Pebblebee trackers are rechargeable in each the disc and pockets selection. They’re additionally the one tags supplied with onboard LEDs.
Stalking, robbery and knowledge privateness
AirTags have got numerous consideration or even brought on some complaints for Apple because of unhealthy actors planting them on folks to be able to stalk them. Whilst this reality won’t affect your purchasing resolution, any dialogue of Bluetooth trackers will have to word what steps Apple, Google and Tile have taken to deal with the problem. Ultimate 12 months, all of the primary avid gamers within the Bluetooth tracker industry teamed up to battle misuse and standardize how unauthorized monitoring detection and indicators paintings for iOS and Android.
Ultimate 12 months, Tile introduced a function known as Anti-Robbery Mode, which allows you to render considered one of its trackers undetectable via others. That suggests if any individual steals your tagged merchandise, they received’t have the ability to use the anti-stalking options to search out and disable the tracker. That kind of negates probably the most primary tactics possible stalking sufferers can keep protected, so Tile hopes ID verification and a $1 million penalty will deter misuse. One after the other, Tile was once hit via a information breach, elevating other privateness issues. The corporate issued a remark concerning the tournament, which it shared with Engadget:
Very similar to many different corporations, Life360 lately turned into the sufferer of a prison extortion try. We gained emails from an unknown actor claiming to own Tile buyer knowledge. We promptly initiated an investigation into the prospective incident and detected unauthorized get right of entry to to a Tile buyer strengthen platform (however now not our Tile carrier platform). The doubtless impacted information is composed of knowledge similar to names, addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and Tile machine identity numbers. It does now not come with extra delicate knowledge, similar to bank card numbers, passwords or log-in credentials, location information, or government-issued identity numbers, for the reason that Tile buyer strengthen platform didn’t include those knowledge sorts.
We imagine this incident was once restricted to the particular Tile buyer strengthen information described above and isn’t extra standard. We take this tournament and the safety of purchaser knowledge significantly. Now we have taken and can proceed to take steps designed to additional give protection to our programs from unhealthy actors, and we’ve got reported this tournament and the extortion try to regulation enforcement. We stay dedicated to retaining households protected on-line and in the true international.
As a robbery deterrent, a Bluetooth tracker would possibly or is probably not the most suitable option. Anecdotal tales abound during which folks have recovered stolen items the use of a tracker — however different stories are extra cautionary. Neither Apple nor Google promotes its trackers or discovering networks so to care for robbery. GPS trackers, then again, are generally advertised for simply that goal.
How we examined Bluetooth trackers
Prior to selecting which trackers to check, we researched the sector, having a look at person evaluations on Amazon, Absolute best Purchase and different shops, in conjunction with discussions on websites like Reddit. We additionally looked at what different publications needed to say at the topic sooner than narrowing down our choices to Apple AirTag, Tile, and Chipolo trackers. When Samsung’s SmartTag 2 got here out in October of 2023, we added that to our trying out, in conjunction with Pebblebee’s rechargeable Clip tracker. After Google introduced its discovering community (now known as In finding Hub), each Chipolo and Pebblebee launched trackers in 2025 that paintings with both community and we examined the Pop and Common key fob fashions and up to date our best selections accordingly.
Right here’s the overall listing of each tracker we examined:
After obtaining the trackers, I examined every one over the process a couple of weeks the use of each an iPhone 11 and a Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely. I recreated most likely person reports, similar to dropping and leaving pieces in the back of at house and out within the town. I planted trackers at other spots close to downtown Albuquerque, most commonly concentrated in and across the College of New Mexico and the encompassing community of Nob Hill. Later, I carried out exams within the Queen Anne community of Seattle. Every take a look at was once carried out more than one instances, each whilst strolling and riding and I used the measure distance function on Google Maps to trace pictures for indicators. I paid consideration to how simple the app was once to make use of, how dependable the phone-to-tracker connection was once and some other perks and disadvantages that got here up all the way through common use.
As new trackers come to marketplace, or as we be told of worthy fashions to take a look at, I will take a look at them and upload the effects to this information. I am recently within the technique of acquiring Motorola Moto tags and sit up for seeing how they paintings with an Android telephone.
Different Bluetooth trackers we examined
Tile Professional and Tile Mate (2024)
Tile lately got here out with a brand new suite of trackers, changing the Tile Mate, Tile Professional, Tile Decal and Tile Narrow with up to date fashions. Along with amusing new colours for the Mate and Narrow, Tile added an SOS function that may ship a notification in your Life360 Circle while you triple press the button at the tracker. It’s a artful addition that turns your keys right into a panic button, one thing presented via non-public protection corporations as standalone gadgets.
There are a couple of caveats: You and the folk you wish to have to inform in an emergency will want the Life360 app put in for your telephones. If you wish to have your Tile to additionally cause a choice to emergency services and products, you’ll desire a $15-per-month Life360 subscription (that’s along with a Tile club, which begins at $3/month or $30 every year). And enabling the SOS triple-press disables the facility to ring your telephone with the fob.
I examined the SOS function and it did certainly ship a textual content message to my Circle, with the message that I had brought about an SOS and a hyperlink to a web page that confirmed my present location. I assumed it peculiar that the hyperlink didn’t open the Life360 app (which presentations the site of customers’ telephones), however I wasn’t as a lot thinking about Tile’s non-public security measures as I used to be with the monitoring functions, which grew to become out to be lower than supreme.
For my exams, I planted Tile trackers in a densely populated house of Seattle (about 15,000 folks consistent with sq. mile). After environment the trackers to “misplaced” within the Tile app, I waited. After 4 hours, probably the most trackers was once now not came upon via the discovering group, so I went and retrieved it. Some other fob I planted alerted me that the tracker were discovered via the Tile group after 3 hours — however the location it gave me was once off via a 3rd of a mile. I then determined to plant a tracker in essentially the most populated position I may recall to mind — the dried fruit and nuts aisle of a Dealer Joes on a Friday night sooner than a big vacation. It nonetheless took over a part an hour sooner than every other Tile person anonymously pinged my misplaced tracker.
In my exams with Samsung’s trackers and the fobs on Google’s In finding Hub community, it took round ten mins for them to be came upon. AirTags took part that point and all had been examined in a a ways much less populated town. 4 hours with out a ping and over a part hour sooner than getting successful in a crowded TJs had been lovely lengthy stretches.
Our best select, the vintage Chipolo, has just about no discovering community. However for those who’re getting a tracker for that function on my own, you will have to move with AirTags when you have an iPhone or the Google-enabled Chipolo or Pebblebee trackers for those who use an Android telephone. We choose the Chipolo as a result of it really works with both iOS or Android gadgets, it rings loud, it’s fast to let you know while you’ve left it in the back of and it connects just about immediately while you’re looking for a out of place tracker round the home.
Tile gadgets additionally paintings with each cell running programs and its newest fashions are certainly louder than they had been sooner than. However they aren’t as fast to glue and you wish to have to pay for a club to turn on left-behind indicators. And while you do, the ones notifications don’t kick in as briefly as they do with competing trackers.
Bluetooth tracker FAQs
Which Bluetooth tracker has the longest vary?
Each the Tile Professional and the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 declare a most vary of round 400 ft, which is longer than the 300-foot declare for Chipolo’s Pop tags. The Pebblebee Clip Common claims a 500-foot vary, despite the fact that different trackers with a shorter claimed vary carried out higher in our exams. Apple doesn’t make vary claims for AirTags. Any Bluetooth sign, after all, relies on a couple of components. Hindrances like partitions and folks can block the sign, so a transparent line of sight is the one method to succeed in the utmost vary. Different indicators, like Wi-Fi, too can intervene with Bluetooth connections. Even top humidity can have an impact and reduce the space at which your telephone will attach in your tracker.
Consider, when taking into account the variability of Bluetooth trackers, the dimensions of the “discovering community” additionally comes into play. That is the selection of close by telephones that can be utilized to anonymously ping your tracker when your individual telephone is out of Bluetooth vary. As of now, Apple AirTags have the biggest community, adopted via Google’s In finding Hub, Samsung’s discovering group and Tile’s Life360 contributors.
What’s the best possible Bluetooth tracker for a automotive?
Bluetooth trackers are designed to trace small, non-public pieces like keys, jackets, backpacks and the like. All trackers have safeguards to ban the tag from getting used to stalk folks, so maximum will alert any individual if a tracker that doesn’t belong to them is detected following them. That suggests a automotive thief would possibly get tipped off that there’s a tracker within the automotive they’re seeking to thieve. That stated, you’ll see numerous tales about folks discovering their automotive because of a Bluetooth tracker. Some police departments have judicious out trackers to battle top charges of carjacking. In maximum cases, the tracker of selection has been AirTags because of their large discovering community. When you’re searching for a tracker in your automotive, you could need to glance into GPS trackers, a few of which can be designed for simply that goal.
How correct are Bluetooth trackers?
Accuracy for Bluetooth trackers may also be checked out in two tactics: Discovering pieces close by and discovering pieces out of place outdoor your house. For close by pieces, you’ll maximum regularly use the hoop serve as at the machine to seek it down. Two tags, Apple’s AirTags and Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag2, additionally use ultra-wideband era, which creates directional navigation for your telephone to get you inside a foot of the tracker.
Correctly discovering misplaced pieces outdoor your house relies on the dimensions of the discovering community. Since this will depend on the serendipity of a random telephone passing inside Bluetooth vary of your tracker, the extra telephones on a given community, the easier. And because Bluetooth levels and distance estimates are best actual inside a few meter or so, getting pings from multiple telephone will assist finding pieces. Right here once more, it’s price noting that Apple’s In finding My community is the biggest, adopted via Google, Samsung and Tile (each Chipolo and Pebblebee have fobs that paintings with the Apple and Google networks).
Fresh Updates
August 2025: Up to date the title of Google’s discovering community to In finding Hub, as a substitute of In finding My Tool. Added information about Pebblebee’s new Alert function. Added a desk of contents.
