Walk outside away from all other devices.
Walk 100 paces. Put tile down. Walk back to where you started.
UI flow:
1) It shows a map of across town (last ping was hours ago).
2) tap find -> your tile is nearby, wait while we connect (with done button)
3) timeout -> map shows a dot where the phone is, without a big uncertainty circle around it. Can’t zoom.
4) reopen app. Map resets to across town (or, worse, 50 ft in the wrong direction, so you think it pinged a location).
5) walk to pick up keys. No music or phone notification. (Later, an email arrives, usually.)
6) tap around to debug (want to pay for smart alerts?)
7) (when someone else asks me for help). Where’s my credit card?!? Tile is holding my keys hostage for $3!!
8) (if you didn’t pick up the keys) go to step 2.
This is deterministic on iOS with everything up to date. It’s been like this for over a year across multiple iPhone generations.
It switches between modes at random (map, we’ll notify you, and the signal meter) when the signal is weak, and it says we have to replace batteries constantly. (Even though we just replaced them — is the tile shorted out internally, or do we have to reset a timer somewhere, or what?). Also, it spams upsell attempts while doing this. You may as well be displaying ads for competitors at this high-stress point in the UI flow!
Other than the above stuff, which feel kind of like bugs, I’ve noticed it’s hard to figure out which building (in a 1 acre space) our keys were last seen in. We own all the phones and tiles around here, so giving better precision probably wouldn’t be a privacy issue.
I’d rather go with a smaller, cross platform provider, but we’re seriously considering switching to AirTag.
Thanks for standing up for functionality vs. questionable privacy protection.
Anyway, we’re rooting for you; good luck!