Tile (Gen 2) - Phone Finder. Key Finder. Item Finder - 4 Pack (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

by people ...

Product Specifications

Tile is a tiny Bluetooth tracker and easy-to-use app that finds your phone, keys, and anything you don’t want to lose - in seconds.
Attach a Tile to an item and locate it by sound, by seeing its last known location on a map, or by marking it as “lost” and getting an alert when it’s found.
Find your phone! Simply press Tile to make your lost phone ring - even if it’s on silent.
Keep track of phones, tablets, keys, wallets, luggage, purses, backpacks, cameras, remote controls, kids toys, and more.
Reduce frustration, and save hours of frantic searching with Tile

Product Description

Size:4- Pack For those days when the remote control seems to have walked off the face of the planet, there’s Tile. Tile is a tiny Bluetooth tracker and easy-to-use app that locates everyday items-like your phone, keys, and wallet-in seconds. Spend less time exploring that lost world behind your seat cushions and more time doing the things you love. Never worry about charging or replacing the battery for at least a year - it just works with zero upkeep.

Product Reviews

A comprehensive comparison of tracking devices: Tile, Nut, Trackr & Mynt

A little background: I’m the kind of person who would lose her head if it wasn’t attached to her shoulders. OK, not that bad, but my mind can hold a million and one random academic facts, but not the current location of my keys or glasses. So, I was so thankful I was given the opportunity to review several tracking devices, in return for discounts. (I was able to get these offers on Trackr, Mynt & Nut, but not Tile–I bought a lightly used one on eBay just to include it in the comparison, because my review would not be complete without this brand, which is the industry leader currently).I will post pictures at the bottom of them together, side-by-side, so you can see the size and thickness comparison of each (note that the Mynt–the black oval one– is stuck to my key fob). From one end to the other, you’ll see: Tile, Nut, Trackr Bravo, Mynt, a quarter for size comparison (apologies for upside down pics). Also posted will be my screenshot from the app of this particular brand.To follow are my assessment for different qualities and my thoughts on how the brands compared. At the bottom of this review will be any specific stories about the particular brand I’m reviewing here. All 4 allow both the phone to find the device and the device to find the phone, but work to varying degrees, which I’ll cover separately.SIZE: Surface-area-wise, Trackr Bravo was the smallest, though Mynt is narrow and long (oval); followed by Nut and Tile, the biggest. Thickness-wise, Mynt wins out (truly is about 2 quarters thick), with Trackr Bravo a close second. Again, Tile is thickest, though its size still isn’t obtrusive on a key chain at all (you may not want to insert it into a wallet, though). All 4 can be either attached to a keychain or adhered to something with the included sticky tabs (the Mynt is shown here attached to my key fob).RELIABILITY–PHONE FINDING DEVICE: All 4 worked decently well for this function, though I haven’t tested it over varying distances yet (will update when I do). I did test it by having my mom hide the devices under clothes and such, and I would be in a different room with the phone. I did not find much difference in this function. I will say that the GPS locater for Tile & Mynt were spot-on. Trackr’s GPS sometimes pointed my device as being located in a Walmart about 2 miles down the road, sometimes at the right place at home. Nut’s GPS only uses the last known location of the object, so even after I lost it in upstate NY, it still pointed to the object being in NJ, where it clearly wasn’t.RELIABILITY–DEVICE FINDING PHONE: Here’s where the real differences came out. All 4 devices (including Tile 2.0, but not 1.0) can use the device to find the phone when you press them–or should, in theory. Tile was the only one that did this 100% of the times I tried within a 100 foot range. Mynt wasn’t doing this all the time until I reset it–now, it’s been pretty much 100% of the time also, though I will update as I use it more. Nut and Trackr were EXTREMELY spotty/sketchy, especially through walls. Some days, the unit could be right by the phone, and I could not get the phone to ring. Trackr in particular was set to music, and you could tell the music would come in and out for a split second, like as if you had a distant radio station on that had almost no reception. Of note here: you must have the sound on for some to work (but not for Tile, which can ring it even set to silent mode), and for all 4, you MUST ENABLE BLUETOOTH AT ALL TIMES. They use low energy Bluetooth technology to connect, so if you’re like me and sometimes turn Bluetooth off to save energy–forget about it if you want to ever find your phone this way. Lastly, you MUST REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE APPS RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND IN ORDER FOR THEM TO WORK–well, ALL EXCEPT MYNT, I believe (they don’t mention this, and I did try with the closed apps; Mynt was the only one that could connect with the phone).DEVICE SOUND: Out of the 4, Tile 2.0 has the loudest sound on the device (an improvement in the internal speaker was made after 1.0, which is why the new ones have 3 tiny holes in the back). Coming in second by my ear was Mynt, followed by Nut. The Trackr was the hardest to hear, especially if your item is buried under a pile of clothes or inside a purse or something. The small alarm is also high-pitched, at a frequency elder adults would have great trouble detecting.BATTERY LIFE: Tile lost big points in this category, because it was near perfect all around otherwise (except for size, but it was still smallish). It’s the only one that has no battery replacement option; it is basically a disposable item. For $25 (probably after a year), might not suit everyone. The others have coin batteries you can change fairly easily, so we are talking only a dollar or two (a big difference from $25). So far, Trackr seems to be eating batteries fast (some say they need to replace every 3 months?? not near to the manufacturer’s estimate of a year). Mynt & Trackr do both have battery monitors that read how much life is still left, but only Mynt has an exact % reading and the reading appears to be more accurate than Trackr’s.CROWDSOURCING TO FIND: I can’t confirm this, but Trackr claims to have the largest population to use crowdsourcing to find the devices once they are declared lost. Tile is very popular and right up there as well, I’m sure. I am under the impression that Nut does not have a huge following in the USA, though I’m lacking data to that effect (I will say the one I declared lost in Cornell, 0 people have tried to track). Mynt, I’m not sure about. There’s no info in the app itself about crowdfind, but their website mentions this option for lost units.SEPARATION/ANTI-LOST ALERTS: I noticed that Nut, Trackr & Mynt all have these options; still yet to find it in Tile (someone please let me know if it has this option, I can’t see it in the app). These 3 send a notification if the object gets separated from your phone by a distance or out of your home wifi range. Nut also has a Silent period in addition to a Silent region (that the other 2 have); that means: no separation alerts within the time range you specify. Good to have, because Nut & Trackr were constantly giving me false alarms when I hadn’t even moved the objects they were attached to; and both were sitting next to the phone, unmoved (further making me think them to be unreliable).EASE OF USE IN APP: All of the apps were pretty user-friendly, I’d say. They all have different menus that take some getting used to. All 4 use GPS location finders in your smartphone to display maps (though the accuracy of the locations, as I said, vary). All 4 were easy to bind to my device(s) initially. Trackr is the only one that is integrated with Nest. It also has software which keeps track of how often you ring your device from your phone and vice versa, how many separation alerts you had, etc. It also has a little range-finder that tells you if you are getting closer and farther from the object (I call it a “Marco Polo” function), but in practice, I can’t get it to work too well until you’re practically on top of the object. Mynt has a TON of customability options for alarm sounds, volume, and what you use it for, etc. I will speak more about this in my Nut-specific review, but I really hate that if you declare a unit lost, you are forced to disable tracking from your own phone–makes no sense.OTHER FUNCTIONS: So far as I can tell, Mynt is the only one that has other options of use, including as a remote shutter for your phone camera, remote for a slide show, playing music, etc. All 4 claim they can also be used to find your car, pet, or child. I believe they all claim to be water resistant, though not submerged underwater. Tile used to be totally waterproof (since it is the only one with no battery drawer), but now the price of the small speaker holes may be that it is slightly less so (though I would guess it could withstand some rainstorms; the pin holes are truly tiny).Sorry about that long general comparison, but here’s my specific assessment of Tile: I really love this device and find it one of the most reliable for finding my phone each and every time. Why did I then take off a star?? One reason and one reason alone–the inability to change the battery. This is huge for me–and makes it basically a disposable item, one that I have to pay $25 at least once a year to replace (as opposed to a few cents for a battery, as with the others). The larger size did not bother me, because I still find this to be an unobtrusive piece; modern-looking and simplistic, easy to use, has great crowd GPS functions, very accurate location-mapping, etc compared to the others. Does it have room for improvement besides my complaint? Certainly–and Tile (with its history of being a startup by crowdfunding) is known for its responsiveness to user complaints and Tile 2.0 proves this. Therefore, I have high hopes that they will come out with a changeable battery version in the future, one which will earn that last star back. But as it stands today, Mynt edged out Tile by a hair, since both were highly reliable, but Mynt has battery replaceability, is smaller, and has other alternate functions (and costs slightly less retail per unit). I honestly loved using both, I just wish that Tile would work on the battery issue.

Surprisingly great

——-Update June 4th, 2017: just a quick note to say that I’ve replaced this tile with the new Tile Mate for my cat, but I kept this old one for my purse just because (why send it in to be “recycled” if it’s still working, right?). 18 months in and it’s still working great. Will update again when the battery runs out.——–I bought this as a pet tracker even though they don’t necessarily recommend it for that use. I have a cat that tends to wander off but never very far. I figured with a 100 foot radius + me walking around enough I’d be able to track her down.I tested it like crazy with all her usual hiding spots to make sure it’d work for me and that I wouldn’t have to return it and was very impressed with the range. I didn’t actually measure, but I counted my steps; 95 steps away and it still kept a connection. However, once it lost the connection I had to take 10-15 steps to get it to re-connect. Still…not bad!Before I put it on her collar, several times a day I’d activate it with her nearby so it plays its tune, and I’d give her a treat. Hoping she’d learn to hear the tune and come home for a treat. Well that part worked. When she’s in range, I click “find” to play the tune and she runs home for her treat. Or perhaps she’s running home because she’s freaked out about this music that’s chasing her. Either way, success!The only downfall is that sometimes she’s 10 feet away and it will say “out of range”. If I stand there long enough it does usually connect, but it’s frustrating to wait for it to catch up. Also, the dotted circle that’s supposed to tell you if you’re getting hot or cold isn’t always very accurate. So I find myself walking back and forth quite a bit feeling like I’m being punk’d by my own cat.All in all, it’s surpassed my expectations. I’ve been able to find her every time. Sometimes it takes a lot longer since it has trouble connecting at times. I’d give it 4.5 stars if I could, but since I can’t, I’ll give it 5 since I’m using it for something it’s not even advertised to do, and it’s still doing it quite well.Update 9/16/16: well I’ve had the Tile for almost a year now and I still think this thing is pretty wonderful. It has its moments where it just won’t connect, sometimes for hours, but that’s very rare. For the most part it’s been really solid. I wanted to share what just happened a little while ago. It was around 8pm and my cat was nowhere to be seen. Very unusual for her. She never wants to be outside when it’s dark. So I grabbed my phone and went searching in her usual spots. Nothing. Finally I see my Tile app shows her as nearby and connects so I can ring her Tile. I could just barely hear it ringing but finally found that the ringing was coming from a neighbor’s garage! Our garages are lined up in the alley behind our condos and without the Tile I never would have even thought to look near the garages, and I never would have known which one she was in. There’s a stretch of about 50 of them. As soon as I went up to the garage door and called her she meowed her little head off. I was able to ask the owner to open the door so I could get her out. Without the tile I would have been up all night looking for her and worried sick and what if the owner of that garage was not planning to open it for several days?! I get sick even thinking about it. So.. Here I am ordering 2 more tiles for my other cats even though they never go anywhere. I will just feel better if they have them. Tile has a customer for life right here, especially after tonight!

First Time Tile User Impressions

When I first saw the Tile (as a kickstarter project I think), I thought it looked awesome. After having tested the Tile, there’s a few things I wish it had, and a few trouble spots.1. Needs User replaceable batteriesWhen the battery goes out, you have buy a new Tile at a reduced price. I wish that you could replace the battery with a standard watch battery.It seems like a big waste to have to buy a new one. The battery lasts for a year. Times the replacement price by how many tiles you have, and they’ve basically got a subscription model on their hands.2. Tile Thickness is too muchThis being the second generation Tile, I thought it’d be smaller and thinner.It’s very well designed and looks great, but you almost need a special key ring for this thing because the Tile is so thick. I have a hard enough time just trying to get a new key on a key ring.3. Location services (now who can track me)I disabled location services. I don’t need one more device (and company) knowing where I’m going. The device still works without it. Turing off the location services just means it can’t find your phone when you press the “e”.4. No sticky stuffSome of the advertising says you can stick the Tile to stuff, but mine didn’t come with any adhesives, just the tile.5. Additional Keyring neededSince the Tile is so thick, it would have been handy if it came with a keyring that was made for it.All that said, the Tile is a great device. Hopefully this review has helped manage expectations a bit.

Two Stars

Worked for about 6 months, hard to get response for help with item

If you don’t have a Tile go out and get one today🙂

Love the tile, I have replaced my keys and couldn’t find them, keys feel into a pile of clothes and I went to my phone and went to the tile app and pushed on it and there was the…