this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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Both android and iPhones get alerted to AirTags that follow them and I’ve seen it work extremely well. It even gives the option to play sounds from the AirTags or disable them entirely.
What am I not understanding that makes AirTags the “weapon of choice” for stalkers?
Isn’t it on android you have to download an app and it only works with the app open? Or has that changed? Edit: that has changed, see response below
I have two phones, one android (work) and one personal (iOS). They use different accounts so no connections between them. My android has never gone off, even with my bike that has an AirTag. My iPhone has gone off with a work colleagues AirTag but not the android phone which was in the same pocket the entire time.
It's built into the OS since apple and google agreed common standards for tag detection.
The google compatible tags (which aren't launched yet, possibly because of stuff like this) will be detected by apple devices too.
Glad they were so proactive to have a better solution, the app situation was a load of crap. Looked it up and found the setting on my phone and it’s enabled. It appears my AirTag wouldn’t set it off as i have the iPhone with the tag and therefore it is not considered separated. I’ll turn my iPhone off next time I ride my bike to see if that causes it to detect it.
I've definitely seen the alert from Android, with no app installed. I knew about the tags in question however, so it wasn't an issue. It took several hours to notice however. I'd imagine a false positive is a lot more of an issue than false negatives.
If it’s now built into the OS that is great going forward, but how many phones have the latest OS? Like 10%?
It's part of Play services, so most phones will get it.
Ah ok cool. Thanks for the clarification