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My cat disappeared for 16 hours today, had no idea where he was. He has a heart issue so I was worried he went off and died. Would I be able to use AirTags to s

My cat disappeared for 16 hours today, had no idea where he was. He has a heart issue so I was worried he went off and died. Would I be able to use AirTags to see where he was throughout the day or not? Obviously I could see where he is right now, but could I see where he roamed off to through the course of the day? I know that others have mentioned that no location data is stored on the device, but what if I want to use it to see lat/long data points over time, like a time series device, is this possible? Crazy to think my cat's privacy is being proactively protected by Apple haha

dylan604 6y ago
I think the GPS collars would be better for this
- arthurcolle 6y ago
  Didn't realize this was a product segment, thanks! Do you have a recommendation by any chance? Seems to be a lot of participants in this space, but not really sure which one is the most legit.
  - dylan604 6y ago
    I don't have any personal experience. I had adopted a cat that came with the house I moved into a few years ago, and she was one to roam the neighborhood. Out of curiosity, I wondered if there were products to do that kind of tracking, and yes there are. Some require a cloud type of service. Some require you to download the data. They all require getting the cat to wear the collar, and this one was not going to put up with that kind of domestication one bit.
nexuist 6y ago
The AirTag network requires other Apple devices to be nearby in order to register the location. The chip itself doesn't have any GPS capabilities. Ultimately it depends where your cat usually goes; if he's surrounded by people or hanging out around sidewalks chances are someone with an iPhone will walk by and automatically update his location. If he's in the forest or in rural areas without any tech nearby, AirTags won't help you until he gets back into civilization.
- arthurcolle 6y ago
  Useful to know. I might be too ADHD/impatient when I am scrolling across Apple marketing pages, but I couldn't seem to easily find a "tech spec"/diagram that showed the mechanism in action. It sure is getting hard to find a way to perform intelligence operations on my cat's secret business....
theshrike79 6y ago
> I know that others have mentioned that no location data is stored on the device, but what if I want to use it to see lat/long data points over time, like a time series device, is this possible? No data is stored on the device, because the device doesn't know where it is :) It's just a beacon shouting "I'M HERE" at certain intervals. If an iDevice spots the shout, it'll add a GPS location to the message and send it to Apple. (Yes there's a bunch of encryption and changing IDs too, but that's the basic idea)
- arthurcolle 6y ago
  Thanks, useful to know. I read a little bit more about the design of the system/apparatus and it seems like it's not really the intended use case (history of where something was vs. where something is right now that you are looking to find)

dylan604 6y ago

I think the GPS collars would be better for this

arthurcolle 6y ago
Didn't realize this was a product segment, thanks! Do you have a recommendation by any chance? Seems to be a lot of participants in this space, but not really sure which one is the most legit.
- dylan604 6y ago
  I don't have any personal experience. I had adopted a cat that came with the house I moved into a few years ago, and she was one to roam the neighborhood. Out of curiosity, I wondered if there were products to do that kind of tracking, and yes there are. Some require a cloud type of service. Some require you to download the data. They all require getting the cat to wear the collar, and this one was not going to put up with that kind of domestication one bit.

nexuist 6y ago

The AirTag network requires other Apple devices to be nearby in order to register the location. The chip itself doesn't have any GPS capabilities. Ultimately it depends where your cat usually goes; if he's surrounded by people or hanging out around sidewalks chances are someone with an iPhone will walk by and automatically update his location. If he's in the forest or in rural areas without any tech nearby, AirTags won't help you until he gets back into civilization.

arthurcolle 6y ago
Useful to know. I might be too ADHD/impatient when I am scrolling across Apple marketing pages, but I couldn't seem to easily find a "tech spec"/diagram that showed the mechanism in action. It sure is getting hard to find a way to perform intelligence operations on my cat's secret business....

theshrike79 6y ago

> I know that others have mentioned that no location data is stored on the device, but what if I want to use it to see lat/long data points over time, like a time series device, is this possible? No data is stored on the device, because the device doesn't know where it is :) It's just a beacon shouting "I'M HERE" at certain intervals. If an iDevice spots the shout, it'll add a GPS location to the message and send it to Apple. (Yes there's a bunch of encryption and changing IDs too, but that's the basic idea)

arthurcolle 6y ago
Thanks, useful to know. I read a little bit more about the design of the system/apparatus and it seems like it's not really the intended use case (history of where something was vs. where something is right now that you are looking to find)