by Dan Moren
Existence of Apple’s item tracking tags leaks…again
MacRumors reader David Chu today alerted us that the hidden “Items” tab in the Find My app can be enabled on iOS 14.3 and later by typing in the link findmy://items into Safari and tapping on “Open” in the prompt that appears.
I just tried this myself, and sure enough, it works: the Find My app opens to an Items screen where you can tap Add Item and it will start searching for nearby tags.1
Apple’s tracking tags are probably the worst kept secret in the history of the company’s products, given the sheer number of times that indications of their existence have leaked over the past year or two. Most recently, we saw a leak from a third-party company’s designs for accessories for the Apple product.
But that raises the question of why the product hasn’t been released yet: Is it not quite ready to go? If the software component is in the shipping OS, it would seem to be pretty far along. Is Apple waiting for a more opportune moment, say, when people are actually leaving their house and traveling again in order to make a more compelling product story? Certainly possible. Or, heaven forbid, is this another AirPower story where the enthusiasm has outstripped the ability to actually ship a product? One doubts that Apple would get bitten in that same way twice, but nothing’s impossible.
Or maybe, just maybe, Apple’s tracking tags are readying for an imminent launch. Stranger things have happened!