Bluetooth trackers for keys, wallets and everyday carry

This single question eliminates most of the market before you have looked at a specification, and it is the question product pages are least clear about.

Apple Find My is the largest finding network in the world, assembled from essentially every iPhone. Setting up and using a Find My tag requires an iPhone — there is no Android app, and the ability of an Android phone to read a found AirTag over NFC is an anti-stalking feature, not a usable one. Apple's own AirTag additionally gets Ultra Wideband Precision Finding, which walks you to the item by direction rather than showing a pin.

Google Find Hub is the Android equivalent, newer and smaller but growing, and open to third-party tags — Chipolo, Pebblebee and Motorola all make Find Hub devices. If you carry an Android phone that is not a Galaxy, this is your network.

Samsung SmartThings Find only includes Galaxy devices, which makes it the smallest of the three big networks but still a large one. The SmartTag2 needs a Galaxy phone or tablet on Android 9 or later — not just any Android, which catches people out.

Tile's own network is made of other Tile users and is the smallest of the four by a wide margin. Tile's compensating advantage is real though: it is the only mainstream tag that works identically on iPhone and Android from one app, which is exactly right for a household running both.

Chipolo's dual-network tags are the hedge. One tag, either network, chosen at setup — so a phone platform switch in two years does not make your tags landfill.

Most things in this category get lost inside one building, and inside one building the map is nearly useless — it will tell you the keys are in your house, which you knew. What finds them is the alarm. That makes loudness the most under-rated specification here: Pebblebee states 130 dB for the Clip 5 and Chipolo states about 125 dB for the LOOP, both comfortably above an AirTag, and you can hear either one through a sofa cushion.

Battery type is the other practical decision. A replaceable coin cell means a dead tag is revived in two minutes with a battery from any shop; Apple states more than a year per CR2032 and Samsung states up to 500 days for the SmartTag2. A rechargeable tag means finding a USB-C cable roughly once a year; Chipolo states about a year per charge and Pebblebee states up to 12 months. Rechargeable is tidier and avoids a drawer of dead cells. Replaceable is better when the tag dies in a hotel room.

One warning about coin cells that has nothing to do with tracking: they cause severe internal injuries if a small child swallows one, quickly. If there are toddlers in the house, store spares locked away and treat a tag with a loose battery door as a thing to fix today.

Wallets need a card-shaped tracker, and the specification that matters is the battery. The first generation of wallet cards had sealed batteries and a hard expiry date — two or three years, then you bought the same product again. The rechargeable cards from Chipolo, Pebblebee and KeySmart removed that, and the small premium is worth it.

Remotes, laptops, passports and bike frames have no attachment point at all, which is what adhesive mounts and stickers exist for. Treat the choice as permanent: an adhesive pad is a one-shot decision and a keyring tag is not, so if there is any chance you will want to move the tag, use a holder instead.

Finally, the AirTag's one genuine design flaw: it has no hole. Apple sells a leather loop for most of the price of another AirTag; a three-dollar plastic shell does the same job. If a keyring hole matters to you, Chipolo's LOOP and Samsung's SmartTag2 both have one built in and you can stop reading about holders.