Google Pixel Tag Hands-On: The AirTag for Android Fans

When a company comes out with its own version of a product in an established market, there has to be a good reason. Maybe it’s created a design that sets the product apart, or it’s included features that none of the competition has.

If you think I’m talking about Apple and Google, you’d be right – but this isn’t the iPhone Duo muscling into the folding phone fray. This time, the roles are reversed: Google is releasing the Pixel Tag, a small Bluetooth tracker that it hopes will be the Android ecosystem’s answer to Apple’s near-ubiquitous AirTag.

The Pixel Tag is available starting Wednesday for $30 each or $100 in a pack of four. It works with Android phones and uses Google’s Find Hub technology for tracking over distances beyond Bluetooth range. If you use an Android phone and have wanted the capability to track things such as keys, bags, bikes, vehicles and other indispensable items, and you want the tech to come from the company that designed the system, the Pixel Tag is an excellent choice.

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It isn’t the first Android-compatible tracker. Motorola introduced its Moto Tag 2 earlier this year, and Tile has been the de facto AirTag alternative for several years. There’s also now a growing ecosystem of other items that tap into Apple’s Find My and Android’s Find Hub networks, ranging from slim credit-card-sized devices like the Rolling Square AirCard Pro and Peak Design’s Beacon Finder Card, to novel approaches like Falcam’s TagBatt, a battery for some Sony and Canon mirrorless cameras that integrates Apple Find My tracking.

Google jumping into this more crowded field tells me the company thinks there’s profit to be made by manufacturing its own hardware and software. It’s also investing in the infrastructure it’s already built out, and not leaving the hardware side to a constellation of other vendors.

Nice in the hand when hands-on is necessary

Trackers like the Pixel Tag and AirTag can be a surprisingly deflating purchase: You pair them with your phone, put them into something you don’t want to lose track of – then forget about them. They’re usually not tactile the way a phone, watch or laptop is each day. And their value doesn’t kick into action until you think an item has gone missing.

After slinging AirTags into bags and dangling them off keychains, one thing I really appreciate about the Pixel Tag is its thinness. Apple chose a small, round footprint, even keeping the exact design for the second-generation AirTags. Google instead opted for a longer lozenge shape, at 1.8 inches (46.1mm), that is about two-thirds the height of the AirTag at 0.2 inch (5.4mm).

Google sent a Bellroy leather keychain as a sample accessory for review, and paired with the Pixel Tag, the two are a fine size for a pocket or clipped to an inside bag pocket. I thought the longer design would get in the way, but it’s not bad at all.

The Pixel Tag uses a CR2032 coin-sized battery that should last about a year (the same as the AirTag). It also has an IP67 rating, which is durable in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes.

Another departure from the AirTag is a physical button, making the Pixel Tag even more tactile. When you’re using Find Hub on your phone to locate it by sound, press once to stop the chirps it makes. Or, if you have the tag in hand (on a keychain, for example) and need to find your phone, press twice to ring the phone – it makes a pleasant sing-songy chime that gets louder and more intense as it continues, so I’m confident it’ll be easy to locate, even among couch cushions.

Speaking of the chimes, credit to the Google sound designers who came up with the Pixel Tag’s tune. It has three levels of loudness you can set, and seems plenty audible enough when you’re spelunking the living room for it. I measured it at 80 decibels, which when compared to the second-generation AirTag volume, is 7 less than the 87 decibels of Apple’s tracker.

One more nice touch compared to the AirTag: the Find Hub app shows the tag’s battery status. If that gets to Low or Very Low, the app sends you notifications every two weeks until the battery is replaced. After Apple showed battery statuses on AirTags in early versions of the Find My app, the company changed the Find My app so it only indicates battery when it’s low and needs to be replaced.

Find Pixel Tags nearby

The best feature of either tracker is the ability to locate its exact location – not which building or room it’s in, but to tell if the item fell behind the couch or was accidentally dropped in the driveway. (Yes, I’m making up these examples from personal experience.)

Precision Finding uses a combination of Bluetooth 6.0 (via a feature called Channel Sounding) and the ultra-wideband chips inside the tag and the phone to directionally find the tracker when it’s within Bluetooth range. You hold the phone upright, perpendicular to the ground for the best connection. Then you wander your space, watching the indicator change as you get closer to the tag.

On the Pixel Tag, that indication is a wobbly circle shape that fills in as you get closer; when you’re on top of the tracker, the shape is fully filled. The Find Hub app also uses the camera and UWB chip to include an estimated distance in feet and inches (or meters and centimeters). When you’re close enough, the tracking shape becomes a directional arrow to point you the right way. UWB is compatible with the Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 8 Fold and newer Pixel phones.

In my testing, the Find Nearby feature performed fairly well. Find Hub using a Pixel 11 Pro XL connected from within about 25 feet, including on multiple levels of a house when I was above or below it.

Perhaps because I was raised on science-fiction devices like the trackers in Aliens, though, I expected more consistent readings. There were times when both I and the tag remained stationary. The distance estimates would fluctuate by several feet.

Since I’ve had this review unit for only a couple of days, I haven’t yet had a chance to send it off with someone else and see if I can track it remotely using the Find Hub network. When nearby Android devices detect the Pixel Tag’s presence, they should securely and privately relay the tracker’s location to Google’s servers. (Apple’s Find My network operates the same way.) I’ll update this article once I’ve taken the tag on such an adventure.

Privacy features

Tracking all your stuff is invaluable – I learned this first-hand earlier this year when I left a small bag containing my passport in a hotel room, and was able to convince the hotel that the bag was still on the premises. But unfortunately, smart tags are being used to track people without their knowledge.

Google is taking the same approach as Apple to help thwart this type of tracking. If a tag is separated from the phone it’s paired with (or the phone of someone else you’ve chosen to share the tag location with), and the tag is moved, its chime activates.

The idea is that you’ll hear an unfamiliar chirp and investigate. It has an NFC chip that displays its information when you tap it using the NFC built into a phone.