After another scare of my cat going walkabout with a non-functioning AirTag (probably old battery, and my wife switching from iPhone to Android), I’m once again on the hunt for a working Bluetooth tracker that works with Android (specifically, with our Pixel phones).
The most recent Choice review is from circa 2022, before Google introduced their competitor for Apple’s AirTag.
The most recommended tag reviewers suggest is the Samsung tag but it requires a Samsung phone.
I bought third party tags for my “stuff” and tried a couple on the cat. All it could tell me was when he left the home area (which was infrequent). However I really wanted to know where he was going and as a result bought a Tractive Mini for cats. Its a proper GPS device. It’s already loaded with a SIM of some kind and the cost is ok on a monthly basis. What they don’t tell you is that the monthly has to be paid up front in 1, 2 oe 3 year subs. There is also an optional insurance so if kitty loses the tracker and you can’t find where he left it, you can get a free replacement. Initial cost for me was $78 from Pet Circle, but then, after registering the Tractive, another $288 (2 years GPS and insurance). It was a bit of a shock, but my initial misgivings (when I was contemplating not getting it and getting refunded for the gadget itself) gave way to wanting to know where he is when not inside. This is what he did after wailing to be let out at 3.30am.
The problem with the bluetooth trackers is that they require other phones (of whichever variety, but in my case, “FindMy”, to be on and active. Many people disable or remove it from their iphones and so the BT tags become useless.
If you still wanted to get one that isnt an airtag, I’d recommend “Keldco” an Aussie company. I bought mine via Amazon. I think Keldco is iphone specific, but on Amazon there are many different trackers. I also have a couple of ugreen ones and they work just as well as the Keldco. None of them will track where things are in your house but if you left them behind somewhere else (providing there are other phones of the right kind nearby) you might get an alert. They aren’t really intended for use on a pet that wanders.
Thank you and everyone else for your thoughtful replies.
Before asking here, I gained some experience with Tile Tags (worked for a while, even long enough to replace their batteries a couple of times), but somehow their app got messed up on our phones, so we moved on.
I also tried a GPS tracker (forgot its name), which had a SIM card so it could track the cats regardless of the availability of phones near them. It wasn’t cheap, and it required charging the battery every couple of weeks, which was a hassle (take it off the cats, charge it, make sure the cats stay home when it’s not on them, etc.).
Then we had the Apple AirTags on them, which limited us to track them only with my wife’s iPhone, and then I both suspect that their batteries ran out (they make weird rings sometimes), and my wife switched to Android, so we can’t use them anymore anyway.
So here I am - looking for something practical in terms of battery, cost, and working with Android.
I’ll try to get the Samsung tag and use it with the open-source UTag suggested here.
