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Comment by duskwuff | Hacker News Reader

This isn't suitable for pets. The crowdsourced Bluetooth tracking will only really work for objects which will stay in one place when lost -- which pets are notorious for not doing.

For finding a lost pet, you really want something with cell reception and a GPS for real-time location. There's a number of products which specifically provide this, like the Whistle dog tag. Unfortunately, they're bulkier and require relatively frequent charging, but that's the price you pay for that functionality.

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What, no. It literally shows the device on the map moving from ping to ping in san francisco on the airtags website.

What are the odds your pet will be within range of an iOS device?

Perhaps intermittently if in a busy urban environment, quickly heading to nil if in a more rural area.

Yeah I guess it’s time for dogs to have their own iPhones.

iDog?

The alternative is none, so I'd rather take the chance.

I used tractive. It is bulky and requires daily charging making it not so good for cats. I will likely play with Air Tag, as my cats usually travel in highly populated areas, so they should be seen by many people.

Would you like to hear the lecture about why cats should be kept indoors now? Or have you already heard and ignored it many times?

:-) I think the cats need the lecture more than I do. Seriously though, the scientific community seems to be split on the subject. Cats clearly prefer outside for approx. half of the time, the other half eating and sleeping at home. I own a house with huge garden, doors are open, cats are where they want to be.

Would you like to hear the reasons to let cats outside, or have you already heard and ignored them many times?

I'd actually like to hear one good reason, sure.

Giving them more activities to do and the greatly increased exercise are the two big ones. Even if you think it's better to keep a cat inside, there are strong reasons in either direction. People that let their cats outside aren't just being dumb.

I do this but I feel like Im keeping them from living life to the fullest. They’ll live more but at what cost?

in lost mode the tracking frequency goes to real time.

Unfortunately Whistle doesn't work in areas with poor coverage. And then there's the battery issues. A tag would at least be a good redundancy solution.

AirTags depends on other users with iOS devices to track devices out of range of your phone. If you're in an area with limited to no cell coverage, there probably aren't many people wandering around with iOS devices either -- especially not ones with cell connectivity to upload the locations where they spotted your tag.

That does get to an issue I was wondering about: how long does it remember and does it associate each ping with a geo tag?

We live the mountains with poor coverage and a dog who at one time was a wizard at escaping and getting lost.

Yet we do have people all around, so I think the iphone solution would work, even if it was delayed. At least I would have an idea of where to start searching. I bought every lower than professional level device and they all just didn't work here.

Whistle is pretty good tho and I have been really happy with the functionality for the price.

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