Raise your hand if you’ve ever misplaced your keys or forgotten your bag in a cab. Or discovered after landing at your destination that your luggage has been left behind by the airline. Apple AirTags and other trackers that work with Apple’s Find My network are the perfect solution. These diminutive tracking devices can only be utilised by iPhone users though. In the meantime, Google’s own Find My network that enables Ultra-wideband (UWB) trackers to work with Android phones is seeing a slow rollout globally. Jio however, has a tracker that works with iPhones and Android smartphones both, but there’s a catch. I’ve been trying out the new JioTag Air for a few days now, and here’s how it fares.
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What is the JioTag Air?
JioTag Air is a new Bluetooth tracker that comes from Jio’s stable, and is a tiny little device fashioned out of plastic that can be attached to your bag or a set of keys using the bundled lanyard. It’s available in three colours, and is priced affordably at Rs 1,499.
Powered by a standard CR2032 button cell, you can use it with either an iPhone, or an Android smartphone, to keep track of items and where they are. Jio includes a spare battery in the pack, and is promising up to a year’s battery life. Apart from the usual use cases like keys and bags, you could attach it to a pet’s collar, place it inside check-in luggage or a car, or inside a child’s pocket, or anything else prone to being misplaced. How it works
You can choose to set up the JioTag Air using the Find My app on an iPhone, just like an Apple AirTag. The process is easy peasy and doesn’t involve any rocket science. Once the tracker has been set up, it gets linked to your Apple ID and, and you can find it using your iPhone’s Bluetooth provided it’s within range. The tracker also becomes part of the Apple Find My network. And then you can see its location on the map displayed in the Find My app, thanks to the Cupertino giant’s network that uses Apple devices in the vicinity to report its location. You can also use the Find My app to play a sound on the JioTag Air, giving you an audio alert to help find whatever it’s attached to, provided it’s in close proximity. The app shows you the last connected location, lets you enable Lost Mode, and even allows you to share the tracker with another iPhone user so they can check its location as well. When you enable Lost Mode, you’ll get a notification when the device’s location becomes available, and allows you to leave a phone number or email where you can be contacted (say by another iPhone user who finds it). All of this is quite similar to what you can do with an Apple AirTag as well.
However, that’s not the only way to use the JioTag Air. Instead of using Apple’s Find My, you can instead set up the tracker using the JioThings app, making it a part of the JioThings Community Find network. Notably, JioThings is the companion app for Jio’s IoT devices, and is available both for iOS as well as Android. So if you’ve set up the JioTag Air using the JioThings app (on an iPhone or an Android), its location can be relayed to you via any other device (iOS or Android) that has the JioThings app set up.
The catch however, is that you can only set up the JioTag Air using any one out of Apple Find My or JioThings app. And while the JioThings Community Find is expanding, thanks to a bunch of devices joining Jio’s ecosystem, the number still can’t match Apple’s Find My network. Which means you stand a better chance of finding a lost JioTag Air (or the item it’s attached to) if you set it up with an iPhone, all thanks to the millions of Apple devices carried by folks around the globe.
Usage and performance
So that’s exactly what I did. I set it up using an iPhone, and soon thereafter, got a chance to check out its capabilities on a trip to Paris. I placed it inside my check-in baggage, along with an Apple AirTag, to see how it works. The first opportunity I got was right after I landed in Paris, while I was waiting for my bag near the luggage belt. Using the Find My app, I was able to ensure my bag had reached the airport area, thanks to the JioTag Air reporting its location. The Apple AirTag also relayed its own location of course, and interestingly, there didn’t seem to be any significant difference in terms of the time these two devices took to report their whereabouts.
When I returned home, the JioTag Air proved useful once again at the Delhi airport, showing me that my bag had landed as well, much before it appeared on the luggage belt. And as you read this, the JioTag Air is placed in my car, helping add to my peace of mind when the vehicle is being used by others in the family.Verdict
The JioThings Community Find network could do with a bigger user base to help make the JioTag Air really useful from an Android user’s perspective, but as things stand currently, it’s a step in the right direction. The JioTag Air stands out as an affordable AirTag alternative, and also a tracker that seems promising for Android users going forward.
Editor’s rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Works with both iOS & Android
- Useful tracking abilities
- Affordable
- Promising battery life
Cons:
- Works with one app at a time
- JioThings user base is limited
