Tile scrambling to compete with AirTag, joins Amazon’s Sidewalk network

As Apple’s AirTag steals the Bluetooth device tracking thunder that previously belonged to Tile, the latter company isn’t giving up without a fight.

A new partnership between Tile and Amazon looks to expand the company’s reach by adding more devices to its network. Amazon’s sidewalk network is only available in the U.S., but it should help Tile use Echo devices and other Amazon hardware to beef up its mesh network of Tile trackers.

Tile’s tracking network has always been great at finding lost items but compared to the billion of iPhones and other Apple products globally, it likely won’t be as robust as the Cupertino, California-based company’s ‘Find My’ network. We also know that Tile is skeptical of its ability to compete with Apple on a fair playing field given the tech giant controls the App Store and the Apple device ecosystem.

This means that if you lose your keys in a U.S. household with an Echo, you should be able to find them in the Tile app following a June 14th update that will tie the two systems together.

Sidewalk is slightly different from Tile’s existing network that uses Bluetooth Low-Energy and, in the future, may unlock several cool features. For instance, if you have multiple Echo devices and ask Alexa to find your Tile, it can tell you what device it’s closer to.

While this doesn’t offer as much accuracy as Apple’s U1-enabled devices, hopefully, it makes its way to Canada this year.

Source: CNBC