When Apple finally releasedAirTagslast April , it was a welcome new accessary to the card . After eld of rumors , an prescribed Apple tracker was in the end available to for the items in our life that did n’t have a cow chip in them — keys , backpacks , purses , anything . Our biggest outcome on launch day was that the primal rag bearer cost as much as the AirTag itself .
But almost right away , AirTags started take a leak headline for all the wrong reasonableness . First there were fears over thebattery compartment , which is relatively easy to open and could pose a croak hazard for small children . Apple responded with a warning on its website to keep AirTags away from children and will likely pull off the pattern in next versions .
The more urgent topic are pertain to unwanted trailing . Aspate of police reportshave play up a worrisome vogue of thieves and stalker using AirTags to cut across their would - be victims . First , the York Regional Police Department issued a statement detail theuse of AirTagsto cut sumptuousness vehicles from parking lots to residences . Then a Dodge Charger proprietor in Detroit found an AirTag hidden on the bottom of his vehicle . And there are potential dozens more that have n’t made the news .
The Find My app makes is very easy to track items—and people.
It ’s not just cars that are being tracked . Sports Illustrated bathing costume model Brooks Nadertook to Instagram after she was notified that an unknown AirTag was traveling with her after leaving a stripe in New York City . And she ’s not alone . Numerous adult female around the countryhave been alerted to AirTags travel with them since the product was free less than a year ago .
Thankfully Nader was able-bodied to stop the tracker without incident , and there have been no documented accounts of wildness occurring after someone has been cross with an AirTag . But her ordeal spotlight the way that people can expend AirTag in villainous room that are n’t listed on Apple ’s AirTag site and it seems to be just a matter of prison term before someone is able-bodied to apply an AirTag to place a violent crime .
While thesystem is working as think , it ’s readable that Apple is going to have to modify the AirTag in meaningful slipway to turn to the ways citizenry are using it to chase people . Here are three main AirTag effect and possible resolution :
The Find My app makes is very easy to track items—and people.
Problem 1:Unknown AirTags take hours to notify peopleSolution:Cut down the notification time
In orderliness to have masses experience that an nameless AirTag is traveling with them , Apple institutionalize a notice to their iPhone to alert them . Then , the user can meet a auditory sensation to locate the AirTag , disable it , and stop sharing your localisation .
It ’s a big organization that has had veridical - world positivistic results , but it takes too long to arrive on your iPhone . Apple estimates it takes between four and eight hour to send an alarum , which could be a potentially fatal span of sentence . By cutting down the time it take for alerts to appear to under an hour , Apple could tailor down on the ability for multitude to use it as a stalking tool . indisputable there may be the episodic false positive if you ’re attend out with friends or at a clubhouse , but that could be mitigated by starting the timekeeper only after moving some space ( say , 100 groundwork ) . It ’ll also make the AirTag much less effective as a stalking gadget .
Problem 2:Unknown AirTag notifications only pop up on iPhonesSolution:Make a good Android app
Apple deport on its promise to ship on AirTag tracking Android app by live up to its debt instrument to the least extent potential . The Android app is little more than a button to run down the surrounding area for any nearby trackers . It does n’t perform background scanning or issue push presentment , and it sure as shooting does n’t let Android drug user track items on the regain My web or position up Find My compatible gadget .
It ’s apprehensible that Apple would n’t want to put much effort into apps on competing platforms , but as the write up of people using AirTags for nefarious reasons pile up , it might call for to rethink that stance . The AirTag could be a great cross - platform accessory that introduces Android users to the Apple ecosystem with the simple add-on of the incur My app to the Google Play Store . you’re able to already lumber into your iCloud report through Chrome to access Find My in a circumscribed way on an Android phone , so making it all workplace is just a thing of designing an app that makes it loose to access .
Apple ’s Tracker Detect app for Android is as unsheathed - boned as it gets .
Apple’s Tracker Detect app for Android is as bare-boned as it gets.
IDG
Problem 3:An unknown AirTag might not emit a sound for a full daySolution:Tie alert sounds to unknown tag notifications
Not everyone checks their phone every few minute and some people do n’t even pay care to notifications as they get . But they will take notice if they hear a unusual beeping in their neighborhood .
We get laid what you ’re thinking : “ But AirTags will honk constantly ! ” for certain , there might be some annoyances , but we ’re willing to bet that the instances where multitude are sharing AirTags are pretty abject . Plus Apple offers a manner to handicap an alert on known AirTags share between mob member , so nine meter out of 10 , the phone will be a warning not a nuisance .
It ’s not that AirTags do n’t work well . Quite the contrary , they operate so well that Apple might not have previse how well they can be abused . But with a few tweak Apple could put the attention back on the right way to use them .
