AirTags mixed results

[ocanalix]

Went for an hour walk with 4 AirTags and my iPhone 12.
1 AirTag linked to my own account, and 3 linked to a friends.

Results:
– The one linked to my own account showed realtime movement in the app.
– Two of my friend's AirTags only updated in their app twice, and showed a ~15 minute old location with a 1km radius.
– The other AirTag didn't update at all.

Either I'm doing something wrong or your phone only communicates with other people's AirTags very intermittently?

 

[canyonblue737]

my guess? when you check your own find my app it looks for and marks your own airtags whenever you open the app. if your friend isn't actively checking his own find my app perhaps it only pings every 15 or so minutes and if happens not to find one so be it, it doesn't get marked and then it tries again 15 minutes later?

 

[ocanalix]

my guess? when you check your own find my app it looks for and marks your own airtags. if you friend isn't actively checking his own find my app perhaps it only pings every 15 or so minutes?

We both had the app open whilst talking to each other on the phone to test. Whenever theirs finally updated it reported a location that I was in about 15 minutes ago. Couldn't really understand why the delay to report when mine was being reported in realtime.

 

[canyonblue737]

We both had the app open whilst talking to each other on the phone to test. Whenever theirs finally updated it reported a location that I was in about 15 minutes ago. Couldn't really understand why the delay to report when mine was being reported in realtime.

interesting. another guess? maybe it uses bluetooth to sense where the tag is and mark it on the map locally on your phone, but it only updates the global database available to others every 15 minutes or so to avoid saturating the database with hits on the same item every few minutes?

 

[bobmans]

What are you expecting?
Misplaced/lost items usually don't move, there's no need to keep reporting location in real-time 24/7. Only reason yours is doing is because it's connected to your own phone and you're triggering it all the time by opening the app all the time.
I'd be annoyed if my iPhone was using my LTE data to report someone else's airtag location in real-time when just reporting it once is more than enough.

Airtags aren't GPS trackers lmao.

 

[digitalfx]

The purpose of an AirTag is to find a lost item...its not intended to track movement in realtime.

 

[ocanalix]

interesting. another guess? maybe it uses bluetooth to sense where the tag is and mark it on the map locally on your phone, but it only updates the global database available to others every 15 minutes or so to avoid saturating the database with hits on the same item every few minutes?

Yeah it seems like it was logging the location data every 15 minutes, then uploading it the next 15 minutes. No idea what was happening with the 4th one.

 

[ocanalix]

The purpose of an AirTag is to find a lost item...its not intended to track movement in realtime.

What are you expecting?
Misplaced/lost items usually don't move, there's no need to keep reporting location in real-time 24/7. Only reason yours is doing is because it's connected to your own phone and you're triggering it all the time by opening the app all the time.
I'd be annoyed if my iPhone was using my LTE data to report someone else's airtag location in real-time when just reporting it once is more than enough.

Airtags aren't GPS trackers lmao.

Yeah I get that. I guess I just expected it be a little bit more useful if I left it on a bus or a train for instance.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Yeah I get that. I guess I just expected it be a little bit more useful if I left it on a bus or a train for instance.

Distance could also be a factor. Maybe it'll update more frequently in lost mode is it's traveling at a higher rate of distance vs just walking.

 

[dcp10]

Went for an hour walk with 4 AirTags and my iPhone 12.
1 AirTag linked to my own account, and 3 linked to a friends.

Results:
– The one linked to my own account showed realtime movement in the app.
– Two of my friend's AirTags only updated in their app twice, and showed a ~15 minute old location with a 1km radius.
– The other AirTag didn't update at all.

Either I'm doing something wrong or your phone only communicates with other people's AirTags very intermittently?

Did your friend put their AirTags into lost mode? I think otherwise only the last known location is reported in Find My, similar to AirPods