Android users can read an AirTag's 'Lost Mode' message via NFC

AppleInsider

When AirTag is placed in Lost Mode, all NFC-capable devices -- including those running Android -- can read the locator's preprogrammed discovery message, a small but potentially important feature that could assist in the return of lost items.

The NFC functionality was somewhat glossed over during Tuesday's "Spring Loaded" event, but a new support document offers additional detail on the feature.

According to Apple, picking up and tapping the white portion of a lost AirTag to an NFC-capable device redirects to a webpage that can display an owner's phone number. Additional information like the AirTag's serial number is also offered.

AirTag users need to provide their contact information during the setup process and place the device in Lost Mode for the feature to work.

Apple in its support document points out that Android devices can also interact with an AirTag in Lost Mode.

"You can view a Lost Mode message on any NFC-capable smartphone, such as an iPhone or Android phone," Apple says.

It should come as no surprise that Apple included support for NFC, a widely adopted communications protocol, in the diminutive tracker. Beyond Android, a host of other common computing devices incorporate NFC support, greatly increasing AirTag's effectiveness.

AirTag's main mode of communication is an Ultra Wideband radio, deployed in Apple's U1 chip, that sends pulses for other U1-equipped hardware like iPhone. The tracker's precision finding feature is powered by UWB and currently exclusive to the iOS platform. It also utilizes Bluetooth for communicating with Apple devices, which subsequently send information about nearby AirTags and their associated location data to the Find My network.

lam92103

Cross platform love from Apple. Woo! Spread the ecosystem. Invade android!!

crowley

Interesting.  I guess the AirTag itself does get updated by Lost Mode.  I've been wrong in the other thread then.

rrabu

Not necessarily. I bet just the contents of the web page you are taken to are updated. It would be nice to know that someone with IP in area X read your air tag...

cornchip

If I were a Tile employee, I’d be sending out my resume posthaste. 

lkrupp

cornchip said:

If I were a Tile employee, I’d be sending out my resume posthaste. 

The Tile CEO already started screaming out "anti-competitive and monopoly” screeds yesterday afternoon.

rob53

I guess it's better for someone to find a lost item with the potential for them to actually try phoning you but does anyone see this as an opportunity for someone to actively scan for lost items and dump the AirTag while keeping whatever it was "protecting?" Is this a possible feature of AirTags?

hammeroftruth

lkrupp said:

cornchip said:

If I were a Tile employee, I’d be sending out my resume posthaste. 

The Tile CEO already started screaming out "anti-competitive and monopoly” screeds yesterday afternoon.

Apple should just buy them out already to avoid a nasty PR lawsuit. Tim should just write out a check, absorb the employees, and offer reduced cost upgrades from tile devices to AirTag devices and be done with it. 

hammeroftruth

rob53 said:

I guess it's better for someone to find a lost item with the potential for them to actually try phoning you but does anyone see this as an opportunity for someone to actively scan for lost items and dump the AirTag while keeping whatever it was "protecting?" Is this a possible feature of AirTags?

That is a big vulnerability you bring up. What’s preventing luggage thieves to take the AirTag off the bag and toss it in the trash?


What Apple will need to do is make airtags resemble the things you lose like a key, or be able to incorporate them into bags and other small items you lose. Making airpod cases with airtags would save a lot of people having to repurchase lost AirPods. Plus it would give rideshare drivers some extra income for finding all of these things that end up in the back seat of their vehicles. 

tswiers

My big question is can you use the airtag to find/ping your phone? Tile does this currently by activating a loud ring on the iPhone when you press the Tile’s button. 

bageljoey

rob53 said:

I guess it's better for someone to find a lost item with the potential for them to actually try phoning you but does anyone see this as an opportunity for someone to actively scan for lost items and dump the AirTag while keeping whatever it was "protecting?" Is this a possible feature of AirTags?

I’ve been wondering about this too. (But not so much that I have researched it...). What I am thinking is that you have the option to turn on lost mode—if you think that puts your keys or wallet at too much risk, you don’t have to take that step. You can just use the tracking to try to locate the item in that case. 

But eventually, even the lost item broadcasting that it is lost gives you a better chance of getting it back than having it lost for days if tracking alone isn’t doing it!

sflocal

hammeroftruth said:

rob53 said:

I guess it's better for someone to find a lost item with the potential for them to actually try phoning you but does anyone see this as an opportunity for someone to actively scan for lost items and dump the AirTag while keeping whatever it was "protecting?" Is this a possible feature of AirTags?

That is a big vulnerability you bring up. What’s preventing luggage thieves to take the AirTag off the bag and toss it in the trash?


What Apple will need to do is make airtags resemble the things you lose like a key, or be able to incorporate them into bags and other small items you lose. Making airpod cases with airtags would save a lot of people having to repurchase lost AirPods. Plus it would give rideshare drivers some extra income for finding all of these things that end up in the back seat of their vehicles. 

I think most folks using this will place airtags in inconspicuous locations where thieves won't necessarily bother to look.  It's what I would do.  These straps I think are geared towards things that many people would simply lose around the house or in a very cluttered garage.

Incorporating an AirTag in an AirPod case would (have been) a great idea.  I lost 2-month-old AirPod Pro's in my house somewhere and it really sucks.

rob53

sflocal said:

hammeroftruth said:

rob53 said:

I guess it's better for someone to find a lost item with the potential for them to actually try phoning you but does anyone see this as an opportunity for someone to actively scan for lost items and dump the AirTag while keeping whatever it was "protecting?" Is this a possible feature of AirTags?

That is a big vulnerability you bring up. What’s preventing luggage thieves to take the AirTag off the bag and toss it in the trash?


What Apple will need to do is make airtags resemble the things you lose like a key, or be able to incorporate them into bags and other small items you lose. Making airpod cases with airtags would save a lot of people having to repurchase lost AirPods. Plus it would give rideshare drivers some extra income for finding all of these things that end up in the back seat of their vehicles. 

I think most folks using this will place airtags in inconspicuous locations where thieves won't necessarily bother to look.  It's what I would do.  These straps I think are geared towards things that many people would simply lose around the house or in a very cluttered garage.

Incorporating an AirTag in an AirPod case would (have been) a great idea.  I lost 2-month-old AirPod Pro's in my house somewhere and it really sucks.

I'd simply put the AirTag into my bag and if it disappears, track the TSA or luggage loading person (probably the former) who stole it. Nice thing is once secured in the bag, you could track a supposed "lost" bag and see where the idiots people at the airport sent it. I'd definitely follow my bag until I am sitting in the plane to make sure it's near me.

robin huber

I'd simply put the AirTag into my bag and if it disappears, track the TSA or luggage loading person (probably the former) who stole it. Nice thing is once secured in the bag, you could track a supposed "lost" bag and see where the idiots people at the airport sent it. I'd definitely follow my bag until I am sitting in the plane to make sure it's near me.

Wish I had these two years ago when both my wife’s and my bags were lost when making connections in Madrid for flight home to U.S. Our flight from Lisbon was late arriving and we had the choice of leaving our bags behind, or missing the flight home. Portuguese Air “promised” they’d get our bags in the next flight out to L.A. After a great deal of effort and aggravation wife’s bag found in Montreal weeks later and made it home; mine gone forever. Lost international bags is a Byzantine nightmare of overlapping authorities. I always put my contact info inside the zip-out lining of my bag—an AirTag in there would have given me a fighting chance of recovery. 

nicholfd

crowley said:

Interesting.  I guess the AirTag itself does get updated by Lost Mode.  I've been wrong in the other thread then.

Nope - the online server that the URL takes you to, knows the device is in lost mode.  Nothing changes on the AirTag.