Exploring the wide range of Find My-compatible devices

When the AirTag first shipped five years ago, I glommed right onto writing about it. I already had a section in a book on security and privacy about using the Find My device feature, enabled for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. I was keyed up to understand where AirTag fit in. Recently, surveying the field, I found a shocking number of Find My network-equipped products, from an inexpensive flashlight to a $3,500 ebike.

Within the Apple ecosystem, it’s worth looking at what’s now available for those of us trying not to lose our things by misplacing them, forgetting to take them with us, or having them stolen.1 Because more hardware now has effectively unremovable Find My tracking technology, it may be a more effective theft deterrent or way to recover an absconded item. (I’ve got an extra suggestion about that, too.)

A distinct itemization

AirTag introduced a new category: items versus devices. A Find My device can reach the Internet and report its position, and can use a native app to see other stuff via Find My; a Find My item just broadcasts over Bluetooth to any nearby listening iPhone, iPad, or Mac.2

An AirTag lets you track whatever it is attached to or inside by relaying its signal through other Apple devices. This offers something akin to GPS-based tracking without the need for constant battery recharging, while also finding its location and updating it when indoors. GPS works anywhere with a clear line of sight outdoors, while Find My crowdsourcing requires at least one nearby Internet-connected Apple device to relay its current position.

The stuff we track is more likely to be lost inside than outside, I’d wager, with exceptions for stolen bicycles and cars. Or when you park your car in a vast lot and forget where it is. Find My items benefit from relaying through Apple hardware that uses a combination of Wi-Fi positioning, cell tower locations, and GPS and other satellite-positioning networks, as available.3

The Pebblebee Clip is a variant on the AirTag: flat, colorful, LEDs, rechargeable, with a convenient keychain hole.

The short battery life for a GPS-based tracker hands an advantage to the Find My network. While GPS trackers have become progressively more efficient over the decades, they still need to be recharged frequently—every few days to a few weeks, depending on battery capacity and how often they report location. That’s because they typically have both satellite receivers and cellular modems: the GPS location is derived and then transmitted over the cellular network. Find My items typically last at least a year, after which their batteries need to be replaced or recharged.4

Apple announced Find My licensing to third parties alongside the AirTag release, and products appeared soon after. These were mostly trackers that cost less, had a slightly different form factor, weighed less, offered rechargeable batteries, or fit better in a wallet.

It took some time for more variety to enter the Find My item market, and I frankly lost track of the sheer diversity of what’s out there. With Find My now built into a wider array of products, you might want to stick a third-party item into something you own, or replace a device with one that has Find My support.

Getting lost in all the Find My items

I set out a few weeks ago to compile a list of all items with certified Find My. Friends, I thought it would number between 20 and 30 items. It started to become unmanageable, so I built a site—FindYourTag—both for my own reference and because why not share it? Reaching over 50 items, I started to get emails and social media replies asking, “Why didn’t you include product X?” Indeed! I didn’t know about product X, but now it’s in. The database now lists 73 devices,5 though some are close variations of a single product.6

Some of these products have the attribute of supporting two or three kinds of alarms or tracking: some let you pair to both Apple Find My and Google Find Hub; a few expensive items also have their own proprietary movement alarm, managed via an app.

Here’s what I’ve found.

If you want a wallet tracker, you have a lot of choices. Apple has chosen to offer a single AirTag model. Baffling, because why not tap into the wallet-sized market? Apple’s absence is good news for third parties, because 14 different companies make a total of 18 wallet-insertable cards.

You want a wallet-sized tracker? Try a few on for size! There are 13 more!

They’re all thin, though some are thinner than others. About half are rechargeable, though most of those require a unique magnetically coupled adapter that you are sure to lose unless you have a special place you keep odd adapters. Other cards advertise long battery life (two to three years) and have a discount program on replacing after that point if you return the battery for recycling.

The Nomad wallet attaches like a remora to the iPhone shark using MagSafe.

If you’d prefer a wallet with built-in tracking, instead of a card you insert—well, there are eight of those, including the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet (Jason has one) that can hold up to four credit cards, and attaches via MagSafe to your iPhone.

Apple does offer a MagSafe-attached wallet, the FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe (holds up to three cards), but it features a Find My “lite” variant Apple doesn’t license: it only reports the last known location relative to the paired iPhone using Bluetooth via Find My—it lacks the crucial crowdsourcing component.

Stuff you probably will leave behind accidentally. There’s a whole shaggy category of things that you have left behind and aren’t a Kindle that you wished you were alerted about leaving behind (a Find My feature) or could track later. This includes:

Power adapter: Finding out that Twelve South has a line of four different PlugBug models with Find My built in made me wonder why Apple doesn’t include Find My as a default feature on its adapters? The matrix of the four models is you can choose 50 watts and two USB-C jacks or 120 W and four USB-C jacks; either wattage charger can be purchased in a travel edition, which comes with the full array of adapters for worldwide plugging in.

Keys: The Ekster Finder Tag ($39) is a key-holding clip with the Find My item in the middle.

Glasses case: Satechi has the right idea here with its FindAll Glasses Case ($50). I left my distance glasses somewhere in the greater Boston area in March, and, wow, is replacing your glasses with prescription, transition lenses expensive. Oof. Ouch. Get me a Satechi, and send it back through time! (Did I mention they’re vegan, too?)

The Satechi FindAll Glasses Case could prevent an expensive loss of a set of spectacles. (Image: Satechi)

Flashlight: Cheap flashlights are now absurdly bright—probably FAA-rules-violatingly bright if pointed upward—but how many flashlights have you lost? The $25 Footnote FlashFinder is compact, recharges via USB-C, and has Find My.

Camera: Insta360 makes a lot of different camera models. On two of them, the GO 3S ($295) and GO Ultra ($450) are both tiny, making them prone to loss, and trackable.

The expensive stuff that you would highly regret having stolen and being untrackable. You can add a Find My tag in a lot of ways to a bike or scooter, but they typically have to be located in some external location that a thief could remove or cover with foil, blocking the signal. For instance, I have a Knog Scout ($65) which uses a special drive7 on the screws you use to attach it to the standard water-bottle mount holes found on most bikes.

But wouldn’t it be better if you had Find My as part of the vehicle, making it effectively unremovable without destroying the bike or scooter? Several manufacturers agree.8 You can find Apollo, Segway, Specialized, and Velotric models with just that.9 For those serious about measuring their performance, you can even get a 4iii powermeter (the Precision 3+ Powermeter, starts at $335, several models) with integral Find My.

For further reading

I am a big fan of Find My for the obvious reason that it’s let me keep track of my stuff over the last several years. That journey includes pupping part of a Take Control book about security and privacy that had swollen with tracking facts into separate volume: Take Control of Find My and AirTags. If you’ve ever had a question about setting up tracking of your own stuff, locating people, or using the Find My apps, I have so many answers for you.

[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use /glenn in our subscriber-only Discord community.]

I’m sure we all have those dreams, or maybe it’s just me, where we are on a trip, and we just lose everything and then spend the entire dream trying to find our stuff. Maybe Apple can release Find My for Dreams. ↩

Apple’s AirTag (1st and 2nd generation) also uses ultrawideband (UWB) for Precision Finding, which allows directional hints when you’re typically within dozens of feet using a supported iPhone or Apple Watch model. ↩

All of our devices routinely snapshot Wi-Fi network names and relative signal strength and upload that to Apple or Google, depending on our ecosystem. That data enables coarse positioning, which can be refined using cell towers and satellites. ↩

I don’t want to downplay the risks of stalking. GPS trackers aren’t subject to hardware-enforced rules when they’re used to keep tabs on people without their consent or knowledge. This may be illegal, depending on the jurisdiction. By contrast, Apple Find My items and similar Google Find Hub items provide a variety of agreed-upon signals: sounds from the devices, and tracking alerts on Apple and Android mobile devices, to deter tracking and alert people to unwanted items nearby. Imperfect, but better. ↩

Editor Jason found something I missed during his editing, so it was 72—now 73! ↩

I receive a small affiliate fee on some products when you click an Amazon or other affiliate link. I don’t highlight or promote products based on those fees. ↩

I just learned the inset part of a screw head is called a drive, too. Here’s another: a raised molded or cast feature that a screw threads into? It’s called a boss. ↩

I just purchased an Aventon ebike, which has a different strategy. It has an integral GPS tracker that’s free for the first year and $20 a year after that (cheap for a cell-connected device). The tracker is powered by the bike’s main battery, plus a backup battery. This seems like the right way to do it, if you’re not building in Find My. ↩

Segway makes scooters and bikes! ↩