As a surprise Monday treat, Apple has unveiled an update to its popular AirTag item tracker. There’s no radical design changes to the accessory — instead it’s all about extra power to enhance Precision Finding to help you locate your keys, lost luggage and other important items.
Inside the new AirTag is Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which is the same one you’ll find in the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch Series 11. This boost in power, along with an upgrade to the AirTag’s Bluetooth chip, will let you find your lost items up to 50% farther away.
Apple says that the new AirTag’s louder speaker will also allow you to hear your AirTag from up to two times further away than you could previously. Another new feature means that for the first time, you can locate your AirTags using your Apple Watch — although you’ll need a Series 9, Ultra 2 or later.
Powered by the strength of Apple’s Find My network, AirTags allow you to keep track of any possessions you attach them to, alongside all of your Apple devices and any people who are sharing their locations with you. Apple says that the AirTag has «industry-leading» security features in place to prevent unwanted tracking and ensure that your location data and history are secure.
This is Apple’s first major update to the AirTag since it first launched the product back in 2021. Rather than calling it the AirTag 2 or a similar name, this new iteration will continue to be known as the AirTag. It’s a straight swap for the previous version, which it seems will be discontinued immediately.
If you’ve been thinking about investing in AirTags for a while, now is the perfect time to take the leap. Apple has priced the new accessory to match its predecessor, which means that a single AirTag will set you back $29 ( 29), whereas a four-pack will cost $99 ( 99). Ordering from Apple means that you can add personalized engraving to your AirTags for free.
AirTags and the lost luggage revolution
Back in 2022, when my luggage failed to arrive home from my honeymoon on the same flight as me, I declared Apple’s AirTags a travel essential.
Even though, at the time, I couldn’t share the information location directly with my airline, the fact that I could see where my lost luggage was and the journey it was taking to be reunited with me provided enormous peace of mind in a stressful situation.
In 2024, Apple raised its lost luggage game even further by partnering directly with airlines so that passengers could share their AirTag locations. A report from air transport industry tech company SITA released one year on, in December last year, said that thanks to the partnership, the number of truly lost bags had decreased by 90%.