What to expect from Apple’s new AirTag 2
The improvements come as airlines around the world embrace the AirTag for luggage tracking.
By David Flynn, January 7 2025
Apple’s AirTag wireless tracker has become almost a must-have accessory for frequent flyers and even infrequent travellers who are wary of their checked luggage going astray.
The advanced button-sized gizmos debuted in 2021, which proved to be perfect timing given the post-pandemic surge in both travel and lost bags.
Now Apple is prepping a smarter AirTag 2 to launch in the middle of 2025.
According to Bloomberg’s reliable Apple reporter Mark Gurman, the AirTag 2 has already “progressed in manufacturing tests” (under the product codename of B589) with advances in three key areas.
A new ultrawide-band chip in the AirTag 2 will allow for up to triple the precision-finding range of the first-gen AirTag.
This means you’ll be able to detect the location of an AirTagged item from 30 to 90 metres away, compared to 10-30 metres for the original AirTag.
The AirTag 2’s range-boosted ultrawide-band chip is expected to be accompanied by an improved wireless chip to boost location-finding accuracy in less densely populated areas.
Those are primarily areas with fewer iPhones and other devices in Apple’s Find My network, which uses Bluetooth wireless technology to effectively ‘crowdsource' your AirTag searching.
Finally, Apple plans to beef up AirTag privacy with stronger anti-stalking features.
Stalking and stealthy user-tracking has been unwelcome side-effects of the AirTag.
Given Apple's continued focus on privacy as a cornerstone of its devices, platform software, and the entire Apple ecosystem, it should come as no surprise to see the company strengthen AirTag privacy and potentially address customer concerns which may have stymied AirTag sales.
As previously reported, Qantas is working with Apple to help travellers find missing luggage fitted with an AirTag wireless tracker.
The collaboration – which is expected to see AirTag awareness built into the Qantas app – is expected to go live early next year.
Read more: Qantas will use Apple AirTags to help find your lost bags
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1028
Travelling the world with Air Tags Version 1 just after covid was a real pain. I lost count of how many times I thought our bags were left behind. I even got a CEO in the round building to help with support.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
10 Jun 2020
Total posts 17
I have 2 of them and at times I will see a bag is left behind (it isn't) and the other is close by. I have alot of trouble with them updating. I do not know why? Where do people place them to get the best range of them?
18 Nov 2023
Total posts 27
“My bags were left behind … then they weren’t”. You don’t require a Doctorate in advanced electronics to understand house AirTags work. If you can work out how to make a written comment to ET, understanding AirTags should be a breeze.
The device(s) emit a Bluetooth signal. Bluetooth signals are low power, low range and easily blocked by solid objects such as building walls and blocked even more so by metallic objects such as aluminium airline baggage containers.
Your AirTag is continually trying to talk to other Apple devices nearby. If your AirTag signal is intercepted by a nearby Apple device that (other) device transmits back to Apple the location and coded identity of the signal it received. Apple identifies the owner of that particular code and transmits the location of that AirTag to the registered owner. Over and over.
Why did one bag update but not the other? A multitude of possible reasons. E.g. your bags were put in two different airline containers, one was unloaded by a baggage handler with an Apple phone which transmitted the signal back to Apple, the other by a baggage handler with an Android device(which isn’t part of the Apple network). Or a hundred other possible reasons the weak Bluetooth signal from one of you AirTags didn’t make it’s way back to you at the same time as the other.
Look up “how does an AirTag work”.
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