AirTag for dogs and cats: does it work? (UK)

An AirTag has no GPS and no SIM card. It gives out a Bluetooth signal, and iPhones, iPads and Macs that pass nearby quietly report where it is, so you can see it on a map in the Find My app.

In a busy town that can mean frequent updates. In the countryside, or late at night when fewer people are about, the location can be hours old, because no Apple device has been close enough to pick up the signal.

When you're close, a recent iPhone can point you towards it, and you can make it play a sound. That helps if your cat is hiding in a shed or under a hedge.

• Apple designed AirTag to help people find belongings like keys and bags, not pets.
• You need an iPhone or iPad to set it up and see where it is. It doesn't work with Android phones.
• It only updates when an Apple device passes by, so it can't follow your pet live the way a GPS tracker can.
• To stop people being tracked in secret, an AirTag that's away from its owner can alert a nearby iPhone user that it's moving with them, and it can start to beep. That can happen when a dog walker or pet sitter has your pet, or when someone finds your pet and takes them home.
• It's about 3 cm across and weighs around 11 to 12 grams before you add a holder. That's a lot on a small cat's collar.
• It doesn't tell a finder who you are, unless they know to tap it with their phone (see Lost Mode below).

If your pet goes missing, you can mark the AirTag as lost in the Find My app and add your phone number. Anyone who holds a phone with NFC against the AirTag, iPhone or Android, then sees your message and number.

The catch is that the finder has to know to do that. Someone who finds a dog or cat usually looks for a tag with a phone number on it, or takes them to a vet to be scanned for a microchip. Few people think to tap a small plastic disc.

If you need to see where your pet is right now, for example a dog that slips its lead on long walks, a GPS pet tracker with its own SIM card updates live anywhere with mobile signal. It needs regular charging and usually a subscription.

An AirTag has no subscription and runs for about a year on a coin battery you replace yourself, but it only updates when an Apple device passes by.

• A microchip with up-to-date details. It's the law for dogs, and for cats in England.
• For dogs, your name and address on the collar or on a tag. That's the law in public places, and an AirTag doesn't count.
• A tag a finder can use straight away. A QR tag opens your pet's profile with any phone camera, so they can call or message you with no app and no scanner.
• For cats, a quick-release collar that pops open if it catches on something. Cats Protection advises against elastic collars.

We make QR pet tags, not trackers, so we've stuck to what Apple and Cats Protection say about how AirTags and collars work. AirTag is a trademark of Apple Inc., and PetTag isn't connected with Apple.