Which Bluetooth trackers are the best at keeping track of keys and other household items? Here are our top picks!
Updated April, 2017: Removed the Protag tracker and added the Chipolo Plus to the rest of our favorite Bluetooth trackers.
Time was you'd lose track of your keys and waste precious minutes or even hours scouring the house or office for them. Now, though, you have phones and you have Bluetooth. Put them together and you have Bluetooth trackers that go on your keys — or any other household or office item — and connect to your phone. That way, if what you're tracking ever gets lost, you're only an app and tap away from quickly, cooly finding them again. Here are our favorites!
- Tile Mate
- Chipolo Plus
- Pally Smart Finder
- MYNT Smart Tracker & Remote
- iTrack Easy
- Nut 2 Smart Tag
- Nonda iHere 3.0
Tile Mate
The easy-to-use Tile app allows you to find your keys (or anything else you've put a Tile on) on a map or have them make a sound so you can hunt them down.
The 100-foot Bluetooth range means you won't be too far away to find what you need, and since you can connect up to 10 Tiles to one iPhone, you can everything you need as well. If your keyring Tile is out of the 100-foot range, you can activate a wider search which anonymously uses the growing community of Tile users to scan for your missing Tile.
Tile is waterproof with a battery that last for up to one year, after which you will be sent replacement Tiles at a reduced cost.
Chipolo Plus
The Chipolo Plus is (for all intents and purposes) a Tile Mate clone. It's about the same height and width as the Tile Mate — it's just a circle instead of a square. That being said, it has an excellent, loud alarm (around 100dB), so you'll likely be able to find it anywhere in your house, and it has a battery life of about a year. The battery isn't replaceable, but Chipolo has a discounted renewal service to help you out.
Chipolo Plus is water-resistant at an IP5 rating, so it can withstand some splashing and even jets of water. Just don't submerge it. The handy Chipolo app can give you a fairly accurate location of your lost item, and if you're out of range, it'll show you where you had it last.
Chipolo Plus comes in seven vibrant colors, which makes it a lovely little keychain accessory. You can buy a 1-, 4-, or 7-pack, with the 4-pack saving you 30%.
Pally Smart Finder
The Pally Smart Finder eliminates battery replacement by providing two recharging options for its new fob: a USB plug or solar power. The alarm on the Pally fob is loud and clear, and the fob itself has a range of up to 150 feet. You can pair multiple fobs to the Smart Finder app and turn the Virtual Leash on or off as you need to.
The original Pally Smart Finder relies on a battery with up to two years of life and a fob range of up to 200 feet. It also has an adjustable ringer volume and uses the same Smart Finder app as the solar fob. The solar fob (pictured to the right) features a small solar panel, but the design of the original model and the updated one are otherwise similar in appearance and size.
MYNT Smart Tracker & Remote
The sleek, metallic MYNT Smart Tracker and Remote adds more to the mix than just finding your misplaced keys. Of course, the Bluetooth connection and MYNT app warn you when your keys and your phone are getting too far apart, and the alarms are easy to hear if you do lose your keys. It's water-resistant and for a few extra dollars, you can buy a colorful waterproofing cover for it.
The replaceable battery lasts up to one year and each tracker has a range of up to 150 feet. The Smart Tracker can also be used as a Remote, whether for taking selfies or syncing to your MacBook for a PowerPoint presentation. Talk about versatility.
iTrack Easy
The iTrack Easy system will sound an alarm and flash an LED light to help you find your keys. The replaceable battery lasts a little longer than the standard batteries in other trackers, thanks to Sleep Mode which can be set up for times when you don't require alerts and reminders. The iTrack Easy network uses the tracking app on your iPhone to help locate your lost keys or other items if they are out of the standard 100-foot range.
The trackers can be purchased in vibrant orange or green or regular white if you're looking to be more subtle. They also double as remote controls for the camera in your iPhone, making selfies and group shots easy.
Nut 2 Smart Tag
The Nut 2 is a slim tracker tag with low battery consumption. Available in several vibrant colors, it has a Bluetooth range of up to 100 feet. The iPhone app allows you to manage six tags, so keeping an eye on your house keys is only the beginning. Attach one to your laptop cover or gym water bottle and always be ready to head out the door.
For such a tiny tag, the alarm has powerful volume, so whether your keys wound up somewhere in the basement or at the bottom of your purse in the upstairs bedroom you'll hear it loud and clear. The Nut 2 ships with an extra battery and replacement is simple and straightforward, similar to replacing batteries in other small electronics.
Nonda iHere 3.0
You can pair up to 10 Nonda iHere trackers to the app on your iPhone and they're rechargeable, with a single charge lasting for several weeks. This discreet, white triangle tag takes up very little room on your keychain, while saving you that worrisome search every other morning.
Nonda iHere has a range of up to 150 feet and a clear alarm. The easy-to-use app includes a car finder feature, and can also be used if you've found your keys but misplaced your iPhone. The button on the tag also acts as a remote for picture-taking on your iPhone.
Never search again
Is there another Bluetooth tracker out there that's helping you keep your keys and your sanity? We'd like to hear about it in the comments below!
Reader comments
Best Bluetooth Trackers
It's a bit daft not to show prices in the article, as this makes it harder to compare.
Other than that you are basically choosing on look, and whether or not the battery is replaceable.
Prices for these products change too often for us to be able to keep track. One day, a tracker might be $14.99 and the next it's $19.99. Plus, we have readers from all over the world and it would be prohibitive to cover the price across every country.
Ya, that's what's wrong with this article. I was looking into these things when I first gone my TILE and again recently to see they were. While a replaceable battery would be nice, from reviews I've seen of all of these, and real comparison articles. The Tile is still #1 and all the others pretty much suck for a number of reasons. From customer service, to way over rated distances, sound output, etc.
The Tile overall wins hands down. Yes the better can't be replaced, but it just works and works reliably for a year or so. Something you really don't have to think about or worry about failing. When the time comes you buy a new one at a reduced reasonable price and it's brand new and the latest version. You see how beat up one gets attached to your key ring for a year, and you want to pop another battery into it and hope for the best?
I got my first one 3 years ago when I couldn't find my keys at home and so has to use my spare keys which was another issue. I later found the keys hanging from the front door. I have a metal security door in front of it, so it wasn't like out there in the open, but my keys were outside. I was holding onto things and opening the door and kind of left them there. It's not my normal way to get into my house. I normally go through the garage door as it's easier. So I have a couple of these things. On for my Truck Keyring, and one for my Motorcycle keyring. I haven't lost my keys sense. The app lets me know when one needs to be replaced and I can easily order a replacement from the app.
If you're going to buy one of these things, read reviews from a number of places, and real Comparisons between them from other sites. Don't worry so much about the ever changing prices. Don't buy based on price buy the features you want. It's not like you'll pay $100+ for one of these things.
The Pebblebee Honey is pretty nice too, about a 1 yr battery life and a multi function button (app selectable). I own one of them and the earlier, more advanced Hornet model (which was rechargeable and had a Temp sensor in addition to the Honey's features).
Chipolo! It's smaller than the others, comes in 9 different colors, has a replaceable battery, a possibility to be shared with multiple people!
The entire concept of these devices is flawed. iOS 3rd party BT integration is terrible. I had one on my keys, and the battery died with no notification. I lost my keys. This was not helpful. If integration was better, they might be useful. But the claims of them ever being useful when someone else passes your device is a pipe dream made up by marketing teams. Also battery life is crazy variable and unpredictable. Pass until the tech matures a lot more.
Well I know Tile will tell you when you need to replace yours as it told me last week. As I've been using the TILE for 2+ years now,I can tell you battery life is longer then a year. Unless you;re always playing the alarm on it which would drain the battery. I can get a replacement for $12. Or one of the newer ones for a little more. The one I have works perfectly fine. As for losing keys out in the wild? Say left them at a bar. When you walk away, the phone will show you the last place they were at before being disconnected from the Bluetooth of the phone. So you go back to that bar and track it down from there. Tile is pretty popular and so if someone that uses tile walks close enough to it, the location will be reported to you.
It does work really well. Some of the other ones are pretty poor, short range and so on. But some of them have like a GeoFence feature, which is you get to far away from your keys, your phone will warn you, or if you have your keys and get to far away from your phone, the tracker will beep at you. So the tile has really worked well for me.