New TILE Tracker Predictions & New Tile Premium Service

Every year around September companies start announcing and releasing new products for the 4th quarter of the year. Aka Q4.  Meaning the holiday season. The busiest time of the year for retail purchases.  Every company wants to advertise and promote their products and the best way to do that is with something new and cool to get everybody's attention. Tile, Inc. has done that just about every year for the past few years.  They release the Tile Slim, the slimmest bluetooth tracker of it's time and then the new Tile Mate. The redesigned of its hit tracker, the Tile. A perfect bluetooth tracker for your keys and pretty much anything else you can glue it on to. Then last year, they release their new Tile Pro Series featuring the Tile Sport and the Tile Style.  Both of which really out did the competition when it came to distance.

This year Tile, Inc. will be releasing something new. What it is is till unknown but by being the top reviewer of bluetooth trackers, I have my hypothesis.  

1.  a Tile Slim Pro -  Similar to Tile Slim but thinner, louder, and with better range. 
2.  a Tile with a replaceable battery

The more I think about it, I think its going to be number 2.  Tile's biggest compliant is that you have to buy a new tracker every year. Yes, you can get one cheaper through its re-Tile program but no matter which way you look it, it is a subscription model. Consumers these days, including myself, are sick and tired of a subscription models. I want to buy it once and have it forever. 

Thus, I think Tile is going to have two models with one tracker. They have announced that they are rolling out Tile Premium Service. (only for iOS devices, Android coming soon) A service that includes, Smart Alerts, Location History and Unlimited Sharing:

• Smart Alerts lets you know when you leave home without your Tiles or Tile-enabled devices.
• Location History shows you where your Tiles or Tile-enabled devices have been for the last 30 days.
• Unlimited Sharing allows you to share your Tile with as many trusted friends and family members as you want.

It's going to cost an user $2.99 USD a month or $29.99 a year to subscribe to the Tile Premium Service.  But it's not something that you have to subscribe to unless you want those services. So many users will just buy a Tile with a replaceable battery and use it the way they currently have been. If Tile can get enough people to subscribe to these new services though, then it will be a win win situation for both Tile and the consumer. 

I personally love the idea of Smart Alerts, which alerts you of leaving your tracker behind. So if you leave your keys or your wallet behind, your phone will ring. If you leave your phone behind, your tracker will beep.  I actually use another brand of tracker more often becasue they already have these types of alerts enabled. Tile tried last year to get their Smart Alerts working but as a beta user of the service, it never worked.  Now they want to start these service again, I'm super excited but now knowing they are going to charge for it, I'm very disappointed. Yes, it will also be great to have location history but at 30 bucks a year, its not worth it.  

All is all, I hope Tile, Inc. releases a Tile with a replaceable battery and let consumers decided if they want the additional services, but at least we are not throwing away devices that still work. 

What is a "BLUETOOTH" Tracker

What is a "BLUETOOTH" Tracker?

I rarely get this question, believe it or not, but I always get people assuming that Bluetooth trackers have GPS and some magical way of communicating outside of Bluetooth. They don't! Simply, if your phone or someone else's phone with the same tracking app is not within the range of the Bluetooth tracker, there is no communication or connection. PERIOD.  

Now that is out of the way.  What is a Bluetooth tracker?  In a nutshell, they're small little devices that you put onto or into personal belongs that you tend to lose a lot. When things go missing, you can quickly run the app on your phone and ring your Bluetooth tracker. Making it a lot easier to find your miss place item. Some of my favorite things that I like to put a Bluetooth tracker on are my keys, my wallet, remotes, and my AirPods

Most Bluetooth devices also work in the opposite direction too. Meaning that you can press a button on your Bluetooth tracker and it will ring your phone if you happen to misplace it. Some Bluetooth trackers require you have the app running though so you want to make sure you pick a brand that will work without the app running. Watch my reviews on each brand. 

There are also several trackers on the market that have figure out a way to keep the ability to find your phone working, even if the app is not running in the background. (App still installed though) Also, it can always keep tracking your Bluetooth tracker, so if you leave it behind or lose it, it can even tell you it's the last location it was connected. Without this ability, it will only show that last place that it was connected while the app was running. WHO REMEMBERS TO TURN ON THEIR APP BEFORE THEY LOSE SOMETHING. It just doesn't happen, the app has to continue to work even if the user accidentally or purposely shuts down the app. I did a video showing how this feature works on the first Bluetooth tracker that I tested that was able to do this. The Chipolo. Check it out above. Most other brands have followed suit but watch my review video on each brand.

There are also a lot of Bluetooth trackers that like to try to stand out from the crowd and add additional features to their devices. A lot of the big named ones build a network of users that can help you find your tracker if you happen to lose it. Understand though that those additional users still have to come within Bluetooth range of your device with the app installed (many still need the app to be running in the background). When they do, it will anonymously notify the owner of the location of the tracker.

This feature could be called many things. Crowd GPS, Crowd Locate, Crowd Lost and Found, Crowd Search, Community Search, Community Finder, etc. It's all the same thing. Once you pick a brand, though, only that brand's app will find that brand's Bluetooth tracker. There's no way for one brand to find other brands tracker yet, but I do believe it will be coming.  Since only one brand will find its own brand, the larger the brand, meaning the more massive the community, the higher the chance that someone with a phone and specific tracker's app will come near your tracker if you lose it. Each area is different. So even though one brand might have sold 6 million trackers, you could have more users from another brand in your area. It's impossible to know what brand has more users in your area, no matter what that company advertises. I did a video testing out the world's largest lost & found advertised by Tile. Check it out above, and you'll see what I mean better.

Last but not least, there are trackers out there that have even more additional features. Most of which are not 100% perfect working order. The list of features included in and out range notifications (tethers), built-in accelerometer to detect movement,  a multiple functional buttons that can do all sorts of stuff, including taking a selfie, control your music, make a call, send an SMS, or pretty much any feature that can be used with IFTTT.

If you have any questions, please contact me on my Discord here - https://mdfm.co/Discord