AirTag location issues with pets and children

I use them for a couple of purposes:

• Attached to my various car keys.
• For limited tracking, like my luggage when traveling.

Apple primarily designed them to help you locate a misplaced items that typically remains stationary.

They are highly dependent on the Apple iPhones. When they are within the Bluetooth range (30-40') of your iPhone, you can get their location directly. When outside of that range, the tags participate in the Apple "Find My network," which consists of literally millions of other iPhones. By default, iPhones are part of this network, and require user intervention to not to.

The key, as mentioned, is that the tag itself does NOT know its location. It has no means to do so. Instead, when "seen" by an iPhone, the tag's ID, along with that phone's GPS location, are relayed to the Apple servers over the Internet. This is where you would see the tag's "location" updates with the Find My app on your phone.

As I mentioned, I use them for my various keys and have found them very useful should I misplace one and need to find them quickly.

... and should you misplace them outside of the range of your phone, again, they could still potentially be located should another iPhone come within range of them.

My own primary application for AirTags are for checked luggage tracking during air-travel.

They work quite well for that.

Also, your cat’s AirTags “sound” when he/she moves and you’re NOT nearby.

Many cats - ours included - need no additional neurosis-causing influences.

If you attached an iPhone to your cat it would work well. <wink>

Not being a smart-alec here …

Airtag’s positions are reported to the FindMy Network by iPhones. (Either yours or somebody elses)

No iPhone Nearby = No Report = No Position Update in FindMy.

Stray pet tracking is a poor application for AirTags.

You're not doing anything wrong, expect using the AirTag for what it is not intended to do. As others have already mentioned, it is not designed for tracking ... whether that is for people or pets.

If tracking is important to you, you should consider getting a dedicated tracking device based on GPS technology, not Bluetooth.

Yes, that is correct! I think the greatest advantages of AirTags (or other tags, based on Bluetooth) vs. trackers, based on GPS, is significantly lower cost and much better battery life ... but that comes at the cost of far less than real time position updates. That's why you find that they sell GPS trackers for pets and vehicles. An example of the latter would be a LoJack.

AirTags are not intended to track people or pets.