{"id":50825,"date":"2026-01-26T15:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T20:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=50825"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:31:44","slug":"airtag-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/26\/airtag-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"AirTag 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>, MacRumors<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their lost items from up to 50 percent farther away than the previous generation. And an upgraded Bluetooth chip expands the range at which items can be located.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

With its updated internal design, the new AirTag is 50 percent louder than the previous generation, enabling users to hear their AirTag from up to 2x farther than before.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Works better, same price, sounds good.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2026-01-27<\/a>): Unfortunately<\/a>, the new AirTags require iOS 26.2.1 or later.<\/p>\n\n

Joe Rossignol<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Apple offers a Share Item Location feature in the Find My app<\/a> that allows you to temporarily share the location of an AirTag-equipped item with others, including employees at participating airlines.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Below, we have listed most of the airlines that support the feature[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Adam Engst<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Have AirTags made a difference in your life? Do you plan to replace existing ones with these new models?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2026-02-04<\/a>): Pierre Igot<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

It seems obvious to me that the new AirTags still rely on the whole network of existing iPhones, regardless of which version of iOS those phones run. So why did they choose to require iOS 26 for actually using these new AirTags?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2026-02-05<\/a>): Andrew Abernathy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Anyone know what exactly “requires iOS 26\" means for the new AirTags?<\/p>\n

You can’t pair it without iOS 26? What if you pair it on an iOS 26 phone but have an iPad on the same Apple account but still running iOS 18 — can the iPad find the AirTag? Can you use “share an AirTag” with someone who isn’t running iOS 26? And AirTags are registered and reported by random devices — surely that capability remains?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Joe Rossignol<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

iFixit’s AirTag 2 teardown video<\/a> that afternoon went under our radar until now<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2026-02-10<\/a>): Glenn Fleishman<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

But if your iPhone or iPad isn’t running version 26.2.1, released a few days ago, you can’t add one of these new AirTags to it. And your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch won’t be able to locate it.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Because there’s no explicit labeling, it will be very difficult to tell the original and revised AirTag apart. 9to5Mac published an article<\/a> on this very topic[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2026-03-03<\/a>): Glenn Fleishman<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Fortunately, the ability to pair and track a 2nd-generation AirTag is distinct from participating in Apple’s crowdsourced Find My network, allowing its encrypted, privacy-protecting broadcasts to be recognized by all generations of Apple hardware. And the new AirTag doesn’t create an accidental loophole in deterring and detecting unwanted tracking—in fact, it might even be a better “citizen” due to its ability to emit a louder noise and its longer Bluetooth range.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Since my last column, I’ve updated my book Take Control of Find My and AirTags<\/a> to incorporate all the details related to the 2nd-generation AirTag and the new availability of Precision Finding for certain Apple Watch models.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors): Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip — the same chip found in the iPhone 17 lineup, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11 — powers the new AirTag, making it easier to locate than ever before. Using haptic, visual, and audio feedback, Precision Finding guides users to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-01-26T20:51:23Z","apple_news_api_id":"792234cb-13aa-4114-8654-8985c3ecca4a","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-03-03T16:31:51Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AeSI0yxOqQRSGVImFw-zKSg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2056,1874,422,1821,2291,31,2741,30,2742,1212,2599],"class_list":["post-50825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-airtag","tag-apple-u1","tag-bluetooth","tag-find-my","tag-haptics","tag-ios","tag-ios-26","tag-mac","tag-macos-tahoe-26","tag-watchos","tag-watchos-26"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50825"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51128,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50825\/revisions\/51128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}