Samsung's SmartTag 3 is smaller, smarter, and iPhone-friendly

The smart tracker market is a highly competitive one, and Samsung knows that it needs to keep innovating if it wants to maintain its spot as one of the biggest players in the industry. With the new SmartTag 3, the tech giant is doing just that.

Samsung just unveiled its latest tracker, and unlike its two predecessors, it finally expands beyond Samsung’s own ecosystem.

For starters, iPhone users can now use the SmartTag 3 with the SmartThings app. Note that the iOS experience isn’t identical to Android, with Compass View, Ring Phone, and Left Behind Alerts excluded. Still, iOS users with a Samsung SmartTag 3 will be able to leverage the tracker’s core finding and sharing features, which alone make the new tag a lot more capable choice than its predecessors and several other Android-only trackers on the market.

The SmartTag 3 clearly shouldn’t be an Apple iPhone user’s first choice, but unlocking cross-OS support does have some niche advantages, especially in mixed Android/iPhone households. Alternatively, if you switch to an iPhone down the line after being a Galaxy user, your perfectly good tracker wouldn’t suddenly become useless.

And for those who’ve used Samsung’s previous trackers (this wasn’t really a concern for us on the SmartTag and SmartTag 2), the company is making the SmartTag 3 smaller — considerably smaller. While being thinner than its predecessors, the SmartTag 3 ditches its loop, making it 35% smaller and 33% lighter, too. At the same time, it is more battery-efficient.

For reference, the SmartTag 2’s battery life is rated for 500 days (700 on battery saver). The SmartTag 3 takes that up to 550 days (790 on battery saver). Some trade-offs come with using Battery Saver, including the inability to use Compass View and volume/ringtone controls, leaving only basic Bluetooth LE finding available.

If and when a tag does leave your phone’s direct connection range, Samsung’s Galaxy Find Network, with over 900 million devices, will take over and ping your tag’s location. And when you do get close to a lost tag, a new enhanced compass view will guide you toward its exact location. Directional finding can work up to 200 feet away, roughly three times farther than on the previous generation.

The improvement reportedly comes from a combination of Ultra-Wideband and Bluetooth 6.0 channel sounding, though we’d have to put Samsung’s claims to the test first to see how much of a difference the upgrade makes in real-world use, especially considering that Bluetooth Channel Sounding with the SmartTag 3 is only available on select Galaxy phones.

Elsewhere, Place Notifications is an all-new feature making its debut with the new tag. Essentially a geofencing feature, it allows users to define a specific area and receive an alert whenever a Samsung SmartTag 3 enters or leaves it. Think of use cases like getting notified when your pet wanders out of your yard, or when your child’s bicycle leaves your immediate neighborhood.

Samsung will sell the new tracker in black and white, with silicone and loop-style cases also available at an additional cost. A single SmartTag 3 will cost $29.99, while a four-pack will cost $99.99. The SmartTag 3 is expected to be available in the US by early November.