Apple has long tried to ignore the existence of Android whenever possible. Android is an afterthought at best, but at other times Apple’s willful ignorance can have serious repercussions. One example is the controversy surrounding Apple AirTags and the ease with which they can be exploited for stalking.
AirTags’ greatest strength, the breadth of Apple’s Find My network, is also its greatest weakness. Because there are so many iPhones in the world, and every iPhone can detect nearby AirTags, finding a lost AirTag is much easier than a competing tracker. They can only be detected by phones that have the appropriate app installed, of which there are far fewer.
This unfortunate downside is that AirTags have been exploited to track people, mostly women, without their knowledge and to a terrifying degree. This has forced Apple to act, releasing various updates designed to ensure unknown AirTags can be found quickly and easily. But, like so many other Apple efforts, these updates are exclusively targeting iPhone users.
Unfortunately, terrible people don’t discriminate based on the type of phone you’re using. If a stalker wants to track someone using AirTags, their victim’s phone choice will not be taken into account. Apple needs to do a lot more to prevent AirTags from being used to track people whose only crime is not owning an iPhone.
Apple did nothing, but it’s not enough
If you have an iPhone, detecting AirTags that seem to be following you is quite simple. If iPhone detects that the AirTag has been with you for a while or is moving with you, you will receive an alert notifying you that there is an unknown AirTag nearby. Manually triggering a search for unknown devices in the Find My app is also an option.
Apple needs to do a lot more to prevent AirTags from being used to track people whose only crime is not owning an iPhone.
Once an unauthorized AirTag is detected, you can use the Find My app to force the tag to make a sound or track it down with Precision Tracking.
This all depends on Apple’s Find My app, which isn’t available on Android. To its credit, Apple didn’t completely ignore Android devices and launched the Tracker Detect app in December 2021. Unfortunately. this application does not run in the background, unlike Find My, and only allows you to start a manual scan.
It’s not nothing, but it relies on people being continually proactive and looking for AirTags that may or may not be nearby. More to the point. the Android app can’t tell the difference between AirTags that are tracking you and those that might be in the area by sheer coincidence, which limits its usefulness.
Similarly, Apple has updated AirTags so that they start making noise whenever they spend too much time away from one of their owners’ devices. However, this only triggers after 24 hours, and that’s plenty of time for a stalker to do something malicious or see enough of your routine to take action later.
As many reviewers have noted, an AirTag’s beep isn’t particularly loud. If it was hidden well, you could easily not hear it.
What else can Apple do against AirTag and Android harassment?
One thing Apple could do is offer Android users the ability to track AirTags from their phones. The upside being that this app could work in the background to scan for unknown AirTags and provide Android users with a level of security similar to what iPhone users currently enjoy.
Google previously announced that it was working on some sort of tracker security feature that will be incorporated into Android, but there has been no word on this since the middle of last year. Also, given that even Apple’s AirTag updates depend on phones updating, and given the mess of Android’s OEM updates, a bunch of people probably won’t have access to them before a few years.
Asking Apple to step in and come up with a viable AirTag sniffing app on Android isn’t unreasonable, and it’s certainly possible. In fact, there is a third-party app called AirGuard (opens in a new tab), which is able to detect and notify you of any stray trackers that appear to be following you. This includes Apple’s AirTags, other devices connected to Find My, and competing products like Tile.
It’s not perfect, and it takes a while to alert you that an unknown tracker is nearby, but the fact that it can do this automatically (after setup) means it’s a cut above. above what Apple offers Android users. The best part is that AirGuard is free, which isn’t always true with other apps that advertise themselves as AirTag detectors.
However, given all the issues and reports of AirTag harassment, there should be no need for a third party to step in and cover up Apple’s failures.
Preventing AirTag harassment shouldn’t be the end
This problem stems from a larger problem. The fact that if you’re not an iPhone user, you’re almost irrelevant to Apple.
Sometimes Apple throws Android users a bone in very weird ways. Apple Music is available on Android, but Apple TV Plus is not. AirPods can be used with an Android phone, but without the special iPhone-centric features, but you can’t purchase and track your own AirTag unless you also have an iPad or Mac.
Apple has also stubbornly refused to admit that Apple/Android messaging needs to be more secure and feature-rich than regular SMS and MMS. The the company killed an attempt to bring iMessage to Android and declined to implement more secure RCS messaging on iPhones. You shouldn’t talk to people who use Android; Apparently, you should buy iPhones from them instead.
Android users are out there, and they’re pretty obvious – iMessage’s green bubbles have seen to that. It’s high time that Apple lifted its head from the sand and recognized them a little better. Even if it’s just to make sure they’re not endangered by horrible people wielding AirTags.
What to do if you find a strange AirTag
There are several ways to find malicious AirTags, but if you ever find one on your person, make sure you do it the right way. The first thing to do is push the center of the back panel and remove it by rotating the panel counterclockwise. This gives you access to the CR2032 battery, which you need to remove. Without the battery, the AirTag will be completely inactive.
The AirTag’s serial number is also visible from the inside. You should make a recording of it and then report the whole incident to the police. Keep this AirTag safe (minus the battery) and turn it over to the cops if they ask. Apple may use the serial number to identify the original owner of the AirTags and direct law enforcement to take appropriate action.