I bought a 4 pack specifically to track my 3 indoor cats just in case they bolted outside. I put the 4th on my key ring.
setting up the App was easy enough. I tested the Tiles in the house. when the keys/cats were near, a green circle went around the photo, a green "Find" bar appeared, and when I pressed the bar, the Tile buzzed and played a tinny tune.
I put the tiles on the cats' collars. I test the "Find" feature every single day inside the house to make sure it is updated.
Now to the hard part - one of my cats slipped out at night. She is 17. She apparently stayed close in the backyard because the Tile green "Find" bar appeared. I pressed the bar and heard the tinny tune. However, it was impossible to actually see the cat who was apparently hunkered down under my back deck (there is less than 6 inch gap under deck).
The buzzing and the tune either didn't freak her out enough to come out or it freaked her out to move further away from me and toward the building line. And the further she scooched away, the lower and more tinny the tune became until it was almost inaudible. As the November night temperature dropped and the wind whipped and I had called her name and shaken kibble, put out a can of tunafish, etc, and it was 3 hours later on a work night, I gave up and went to bed. This morning, I got up, hopeful she might still be within the Tile range. no luck. She is either out of range or the battery in the Tile has died. I doubt it is the battery she is wearing the Tile only a month. However, if she out of the 150 foot range and is roaming the neighborhood, how does the Tile help me? According to the company, if another Tile user buzzes to my lost cat, I can go to that location in hopes of finding my pet. But there is no easy way for me to send out a local "SOS" to Tile users in my area. I believe I am back to the Old School method of stapling paper flyers to the trees on my block.
On top of that, the App screen says the Tile was "last seen November 1st". umm, no, yesterday was November 20th.
I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with Tile customer service. They are useless. They used the circular logic of saying they might be able to troubleshoot IF I was near my lost Tile. Grrr
I sincerely hope my cat is not dead and/or gone, but I had to post this review to save the heartache for pet owners looking for a solution. From my Amazon research, it seems that a GPS tracker would be more accurate but they are mainly for dogs and just not small enough for cats.
I am so sad. Please don't buy a Tile unless you want to track items/pets who are already in the house. If I lost my remote somewhere in the living room, fine, Tile will find it and play the tune. But outside, forget it. I want to find the device that can go on my cat's collar, that can send a signal to a satellite and send me a GPS real time map with an accurate to within feet location of my pet. And I will gladly pay money for that. But it doesn't exist, at least not on Amazon, for cats.
UPDATE 11/23/18
so the story has a happy ending, but I would not have gotten it without the Tile. I decided that if the Tile battery hadn't died, it still must be transmitting even if the cat had died. So I decided to leave the confines of my property and walk around the block in the hopes that maybe she was beyond the 150 foot range, but still close enough for the Tile to connect.
After I rounded the corner, about midway down the next block, the Tile app buzzed and the Green bar appeared. It showed the cat was close by. I was directly in front of a completely dark house that had a humongous pickup truck-on-steroids in the driveway. I approached the truck. I saw at the back of the driveway, there was a tall fence and just beyond the fence, there was another vehicle with a tarp over it. If she was in front of the fence, I had a chance of recovering her. If she was behind it, there was no way I could (trespass and) scale that fence. Of course there was enough ground clearance that a cat could go under the fence and be hiding under the car under the tarp. It was a 50/50 shot. Of course I called my cat's name, but she is not the type to come when called or go up to people. she is beautiful but standoffish.
I pressed the "Find" button and I heard the tinny little song. It appeared to be coming thankfully, from under the truck in the driveway in front of the fence. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the truck. No cat. I called my boyfriend who is small. He came within a half hour with a flashlight. I pressed the button again and he crawled up under that truck and located the cat hiding up in the wheel well. Luckily, she just hunkered down in fear and he grabbed her. 1-2-3, he passed her to me and I held her tight behind the scruff of her neck and cuddled her. She was severely dehydrated and covered in grease but she was alive.
We walked home and as soon as we got inside the house, I put down a can of wet cat food. she wolfed down a half can. Then disappeared to go sleep and recover. The photo I posted is her the next morning, still greasy but perky and waiting for breakfast. The Tile reunited me with my beloved cat so I updated my review.
The Bottom Line is: I could not have found my cat without the Tile App connecting to her collar and her being within 100 feet. Had she been under that other car beyond range, forget it. But had I not had the Tile app, I could have walked around the block shaking kibble and calling her name and walked past that pickup truck never knowing she was hiding up inside it. So it was a success in this situation. You have to get out and walk around with the Tile and hope it connects to the missing pet. My mistake I think was not setting off to look for her as soon as I lost connection. I got very lucky in this situation. But I am still researching my GPS tracking options because I want something that will direct me to where my cat is without me walking around and hoping the Bluetooth connects.
A Thanksgiving Miracle for sure.
I got my first Tile free last year with a promotion and loved it. I used it to keep track of my keys AND my cell phone (which I can ring from my keys). When I needed another key tracker, I almost bought another brand that was on sale. But then I Googled comparison reviews and found the top tech sites rank Tile as having the loudest ringer and the best range. Also, Tile has a large network of users, and they help track each other's Tiles. If you lose whatever is attached to your Tile, it will show up on a map when another Tile user is within range of the item with their app turned on.
So I ordered two packs of 4 Tiles this time. We hid one in our vehicle in case it's ever stolen, one in our travel trailer for the same reason, and attached another to our dog's collar just in case. I gave one to my son for his keys, and used one for my second set of keys. Last week I also gave a Tile to a friend who is always losing her keys, and she has used it several times already.
These new Tiles come with replaceable batteries, which the original version did not have. Those batteries were only good for about a year, and then you had to replace the Tile. So make sure you're buying the NEW 2018 version with replaceable batteries.
The 4 packs at their current price cost only less than $15 per Tile (with Prime). I've saved literally hundreds of dollars in time and potential locksmith expenses—not to mention the peace of mind gained—using my Tiles (which is why I bought so many this time). It's one of the best investments I've ever made, and I highly recommend them. *I am NOT associated with the maker or any seller of Tile in any way; this is my honest, unsolicited opinion.
I'm a super fast mover, busy busy multitasking all of the time, I travel the world for work and a at the very worst of a multitasking moment sometimes I lose track of one thing-- my phone, my wallet, luckily not my backpack (yet). Luggage... yes sometimes I've had to find my luggage with Tile!
There have been two specific times these tiles have "saved me".
First, I was clothes shopping, left the store buying nothing, got in the car, had no wallet. Panic. I was able to check the phone app and it showed me the last time my phone had talked to the Tile-- in my wallet-- and it was in the changing room of a clothing store! I ran back, and luckily it was still there. It must have slipped out during changing.
The second time tile has "saved" me was in Paris CDG. My luggage was delivered to the wrong separate set of arrivals halls, which are separated by glass. Once you've waited 4 hours and exited because your luggage isn't coming, you can walk along the other baggage claim areas and sure enough-- my tile went off! Found! I peered through the glass and saw my luggage along a back wall. It had been delivered to the wrong luggage hall!
When you've flown overnight only to find your luggage is missing, no sleep, and waited for it 4 more hours, there is no better feeling than claiming your luggage and moving on. ( I did have to bang on the glass, show my passport, go a special way to get let in... it was worth it!)
Many other times my luggage has come last... or late. Setting my tile as lost lets me relax and it alerts me when it's nearby. This eases the stress of watching the baggage claim closely.
I started small with just a couple tiles. Now I have several. For a bit I went crazy, but I've normalized.
Backpack, wallet, luggage and my three main Tile harbingers and occasionally a travel backpack or another "hot topic" item I may carry around and care more about than usual. I've never had one fail before the battery was supposed to be done.
That leaves me to one final thought: There are other people in the Tile network that can "help you" locate things if they happen to pass by your lost tile before you do. This is a valuable part of the device-- the size of the network. I don't know how large/small it is compared to others, but I would guess it's larger. Does anyone know?
Very satisfied Tile customer. Fully, eagerly recommend.
After thinking my wallet had been left somewhere, I ordered a set of these Tile trackers. I'd thought about getting them before, but glad I waited if only because now some of the units have replaceable batteries. They work well and have already helped me find my phone when I dropped it in my yard while doing yardwork. Since they're new I can't rate the battery life on the Tile Slim which is stated to last 1-year from activation.
I am so happy to have a Tile Mate on my key chain! I can't even say how many times I am trying to run out the door in the morning and can't find my keys. Or, can't find my phone. Tile makes it easy peasy to locate whichever thing I can't put my hands on at any given moment.
I have three kids, work with my husband at our own small business, and am constantly running from the office to the store to a school to a sporting event -- you get the idea. Sometimes I run into the house with 27 items from my car, drop everything, run to the bathroom, put 12% of the items away, have to leave to pick up a kid, and suddenly have no idea where I dropped my keys. Now I can quickly locate them with my phone. Or, I have no idea where I left my phone (I've been known to leave it in the hall closet when putting toilet paper away). With the Tile, I can find my keys or phone quickly.
Setting up the Tile is so fast and easy. Download and install the app, press the button on the Tile, hold it next to your phone, and wait a couple of seconds for the two to connect. You then choose what the Tile will be attached to -- in my case, it was my keys. If I lose my keys, I just open the app, tap "find" on my keys, and listen for the Tile to play a little song. If I can't find my phone, I press the button on the Tile twice and my phone will being to play a song even if it is in silent mode! The volume is sufficient for me to hear both the phone and the tile even if I am a room or two away.
The only thing I am disappointed with is the range. You really need to be only a room or two away from the Tile for it to work. The Bluetooth connection doesn't have much range at all. If I am at one end of the house and my keys are at the other, the Tile just tries to connect until I get about one or two rooms away. If you have no idea where in the home, workplace, or school your keys might be, you'll have to walk around until you get close enough for the Bluetooth to connect so the Tile plays its little song. The same applies for the find my phone feature -- if you press the button on the tile but aren't somewhat close to your phone, the phone won't ring. It's not a big deal if you mainly need to locate the Tile around your home or workplace.
I have not (yet) had the chance to try the Find my Tile option for a wider community, but if I do, I will update my review with that experience.
Attaching the Tile to my keychain was simple. It's small, light, and doesn't add much bulk or weight to my set of keys.
Feature Product
- Ring your things: Use your smartphone to make your Tile Mate ring when it's nearby but out of sight
- Find your phone: Can't find your phone? Simply double press the Tile button on your Tile Mate to make your phone ring, even when it's on silent
- Activate Community Find: If your Tile Mate is faraway, let other Tile community members help. The Tile app running on their phones can send location updates to your app
- Mate has a replaceable CR1632 battery is guaranteed for one year from activation. You can easily replace it yourself
Description
The world’s best-selling Bluetooth tracker, the NEW Tile Mate attaches to keys, purses or anything else you couldn’t live without. Use Tile adhesives (sold separately) to stick it to any flat surface like a laptop so you can always find your things. No maintenance ever.
I've been using Tiles for several years now, and this is the big product upgrade I've been waiting for - the replaceable battery. When you combine this with the extended range and louder ring tone, I've put them on everything valuable now! We've got them on all our car keys, backpacks/purses, wallets, suitcases, kids' backpacks, bikes, and now even our dogs...as you can see from the attached photo!
Tiles have saved me several times, but the three most significant were:
1) I shipped my triathalon bike as luggage with me via United to Phoenix, and when I arrived they say it hadn't scanned onto the plane and must be back in CA. When I opened the Tile app, showed them that it was within 100 yards of us, and made it ring...sure enough, they found it pushed against a wall in the oversized luggage room. The agent said "it would have taken us weeks to find that"...if ever. I would have missed my triathalon and been out a lot of $ without it.
2) My wallet somehow fell off my desk and into a tiny gap between my desk and the wall without me knowing that. When leaving for the day and unable to find it, I made it ring...and had to do crazy things to extract it...but never would have found it otherwise!
3) arriving on vacation with our full family and 5 of 6 bags came out, and the carousel stopped without our 6th. Our family started freaking out and walking to the lost luggage counter, but the Tile app showed that it was nearby. We didn't have to intervene this time, but were able to relax and just wait, and sure enough, 5 minutes later it started up again and our bag popped out!
Thank you Tile!!
I’m the type to always have the silent mode “on” on my phone because of work/school (I’m sure most of you do too), so this is the perfect device if you misplace your phone while it is on SILENT! The only things that will stop you from finding your phone with this device is if you’re too far or your phone is out of battery. This model in particular has a replaceable battery so you don’t need to repurchase after a year or so, like their earlier models. So far it has been a ton of help, but I have yet to see how well it’s water resistance works.
I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of setup. Note it is a little thicker than the non-replaceable battery model it replaces. Two complaints: While on a keychain in my pocket button sometimes gets pressed by accident. Why not have an option where you could change the activation mode (eg, need to press button 3x or something)? 2nd is all the find-me tones are incredibly annoying. What's wrong with a basic beeping sound..?
I,d been looking at device trackers for a few years and always liked the Tile...But I was not going to purchase any tracker until I was able to replace the battery...They finally fixed that glaring shortcoming, I bought a 4-pack, and I'm glad I did...It has already found my son's keys and my TV remote (which ALWAYS seems to get lost)...There is just ONE THING that I wish worked better and I don't think it's the fault of the Tile at all...Sometimes I will click to 'close all apps' on my phone and, of course, the Tile app closes along with all the others...I wish there was some sort of 'background run' setting in the phone or the Tile app that would allow the app to continue to be able to find things even if closed...Otherwise, these things are awesome!
Very excited about these. Its kind of a bummer that your phone has to have location and bluetooth on, in order to page your phone from a tile. But they have already saved ne time when i lost my keys. Works perfectly. Im already planning on buying more for myself and as gifts
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