How many times have you misplaced, or worse yet – lost – something of great value to you such as your car keys, purse or your child’s favorite plush toy?
That was one of my biggest fears when our son was little. He had a plush toy – a cat he named “Bear” – that he took everywhere with him. Bear was his best friend. Had I known he was going to get so attached to this particular plush animal I would have stocked up and purchased a spare or two just in case he lost it.
Thankfully Bear was never lost. Our son is 16+ now and we still have Bear. He’s safely tucked away inside the closet. Every now and then I bring him out to show our son. I think he’s a little embarrassed by it. Maybe one day Bear will have a new best friend – our future grandchild?
Our daughter recently got her first car, compliments of her boyfriend’s parents. It’s a great car and we appreciate the kind gesture. The only problem is that there is only one key. They can’t find the spare. Until we have the money to buy a spare from the car dealership (about $40), we have to stress over her misplacing her car keys. If she loses them we have no way to get into her car, or driver her car.
Imagine if there was an easy way to find things that can possibly get lost? There is! It’ called Tile.
Tile is a tiny, sleek Bluetooth tracker with an accompanying app that helps people to keep tabs on their important belongings.
Tile is about the size of a book of matches. It’s a small, lightweight, square piece of plastic. You can attach it to the valuable item you want to keep track of via a key chain ring (you’ll need to attach you own) or you can place a piece of adhesive on the back of it and tack it to the item you want to keep track of.
If this was for our son’s plush I would have put it on the toy’s neck like it was a necklace.
After you have attached the Tile to the item you want to keep track of you need to download the FREE accompanying app. Then you need to pair the Tile with your device (smartphone, tablet…) via Bluetooth. Once that is done you are ready to go.
Tile does not have GPS built into it (something I thought it did). Instead it communicates with the app to show it’s location. It has a range of up to 100 feet, meaning you can be 100 feet from the item that is lost and the app will be able to pick up it’s location.
On the app it will show you where the item is. If you should happen to be outside the 100 foot range, the app will show you the last known location to aid you in tracking it down.
If you should happen to be too far out of range you can reply on the Tile community to help locate the missing items. You don’t need to send out a message, or even interact with other people. If someone with the app happen to come within 100 feet of your missing item, the app will sense it and send you an alert to show it’s location.
I think that is a cool feature. I especially like that you don’t have to make others aware of your lost item. After all, you don’t want a stranger to go looking for your cellphone or laptop. No one will realize that the app on their phone is alerting YOU to where you lost item is.
The downside to this is that if you live in a rural or low populated area, there might not be any Tile users nearby. For that reason I think that feature is best suited for people who live in big cities where many Tile members will be found.
Another thing that I think is a “negative” with Tile is that you can’t replace or recharge the batteries. After about a year the batteries will die out and you’ll have to replace the entire unit.
If you find that your item is lost, you can trigger Tile from your phone and the Tile will emit a loud noise to help you hear where it’s located. I played with this and found the sound easy enough to hear and not loud enough to be obnoxious sounding, especially in a public place.
You can also do a reverse tracking with Tile. If you happen to misplace you phone, but you have your Tile, simply press the Tile and it will trigger a sound on your phone to help you locate it.
I should also recommend that you can use multiple Ties and track them all from the same app. You could put one on each family’s members keys.
I think Tile is best suited for items you misplace on a regular basis (car keys, purse, wallet) and maybe your luggage if you travel a lot. This is perfect for our daughter since she only has one set of keys. She currently has it on her key chain which she currently has at work with her.
For someone who misplaces things often I would recommend Tile. If you rarely misplace things, you could probably pass on Tile.
For more information visit www.TheTileApp.com. You can also find the Tile brand on social media. The links are found at the bottom of their website.
You can purchase Tile on the Tile website (you can save $$$ on purchasing multiple Tiles at the same time). You can also find Tile on Amazon, should you want to purchase it as a Mother’s Day gift and want expedited shipping (Amazon Prime members get free two say shipping).
What do you think about Tile? Does it sound like a device you need?
Kimberly
*I received a free product sample to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.