Tile be there for you
THESE TERRIFIC TRACKERS ARE PERFECT FOR KEEPING TABS ON YOUR STUFF
I LOST a large fully packed suitcase once – one minute it was there, the next it was gone.
Turned out I had left it on a train and it was three days before I could locate it and arrange to have it returned to me. I also had to suffer the indignity of it being opened and searched for clues to its owner’s identity.
It’s no exaggeration to say that I have lost thousands of things over the years, many of them also left on trains, and have never got those back.
This is, in large part, the reason I so love one of the greatest inventions of the modern tech era – the tracking device.
I have already tried Apple’s AirTags – and loved them, largely because of their deep integration with the rest of Apple’s kit and software.
But there are those who don’t love them for that very reason and are in the market for something a little less tied to any of the major mobile platforms.
That’s why I’ve been trying out some small trackers made by Tile, a company that’s been in this game for a lot longer than Apple, and offers a much wider variety of devices.
The two I tested were the Mate (£19.99), which is closest in size and functionality to the AirTag, and the Slim (£29.99), which is a credit-card sized device which you can, of course, slip into your wallet or stick to devices you want to keep track of, like a computer or tablet, with a slim and unobtrusive profile.
So, what I can say about the Tile devices is they do exactly what they say they do – set up via the app is simple, and then they keep track of where your stuff is.
They are most useful at home. If you’ve lost your keys down the back of the sofa, for example, you can find them via the smartphone app – locate the item there and tap ‘find’ and the item will play a little tune. The app will also display signal strength to give you an idea
where the item may be if you can’t hear it. Just walk around until the signal gets stronger and the tune becomes audible.
Out of the house the
Tiles can still be located (if you left an item, say, on a train). If the Tile is beyond the Bluetooth range of your phone – about 250ft – the Tile app will show you when you last had it and where.
There are also two ways the Tiles work to help you reunite with anything you lose – there’s a QR code on the back of each tile, which can be scanned by anyone who finds them. That’ll let you know where the item is, and, if you have provided them, give the finder details of how to contact you.
There’s also the Tile Network – if you mark your item as lost in the app, the system relies on other Tile users with the app installed on their phone to find it. All they have to do is come within range of the Tile and your app will ping you with the location.
I left my Tile hidden in the centre of Manchester and it was found within two hours... now, that’s a place with a lot of people around all the time, so mileage may vary if you leave an item somewhere a bit less populated.
All this basic stuff is useful enough, but is enhanced if you sign up for a £2.99-a-month Premium subscription. That will allow you to see a location history of up to 30 days for items lost, and bring free battery replacements for those Tiles which allow this (the ones I tested did not, but had three-year battery life).
Premium also brings ‘left behind’ alerts – if you leave a location without an item you can set the app up so it pings you before it’s too late…
Privacy concerns with trackers remain, and there are no safeguards yet with the Tiles – someone could slip one in your bag and track your location without you knowing… but a fix for that is coming next year when anybody can use the Tile app to see if there’s a tracker nearby.
Ultimately, if you’re looking to keep hold of things you might easily mislay, the Tile is a good option that works as advertised.
Not quite as refined as Apple’s offering, but just as useful if you’re the kind of fool that can, and has, left a carry-on bag on an aeroplane and spent more money than he’d care to remember on replacement umbrellas.
For more info on the Tile trackers visit tile.com