Tile to the rescue

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I lose my keys far more often than a responsible adult should. After doing so for the umpteenth time, I decided I needed a way to locate them quickly. I recently discovered Tile, a poker chip sized tracker, that connects to your phone via Bluetooth. It’s small enough to fit on your keyring, in your wallet, or in your purse. Anytime the item attached to your Tile goes missing, you simply open the accompanying Tile App and hit the find button. The Tile then plays a melody to alert you to your missing item’s location. If for some reason you can’t hear the melody, the app also measures Bluetooth signal strength and displays your proximity to your missing item (it’s reminiscent of playing the hot/cold game as a kid). What happens if you’ve lost your Bluetooth connection to Tile and can’t activate the melody or determine your proximity to it? The Tile app uses your phone’s GPS and remembers the last location your Tile was connected to your phone. The app then displays that location on a map, making it easy to find your missing item.

What really sets Tile apart from other locators is its “search party” feature. Let’s assume for whatever reason you cannot find your missing item. You mark your Tile as missing in the app,  and suddenly every Tile user on Earth is actively (and unknowingly) searching for your missing item. If someone comes in proximity with your Tile, you are notified of its location. Tile is water resistant and has a year long battery life. It can be purchased for $25 at Tile.

11 thoughts on “Tile to the rescue”




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  2. In case anyone wonders, the battery is not replaceable.
    From their website: “After a year, we can help you recycle your old Tiles and replace them with the latest model.”

    1. Something similar is the Motorola Keylink. May not have all the functionality as the Tile (ie. Commumity find), but it does use a replaceable battery.
      www . motorola . com/us/consumers/header-accessories-more/Motorola-Keylink/keylink.html

    1. jhon – Time is our most valuable asset. It’s not about the keys – its giving you the time back to not have to look for those things – and get back to your day.

      (And if you don’t lose things that often, think of it as insurance. That one time you do, you’ll be glad you can find it fast.) – Patrick, Tile

      1. I don’t want to “rent” the item. If I can drop a button battery in once a year for an extra $3 then it may be worth it.

        1. yes – totally understand where you are coming from. We decided to go the renewal route because in the hardware space, innovation happens quick. We don’t want to leave you hanging with a IOT device that is not compatible with the newer phones – plus, we can upgrade the components every year so you always have the latest & greatest. After talking to a lot of industry experts, we deciding going the route of legacy type trackers with replaceable batteries was not the way to go for the best customer experience.

          Additionally on a minor note, by taking full responsibility of the lifecycle of the product, we can ensure replaceable batteries do not end up in the landfill.

          Hope you are able to find what you are looking for. Cheers

          Tile Team

          1. Thanks for the reply and explanation. That just doesn’t work for me but could for others. I’m not your target customer and I hope I didn’t put off any potential customers.

  3. Steven Broyde

    I find the tile pretty useless. Sorry I bought the set. The ‘ping’-like sound it emits is so inaudible I can’t hear it until I’m practically top of it. It’s also pretty clunky and not very nicely designed IMHO. Ditto the non-replaceable battery. Patrick, it’s an interesting thought about time lost. I try to pay more attention to what I do– be mindful and misplace less. Not always a winning effort.

  4. If only I could attach a Tile to all my kids’ stuff. Homework, socks, favorite Lego mini-figures… Then I wouldn’t have to answer “What am I, Google?!” when they say “Moooom, have you seen my ____?”

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