I wrote an extensive post about the AirTag and what it’s all about and being officially announced is an exciting thing to know. For the records, the AirTag provides a streamlined way to keep track of your important items.
If that sounds vague, the simplest way to put it is that you can easily locate valuables such as wallets, purses, keys, bags, remotes, umbrellas etc so far they have the AirTag device attached.
There is a big system behind the AirTag called the “Find My” which is a network of nearly a billion Apple devices across boards.
This is especially a big advantage for Apple which ghave been riding on the success of its iPhones therfore creating innumerable products and services therefore creating the iOS ecosystem of products and services.
However, it might be tempting to want to AirTag your pet as well even though Apple has warned against this stating its d device is for tracking items not pets.
There is an anti-stalking feature in the system to prevent the AirTag from being used to track people around and that feature alone is the reason why it probably won’t work on your pet.
According to the Cupertio-based tech firm’s VP of worldwide iPone product marketing, Kaiann Drance “If people do that, they just have to make sure that their moving pet gets into range of a device in the Find My network” so its location can be tracked.”
The point is that AirTagging your dog or cat isn’t entirely impossible since its just a location-based scenario.
Just get one of those AirTag loop accessories and hang it on your pet’s collar. After all, it seems like a logical use case for an AirTag.
But why would Apple not encourage it?
Apple probably doesn’t want to be held liable in case anything happens to Fido
This is it, imagine a scenario whereby someone have the AirTag on their pet which then got lost and being outside of the reach of its owner, there might be some unfortunate situation such as the pet getting hit by a moving vehicle by accident.
Apple is basically washing their hands clean from such ordeal because someone might get angry and decide to sue the company because “the product didn’t work as they claimed.”
Or perhaps your dog or cat somehow got the AirTag loop attachment off (maybe a cheap accessory) and got out — there would be no way to track them with an AirTag since it actually isn’t on them, and one realizes this too late.
And considering the current climate whereby people basically sue for anything – Apple might not just want to deal with all those shenanigan which is why the company is trying not to be liable for whatever negative outcome the AirTag tracking has on your pet.
Compared to an item such as a key, if you lose those, they will usually be in the same location unless someone picked it up to deliver it to you after you initiated the search via the Find My app.
In short, while you can put an AirTag on your dog or cat, Apple does not encourage it to cover its own butt in case of legal action.
You could theoretically still do it, to the dismay of Apple
But let’s face the fact even though Apple has distanced itself completely from trying this on your pet, the company encourages that in case you want to go via that route, ensure the animal is within range of an Apple device in the Find My network so that it can be easily tracked down.
But with almost a billion devices in the Find My network, that shouldn’t be very hard to do. After all, it’s much easier to find someone with an iPhone, iPad, or even a Mac (no additional downloads required) than it is to find someone else with a Tile or other competing item tracking product.
Plus, when someone does find your dog or cat, and they see the AirTag on the collar (along with a regular pet tag), they can simply tap it with their own iPhone or even an NFC-enabled Android device to contact you if it’s put into Lost Mode which sounds like a win-win for everybody.
Since there are hundreds of thousands of Apple devices in your neighborhood for example, even if your runaway pet gets past someone with an iPhone for example, you can be able to see where they are via the Find My network making it easy to get the updates of the location of your lost pet.
However, Apple isn’t going to take responsibility for anything that happens to your pet afterwards because its at your own discretion.
If you’ll still do it anyway, ensure you get a high-quality holder for the AirTag which can stay put no matter the speed or fiddle your pet do on the device hanging on their collar.