An upcoming OS update won’t just mean new features for phones, but also something incredibly useful for the AirTag, as well.
If you’re someone who presently uses an Apple AirTag to track items in your life — maybe your keys, backpack or luggage, your kids when you’re out and about, or even using it to find the car in a crowded car park — you may have encountered one of the odd flaws Apple didn’t seemingly think of when it first engineered the tags: sharing.
Simply put, if you have a tag that you want to share with someone, you haven’t been able to.
An AirTag used in the car could only be tracked by one person, and an AirTag strapped to the wrist of a child could only be tracked by one person, as well. Luggage was in the same boat, as Apple didn’t support shared AirTags; it was one AirTag per person, which isn’t really useful for people who travel together. Great for individuals, less so for families or couples.
Fortunately change is on the horizon.
As part of the iOS 17 update coming later this year (likely alongside the iPhone 15 in September or October), Apple will have an update ready for the AirTag which will fix this problem, adding support for shared AirTags.
With iOS 17 on iPhones, everyone in a group will be able to track an item, play a sound, and use the ultra wideband precision finding that turns the iPhone into a turn-by-turn navigator of sorts to make your way to the AirTag.
That means if you have one AirTag in a car, everyone in your group will be able to find the one AirTag if they need to, and the same is true for any other AirTag registered to your group.
In short, AirTags will be treated like they’re part of a family, which is exactly the way they should be.
