android_alpaca

But even if we assume that you’re right, why would I care about cross functionality if I will be using it in my house?

If you don’t own a Samsung phone… you can’t use SmartTag… if you switch away from a Samsung phone, your Smarttags don’t work anymore.

That being said… I do think Tile needs to step if they want to survive with the additional competition.

@Nicholi… I do think AirTags is generally the better options for iPhone users… especially if Apple comes out with one that fits in your wallet like the Tile Slim.

However… SmartTag only work for Samsung phones… and people do switch between Samsung and other Android brands.

Doesn’t matter… Tile is dead now that Apple and Sammy have their own hardware. Just can’t compete with their networks, and nobody wants to use a 3rd party app when you can get the functionality straight out of the box.

Tile definitely has a lot more competition and the Apple/Samsung network are a huge bonus for their trackers. That being said… there are a few minor things that Tile has going for it in the short term.

The most obvious is that if you don’t use a phone made by Apple or Samsung… you can’t use the associated tracker.

The second is at this moment, only Tile has a tracker than can easily fit in your wallet.

Finally, Apple was forced by regulator to open up it’s Find My network to third parties… so theoretically Tile could use that… but Apple has put in rules that would force Tile to have iOS users use the Apple app and/not Tile’s own app…

At the end of the day, Tile is definitely in trouble… but it’s not out of the game yet. I do think this is a pivotable moment for them to offer something more useful than what they’ve been doing the past few years.

The Tile Pro battery is still user replaceable per the article.

Some parts of the Pro are the same as the previous model: it still has the longest range of any Tile tracker (400 feet), and it’s keeping the replaceable battery (which lasts about a year before you’ll have to swap it out).