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> I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base. Yeah, this functionality is the ultimate "

> I feel their model is dead in the water since they don't own the platform and can't compete on the installed base. Yeah, this functionality is the ultimate "network effect" model. While my most common use case for Tile is walking around my house with my phone to see where I've misplaced my keys, the other (and more advertised) case is that if I lose my keys while out and about, I can get notified of their location if anyone else with the Tile app installed is near my keys. The iOS and Android platforms have a huge advantage because they don't depend on having any app installed - that previous sentence just becomes "I can get notified of their location if anyone else with an iOS device (for AirTags) or Android device (for this new functionality) is near my keys." That's huge, because it means there are fewer places that won't have anyone with those phones. And now that Android has this functionality, I see more and more people switching to it from Tile, which means the Tile network will get smaller and be even less useful for the Tile users who remain.

bigiain 3y ago
> if anyone else with an iOS device (for AirTags) or Android device (for this new functionality) is near my keys. I wonder just how quickly this'll roll out over the Android devices in the wild? It needs Android 9+ it seems, which is about 80-85% of the devices from memory. I wonder if it also needs vendor updates? How quickly will Samsung/Huawei et al provide Android updates with this feature? (And will vendors be able to choose to block it?)
- jsheard 3y ago
  It's rolling out as part of Google Play Services, which is updated out of band from Android itself so just about every device should get it without any action from the manufacturer, aside from the small minority of devices running de-Googled versions of Android.

bigiain 3y ago

> if anyone else with an iOS device (for AirTags) or Android device (for this new functionality) is near my keys. I wonder just how quickly this'll roll out over the Android devices in the wild? It needs Android 9+ it seems, which is about 80-85% of the devices from memory. I wonder if it also needs vendor updates? How quickly will Samsung/Huawei et al provide Android updates with this feature? (And will vendors be able to choose to block it?)

jsheard 3y ago
It's rolling out as part of Google Play Services, which is updated out of band from Android itself so just about every device should get it without any action from the manufacturer, aside from the small minority of devices running de-Googled versions of Android.