The Pixel Tag Is Google's Answer To the AirTag (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0184939514
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/08/12/1525222/the-pixel-tag-is-googles-answer-to-the-airtag
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/tech/978713/google-pixel-tag-uwb-bluetooth-channel-finding-news
> The Pixel Tag is a slim oblong device available in one grayish color -- Fog -- that weighs about 12g, or 0.4oz. Like the AirTag, it has no built-in hooks or clips for attaching to objects you want to track. There's a single button that will trigger a sound on your phone, for the rare occasion when you've got the Tag but have lost your main device. It also has an IP67 rating, so it should be safe from dust and rain. As for the battery, the Pixel Tag takes CR2032 coin batteries, and says one battery should last for over a year.
>
> Naturally, it'll be compatible with Google's Find Hub network, which leverages the Bluetooth capabilities of Android devices worldwide to help locate lost objects. [...] Once you're close enough to the Pixel Tag, UWB lets the Find Hub app display the distance and direction to the tracker, so long as you're using a phone with a UWB chip. Channel Sounding is a newer development that can display the exact distance, but not direction, and it will work with any phone or tablet that includes Bluetooth 6.0. The Moto Tag 2 is the only other tracker to currently support it.
[1] https://store.google.com/product/pixel_tag
[2] https://www.theverge.com/tech/978713/google-pixel-tag-uwb-bluetooth-channel-finding-news
It's so much bigger. (Score:2)
Does it do anything that the airtag doesn't do? Because otherwise, the size makes it seem like it'll be more awkward on keychains, dog collars, anywhere that there's something small that *can* not go missing. I'm surprised!
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> Does it do anything that the airtag doesn't do?
The only headline item is precise distance if you have bluetooth 6.0 on your device, and, of course, it works with the Android ecosystem.
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The Apple AirTag 2 does that also and has since it was released in January.
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Right, for iPhones. This one works for Android. That's the main 'thing'
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It is bigger but not dramatically bigger than it cannot be used in most applications. I don’t have an AirTag but my question is why did it take Google so long to make a competing device? The AirTag was not original either; TilePro existed before the AirTag. Apple just made theirs round, slightly smaller, and work with their ecosystem. It took Google 5 years to copy what Apple copied?
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It's Google youre talking about here. They're an advertising company, not a hardware company.
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Better antenna and thus better range, but that's more than offset by the fact that Google crippled their Find My Device network.
Google made the default setting on Android to only locate items that are picked up by multiple devices, and away from the user's home. So basically only in busy areas like airports or city centres. There is an option to opt in to reporting everywhere with a single ping, but I imagine the take-up is extremely low and you are reliant on someone having opted in if your device goes mis
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Apart from feed a lot of data to Google... nah...
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Wnat do you mean so much bigger? It is lighter and thinner than an airtag, not quite as wide but 14mm longer. If it is too big then so is an airtag
Is this Pixel Only? (Score:2)
Does this work solely with Pixel phones, or do all Android phones(e.g. Samsung) see these things?
If it's all Androids, then that's a big deal. Far more receivers out there than iPhone. But, if it's just Pixel, then it sucks as bad or worse than Tile.
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Something tells me that it will only work on phones with the latest version of Android and the correct Bluetooth hardware. That's going to make initial support kinda useless if the tag isn't nearby.
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According to the link in TFS, all Android phones running on Android 9 and later will be able to use this.
Does it (Score:2)
Do that retarded thing Airtags do where they start beeping if they don't see your phone for a while? Half the point of these things is to track stuff if it's stolen, which is completely invalidated if they start beeping so the thief knows where they are.
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Yeah, why would the do that?
Use by stalkers:
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Tracking cars:
[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Apple Faces Dozens of Lawsuits Over AirTag Stalking:
[3]https://www.macrumors.com/2026... [macrumors.com]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirTag#Use_by_stalkers
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirTag#Tracking_cars
[3] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/01/airtag-stalking-lawsuits-apple/
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Yeah, that's why they did it. But it remains true that the noise cripples the airtag as an anti-theft device.
Also the beeping collars upset my dogs.
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> Do that retarded thing Airtags do where they start beeping if they don't see your phone for a while? Half the point of these things is to track stuff if it's stolen, which is completely invalidated if they start beeping so the thief knows where they are.
Permanently disabling the speaker in an Airtag is possible: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The average user won't be able to do it, but most people can find someone who has the tools and knowledge. The tag no longer has an IP67 rating after the operation, so liquid and dust can get in there. IMO a dab of hot glue would help, but I've never had an Airtag so I don't know for sure.
As I write this I'm wondering if there are any jurisdictions in which disabling the speaker is illegal.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO_Bg4vAuwM
Creepy (Score:2)
Does anyone else find these things creepy and intrusive? For a small convenience you're surrendering information about the whereabouts of yourself and your possessions to whomever randomly happens to be nearby, while also allowing Apple or Google to use your personal devices to track others... just so you don't have to look up from your phone to find your keys?
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Finding your stuff is the basic purpose. What stuff is up to you. People have used AirTags and TilePros to track their luggage on trips, for example. So when the airline said your luggage would arrive today and it hasn’t left your original airport, you may have to buy some clothes for today. Other people have tracked down their stolen property like cars, backpacks, etc. It has uses.
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Find my ex-wife.
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I am sure your ex-wife misses you...but her aim is improving.
Re:Creepy (Score:4, Informative)
That describes the system backwards. An AirTag does not transmit its owner’s identity, GPS position, or location history to every nearby phone. It emits a Bluetooth Low Energy beacon containing a rotating cryptographic public key—not a stable ID tied to you.
A nearby Find My-capable device may observe that beacon, take its own approximate location, encrypt that location report to the AirTag’s current public key, and upload the ciphertext. The phone owner does not learn whose tag it was; the AirTag owner does not learn which phone submitted the report; and Apple operates the relay/storage service but cannot decrypt the location payload. Only the AirTag owner’s devices, which possess the corresponding private keys, can turn the report into a map location.
The identifiers also rotate roughly every 15 minutes. That prevents a passive observer from treating one Bluetooth identifier as a durable “this is the same tag/person” handle. It is specifically designed so the successive broadcasts cannot readily be linked to the same device.
So yes, it is a crowdsourced location network—but “crowdsourced” is not the same as “nearby strangers and Apple can see where you are.” The relay device contributes an encrypted observation without being identified to the tag owner, and the owner gets no information about the relay device.
The legitimate privacy concern is misuse by the tag owner, not surveillance by the phones that relay reports or Apple reading everyone’s movements. A malicious person can try to hide a tracker with someone else’s property, which is why iOS and Android provide cross-platform unknown-tracker alerts and the tag can be made to play a sound. Apple also can associate a tag’s serial number with the owner account in response to lawful process. That risk is real, but it’s materially different from the network being a general-purpose location-data vacuum.
Re: Creepy (Score:1)
Thanks wankerweasel. Exactly what the typical anti Apple user doesn't understand when they slag Apple off about privacy
Several years too late and this is? (Score:2)
Considering Google is supposed to have some of the best designers and product people in the world I'm surprised this is what they came up with.
It's basically just a me-too device, coming out much too late. It does nothing the MotoTag or AirTag didn't already do, and worst of all, it's a different size and shape. Motorola wisely made the dimensions of the MotoTag almost the exact same as the AirTag. Meaning the wide selection of accessories, cases, bags, etc that are designed to accomodate AirTags can fit
Me Too? (Score:3)
Did you say the same thing when Apple launched the AirTag?
Tile had already been out for six years before the AirTag. Apple simply copied them and used Apple's much larger installed base of iPhones to force the "app" onto every phone, making the network of receivers much larger than Tile could.
Re: Me Too? (Score:1)
They didn't force the app on to the iPhones. It had already been a standard feature for several years tracking iPads and Macs and sharing location with spouses before the tags were added to the ecosystem
I'm going to attached a pixel tag to my air tag (Score:3)
So I don't lose it.
Re: Anal violation of a Proud Boy. (Score:2)
Weâ(TM)ll see how deep a Pixel Tag can go.
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To be fair, the Proud Boys mascot IS a big black cock...