Third-Party Devices Convey Find My Tracking to Wallets, Chargers, and Extra

Thanks to the AirTag (see “Apple’s AirTag Promises to Help You Find Your Keys,” 20 April 2021), these of us who have a tendency to depart our automobile keys in random places now not need to ransack the home to seek out them. Now their whereabouts are immediately revealed courtesy of an AirTag on a keychain. You may even see the AirTag on a map, should you depart it on the park or in a taxi, due to the Find My community that leverages greater than a billion in-use Apple gadgets to relay an AirTag’s location wherever on the planet it may be.

But why hasn’t Apple constructed Find My functionality into a spread of equipment, equivalent to a card that slips right into a pockets—the place the bulbous AirTag wouldn’t match nicely—or a Find My-enabled model of its magnetically adhering MagSecure Wallet?

Apple handed up a possibility to introduce a brand new accent final month when it unveiled the second-generation AirTag (see “New AirTag Offers Expanded Range, Louder Speaker,” 26 January 2026). While the brand new AirTag gives incremental enhancements, it retains the unique, barely awkward form. Pricing stays unchanged at $29 for one or $99 for a four-pack. But the place’s the Find My baggage lock? The Find My-enabled charger? A Find My keychain in a unique kind issue?

It seems all of those devices can be found from third-party producers. This is one other acquainted sample. Apple unveils a brand new expertise, equivalent to MagSecure, and makes a wide range of equipment to construct pleasure. But over time, it withdraws from the sphere (goodbye, MagSecure Duo; see “Seven Third-Party Accessories Show MagSafe’s Potential,” 4 June 2021), leaving it to third-party makers to hoist their very own banners.

So it has been with Find My gadgets.

Nomad’s Leather Mag Wallet

In 2021, Apple launched an up to date model of its MagSecure Wallet. Originally inert, Apple marketed the up to date pockets as having Find My assist, however that was true in solely essentially the most minimal sense: “The MagSafe Wallet now supports Find My, so you can be notified of your wallet’s last known location if it gets separated from your phone.” Translation: “The wallet lacks the Bluetooth or UWB hardware of an AirTag and instead relies on the iPhone to record the wallet’s location the moment it is detached.” The MagSecure Wallet retained that minimal Find My functionality in 2023, when it developed into the iPhone FineWoven Wallet (see “Five Unexpected Announcements from Apple’s Wonderlust Event,” 12 September 2023). But Apple made no Find My enhancements, so it nonetheless couldn’t be tracked in actual time.

Enter Nomad’s Leather Mag Wallet. This $85 MagSecure pockets is all however indistinguishable from Apple’s authentic leather-based mannequin, nevertheless it incorporates full Find My monitoring. Leave it on the bus by mistake—on the town or in Timbuktu—and you may observe its whereabouts in your iPhone till you’re fortunately reunited.

Pairing the Leather Mag Wallet with an iPhone is easy. Find the small circle etched into the again/backside of the pockets. In the iPhone’s Find My app, faucet Items > + > Other Item. Then, press and maintain the round button on the pockets till you hear a beep. That’s your cue to pair the telephone and pockets; you’ll be prompted to call the pockets and assign it an emoji.

From then on, tapping Play Sound within the Find My app will make the pockets beep so you could find it wherever you left it. If it’s too distant to be heard, search for it on the map within the Find My app.

Charging is straightforward, too. Just place the pockets on a MagSecure or Qi charger. The pockets’s built-in battery lasts for five months earlier than needing a recharge.

Wallet-Friendly Trackers

Credit card-shaped Find My trackers that slip into pockets slots make a lot sense that it’s a marvel Apple hasn’t launched its personal model. Instead, an avalanche of firms have tried their fingers at fixing this tech downside, with various levels of success.

Nomad and KeySmart have lastly nailed this area of interest. Their merchandise are in regards to the thickness of a few bank cards, are simple to pair, and keep away from the errors different distributors have dedicated, equivalent to utilizing oddball proprietary charging cords which are simple to lose.

Nomad’s Tracking Card pairs utilizing the identical method because the Leather Mag Wallet—squeeze a tiny button to pair the gadget with the iPhone’s Find My app. I’ve had the Tracking Card in my pockets for months, alongside all my credit score and ID playing cards, and it has revealed the place I absentmindedly left my pockets on a number of events.

The firm lately started providing two worth tiers: the Tracking Card Air with a 5-month battery life, for $29, and the Tracking Card Pro with 16 months of battery life for $39. The Air is roughly equal to 2 bank cards at 1.7 mm thick and 12 grams, whereas the beefier Pro is 2.5 mm thick and weighs 15 grams—about the identical as three bank cards.

KeySmart’s SmartCard (Gen 3) works similar to Nomad’s, however sells a bit in a different way. A single card prices $39.99, however you should purchase a three-pack for $119.97 and a five-pack for $199.95. The battery holds a cost for 11 months earlier than it wants a session on a MagSecure or Qi pad.

The SensibleCard (Gen 3) boasts an Atlas Gen 3 chipset that, the maker claims, delivers 50% sooner sign processing, leading to 30% extra connectivity. (The earlier SensibleCard (Gen 2) stays accessible for barely much less cash, as does the SensibleCard Gen 2 Lite that have to be disposed of after its battery dies in 2 years. Stick with the most recent mannequin.)

Another benefit of the SensibleCard is its dual-network nature. This means you possibly can set it up with both Apple’s Find My ecosystem or Google’s Find My Device community—the Android equal. This functionality is probably helpful for multi-platform households that need to purchase a three- or five-pack, however you must select which community to assist at setup; on-the-fly community switching isn’t accessible. And as soon as arrange for Find My, for example, it might probably’t be positioned by Android gadgets.

Find My Charger, Keychain, and Lock

Beyond the apparent addition of Find My capabilities to wallets, third-party producers have give you different modern locations the place monitoring expertise can be welcome.

Twelve South has constructed Find My into its PlugBug with Find My cell charger, which is smart because it’s all too simple to overlook to unplug a charger in an airport or resort room. Since you most likely know the place you left it plugged in, the massive win of Find My assist within the PlugBug is being alerted if you stroll away. It can be good if these alerts arrived extra rapidly.

You can select from 4 variations of the PlugBug, all of which share a shiny, red-and-white design that makes them extra seen than your common Apple charger. The US fashions function retracting wall prongs and both two USB-C ports (50W, for $59.99) or 4 USB-C ports (120W for $99.99). Travel-focused fashions include interchangeable wall prongs for different nations’ shops—they’re additionally accessible in 50W ($79.99) and 120W ($129.99) variations.

The GaN-powered PlugBug can cost all the things from an Apple Watch to a MacBook Pro, although you’ll need the 120W model for the extra power-hungry MacBook Pro fashions.

Activating the PlugBug includes opening the rear battery door and yanking the tab behind the user-replaceable CR2032 lithium coin cell. Then press the close by button as instructed to pair the PlugBug together with your telephone.

KeySmart makes a series of ingenious key organizers that mimic Swiss Army knives, with every key you add turning into a fake blade that rotates out on a dark-gray washer. Several of them can maintain an AirTag, however the $49.99 KeySmart iPro integrates Find My instantly and may maintain as much as 14 keys. Use a ballpoint pen or Phillips-head screwdriver tip to provoke Find My pairing. The iPro expenses by way of a typical USB-C wire, with 30 days of battery life between top-ups.

KeySmart didn’t cease there. Its SmartLock Tracking Device is a standard-issue, TSA-approved baggage lock. Three steel rollers lock with a numeric mixture you possibly can change, however the smarts come from its Find My compatibility. At $29.99, it’s primarily the identical worth as an AirTag and ensures that nobody can rummage by means of your suitcase. You may even make it play a sound to assist discover it on an airport conveyor belt. It options a big button for initiating pairing, together with a user-swappable CR1632 battery that gives roughly 4 months of use.