Can it be that Apple launched the AirTag just five years ago? It feels simultaneously that that revelation is shockingly short for a device that seems to have been a part of our lives for a long time, and also a maddeningly long time for it to soldier on without an AirTag 2.
Well, the AirTag 2 has arrived, only Apple isn’t calling it the AirTag 2. Apple is just going to keep calling it the AirTag because they feel like it, and even though the new model (which launches this week) has more range and a louder alarm, it looks identical to the outgoing model and is practically the same size.
Apple’s New AirTags Are Louder and Have Better Range
The AirTag’s—that is, the original AirTag—alarm was always a weak point. It’s so quiet that it sounds more like a bleating sheep with a throat cold than anything that could rightfully be called an alarm.
I keep an AirTag in each piece of luggage when I travel, plus one in the backpack I carry around the city. Even in a quiet room, I can barely hear its alarm when activated. The 50-percent-louder alarm in the newer model is sorely needed.
For tracking, Apple says the new AirTag uses the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which is the same chip used in the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch Series 11.
I had a reason to activate an AirTag through the Apple Find My app three weeks ago when somebody left the bar with my backpack, and by the time I noticed they were gone from the bar, my backpack (and the AirTag inside it) were out of close range. I could only watch intermittently at the Apple Maps app as its location updated infrequently.
You know when you get close enough to an AirTag, the interface on the Find My app will switch a precision mode that guides you to it? Apple says the new ‘tag has a 50 percent farther range.
I did get my backpack back, for those of you wondering. But it might’ve been easier to track down if I’d had a newer AirTag in it. The new AirTag will be available in Apple Stores later this week.
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