I tried AirTags once. It beeped non stop on my own possessions. I don’t understand how anyone uses these things.

I had this experience too. They beep like this if they're not near an updated iDevice logged into your account.

You'll have the same problem if you do something like: set the AirTag up on an iPad, but then carry around with an Android phone on you or just any phone not logged into your Apple Account. The beeping is the anti-stalking feature since it thinks it's separated from its owner.

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kstrauser 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That’s not the expected experience, and not the one other people have.

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_ph_ 10 hours ago | parent [-]

I once bought 4 air tags, never got to work them in any useful sense. I keep getting warnings about leaving my keys behind, which are in my pocket. I don't recall any time being warned about leaving things behind when I did. Can't really locate things a few meters away.

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kstrauser 10 hours ago | parent [-]

That’s so odd! They’ve worked exactly as promised for me. I never, ever get warnings about my own tags, or my wife’s tags that she’s shared with me. Not even once. And yesterday I used them to find my keys that the cats had relocated to across the house.

I don’t have any explanation for how our experiences could be so different, but they are. Mine even did the cool thing where you can watch your luggage move through an airport until you join up with it.

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_ph_ 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Just found out that the one active remaining tag on my keychain stopped working in September without me noticing.

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rationalist 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

It seems like Apple should notify users that their AirTag disappeared and ask them if they would like instructions on replacing the battery or to remove it from their account.

	▲	kstrauser 6 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Mine pester me to change the batteries until I actually do.

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WorldMaker 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Generally you tag your home as a trusted location, which eliminates most regular pings. Then you make sure that your Find My shows all of your tags; if you missed enrolling one and it still pings as a "stranger's tag" that can be a cause of confusion. (If you live with someone else, I've heard it is useful that you share your Find My data with each other.)

When actually traveling with your stuff there's a personal comfort question of how comfortable you feel in setting things like hotel rooms as "trusted" so you don't get a lot of pings when you leave things behind intentionally in places like hotel rooms. I think that's my biggest ask for AirTags is an easier way to set explicitly time-bound trusts: trust this exact hotel room until my checkout date; trust this exact office space until the end of this work day.