My cat escaped. He has an AirTag. Frequently the Find My app states he is Home, but I walk the perimeter and his AirTag remains unreachable. Obviously there's a disconnect between "Home" and where my cat is. How is perimeter of "Home" defined? If he is close enough to trigger another iPhone, how far away can he be and still the AirTag says "Home"?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
AirTag
First off, pet-tracking is a poor application for AirTags.
They only transmit their beacon intermittently and thus are poor for tracking moving objects.
Then, they have to be “in-range” of another iPhone at the moment of the “beacon transmit” …
… and even then it provides the location of the relaying iPhone, not the location of the tag itself.
There’s nothing official on what this real-world effective range might be; but most would probably agree that it’s likely less than 100’ … and often MUCH less … perhaps 30’.
First off, pet-tracking is a poor application for AirTags.
They only transmit their beacon intermittently and thus are poor for tracking moving objects.
Then, they have to be “in-range” of another iPhone at the moment of the “beacon transmit” …
… and even then it provides the location of the relaying iPhone, not the location of the tag itself.
There’s nothing official on what this real-world effective range might be; but most would probably agree that it’s likely less than 100’ … and often MUCH less … perhaps 30’.
Basically the "perimeter" of the AirTag is its Bluetooth range ... approximately 30-40'. Either your iPhone would need to be within that range OR another person's iPhone would have to be. That's because, the tag relies on the Apple crowd-sourcing network, called Find My Network.
As Chattanoogan has already explained, the AirTag's Bluetooth beacon transmits periodically. It does so to save battery life. An iPhone would need to be within the tag's range to receive that signal. In addition, the iPhone receiving it would need to be configured for Find My Network to be enabled (it is by default), and have an active Internet connection. If all those things "line up," then the phone will relay the tag's ID and the phone's GPS location to the Apple servers. That is where you would see location updates (the phone's that is) in the Find My app on your phone. As you can see, a lot has to happen to make this work.
Expanding on Tesserax’s earlier reply …
“… then the phone will relay the tag's ID and the [relaying] phone's GPS location to the Apple servers …”
Your phone retrieves the GPS coordinates and places them on the map. (in your case, out in the street)
The mapping program then determines the “best” address for those coordinates. (Just as-if you’d placed a pin on a map yourself)
Your phone then “sees” the address and displays “Home.”
Give it a try on AppleMaps; place a pin in the street in any residential area and it WILL add an address if it’s known … and possibly more info if it’s a business.
Hope that helps.
Assuming perfect GPS; you might assume that a car driving down the street (or pedestrian) detected the AirTag’s “beacon burst” and relayed it’s own GPS coordinates.
Everything else is “added” by your own phone’s AppleMaps system.
Thanks for the three-paragraph snark. If I had said Luggage instead of Cat, would I have have gotten the same lecture?
The issue is the same. Find My says my AirTag is at Home, and leads me to the street in front of my home. Thus my question, "How is the perimeter of "Home" defined?" I set up these AirTags in my living room, yet it instructs me to go to the street. PS same results if my purse (also tagged) is in my car.
You’re welcome.
Does your FindMy give a time stamp of the “last location.”
A “last seen x hours ago” unfortunately isn’t going be much help for an animal on-the-move.
Have you found him/her yet?
We live in dread ourselves of our own kitties “darting out the door” as we have lots of avian predators: Hawks by day and Owls by night.
It wasn’t at all meant as snarky …
… and no, if it were luggage the answer would NOT have been the same.
There is no defined “perimeter” for your house within the context of your question.
Thank you.
Odd that there's no defined perimeter. I'd've thought that'd be part of the coding. Oh well.
Appreciate the response.
Yes, I do get a time stamp and a ping on my watch. If I'm not able to immediately get outside and try to find him, I do scroll through my Ring camera feeds, hoping to see him. So far, no luck.
Thank you. I do understand how the Apple community finds/pings the airtag. My question was how is Home defined, and its perimeter? My "Home" seems to be the center of the street.
Why does the AirTag show my cat is Home when he's not?
