You shouldn't trust Android's AirTag alternatives before Google fixes these 5 issues

Google’s Find Hub network and AirTag alternative trackers have been out for nearly two years now, and a lot has happened in this time. What started as a weak network with many bugs, inconsistencies, and unreliability issues is now a more solid, widespread, and reliable way to find your trackers — as well as your phone, buds, or smartwatch — nearly anywhere in the world.

However, Google’s network and trackers are still lagging behind the competition from Apple, Samsung, and Tile in a few key areas. I’ve been testing and comparing these trackers long enough that all of their shortcomings have become very clear. Here are six areas where Google should focus its efforts to make its network and trackers the best out there, and the most trustworthy.

A Bluetooth tracker should work over Bluetooth. Period.

OK, look, I know this sounds obvious to you and me. But it ain’t obvious to Google. For some mindboggling mystery that historians will still be talking about in 2080, Google’s Find Hub network does not work if you’re in an area with a weak signal or completely offline. You get a “Couldn’t load devices” error, and that’s it. While I understand this limitation for finding lost devices and trackers at a distance (duh), I do not understand why the network doesn’t flip over to just Bluetooth to locate nearby items.

So, here we have a bunch of Bluetooth trackers that simply can not be located over Bluetooth. Yup. You read that right. If your tracker is in the luggage hold of a train and you’re on an iffy connection, you can’t check whether the bag is still there. If you lose an item while hiking in a remote area, you can’t retrace your steps and ping your tracker til you find it. If you’ve just landed in a foreign country and don’t have a compatible SIM yet and want to check whether your luggage is nearby, you can’t. Even at home, if you happen to disconnect for a bit, your wallet, keys, or other items are not findable.

And in case you’re wondering, Apple, Tile, and Samsung have all figured out a way to make their trackers findable offline over Bluetooth. This was unforgivable in 2024. It’s a tragedy in 2026. Fix it, Google. Yesterday.

UWB, or at least Bluetooth 6.0

Ultra-wideband is the technology that makes it possible to locate a nearby tracker with precision. Instead of getting a simple sign that your tracker is near, you see the exact distance and direction it’s in, which makes it easier to locate a lost tracker in challenging conditions, whether it’s between the couch cushions or in a big shrub. Right now, though, only one tracker supports UWB on Google’s Find Hub — the Moto Tag. The others don’t.

From what I understand, all the other trackers are choosing to support both Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find Hub, and the UWB implementation between both networks isn’t compatible. So they’re choosing to skip UWB in favor of a universal product that appeals to more people. Google can circumvent this relatively easily, though.

Trackers like the Chipolo POP, CARD, and LOOP pack in Bluetooth 6.0 with Channel Sounding, which can potentially be used for more accurate distance measurement between phones and the tag. Channel Sounding can tell you exactly how far the tracker is with more accuracy than current trackers, but it doesn’t do directions. I suppose once you move a bit and see the distance increase or decrease, you’ll be able to deduce the right direction to move in. Either way, it’s better than nothing, and Google should just implement it in the Find Hub API already. The trackers are here, Android 15 added support for Bluetooth 6.0, so the stars are aligned for this to fill in the confusing gap of UWB.

Left-behind alerts are a must

A reliable tracker shouldn’t just let you find an item once you lose it; it should prevent you from losing it in the first place, as much as possible. That’s where something like a left-behind alert comes into play. When your phone walks away from a tracker, you get an instant notification reminding you to go get it. It’s excellent for wallets, keys, bags, and backpacks, and anyone with even a whiff of a forgetful tendency.

Apple, Samsung, and Tile all offer these notifications as part of their default experience. Even third-party trackers on Apple’s Find My can add it because it’s part of the API. Not on Google’s Find Hub, though. It isn’t part of the spec yet, so tracker makers have had to use their own apps to add the functionality. Chipolo, for example, asks you to download its own app on top of Find Hub to get these left-behind alerts, which requires giving the app a bunch of permissions and letting it run in the background at all times.

The whole point of centralizing these trackers was to avoid unnecessary apps with extra permissions, but by skipping this feature, Google is forcing us to go back to the old way of doing things. It should be an easy fix, and by adding it to the API, Google remains in control of the location data and battery use through Find Hub. Plus, all trackers from all brands benefit, not just those who have the resources to implement this feature.

Tracking a moving tracker shouldn’t be this hard

When Find Hub first launched, Google had missed a very important step of tracking objects: your current location in relation to the lost or misplaced item. I spent months wondering why I couldn’t see both my own location and where the tracker was on the map to orient myself, but this has been fixed since then.

There are, however, many other missing bits still. I don’t like that the default Find Hub map doesn’t show any item’s location. I have to tap on each device, accessory, or tracker once, then go back to the main map to see them appear on the main map. That’s a waste of time. Trackers and devices should appear on the map from the get-go.

The other failure point of these trackers is that the only way to navigate to them is through Maps, which — by design — takes their position at that particular moment and sticks to it. There’s no way to know if the tracker has moved in the meantime or to live-update the directions as it does. The directions are static. So if someone steals your bag and runs away, you have to keep hopping between Maps and Find Hub to get an updated direction and updated directions. To be fair, no other competitor has solved this riddle yet, but if there’s a company that should be able to make the proper link between trackers and changing map locations, it should be Google.

Reverse phone finding is another essential

In the same register as left-behind alerts, there’s the extra functionality of using your tracker’s button to find and ring your phone. It just makes sense: You have two objects that are linked, so why can you only find one, but not the other way around? Imagine you misplace your phone at home or drop it on a plane — why can’t you just simply ring it?

Samsung and Tile already offer the function for their trackers, whereas Android-compatible brands like Chipolo, Pebblebee, and Motorola had to once again resort to their own apps to implement it. You will need to have another app installed and given permission to ring your phone to benefit from the feature. Otherwise, no dice. This should be relatively easy to add to the official Find Hub spec and API, dear Google.

Bonus: Location history would be a very nice perk

The previous five features are, in my opinion, essential in making Google’s Find Hub network and its trackers more reliable, more easily recommendable, and more on par with their competition across all features and capabilities. But there’s one extra I’d still love to see Google implement: location history.

Samsung and Tile already do this. They let you see the last 24 hours or so of the tracker’s movement to see where it’s been, which can be helpful in tracking any pattern or important information to recover a lost wallet, backpack, or luggage. I understand that there are privacy concerns around this kind of feature, but anyone with nefarious intent can already manually open Find Hub every hour or so, and manually note its location. It’s not like location history provides invisible information.

Plus, I think Google should be able to implement it in a less problematic way. It could require that the tracker be marked as lost before location tracking is enabled, for example, or automatically delete any location history each time the tracker comes back within range of your device. That should limit abuse, and it would be an excellent addition to Find Hub’s capabilities.