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Comment by bosswipe | Hacker News Reader

As an Android user I hate AirTags because it will reduce the power of Tile's cross-platform finding network making it less likely that my tiles will be found. This means that Google should fight back by integrating a finding network into Android OS. It's more anti-competitive platform lock-in.

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I had Tile on some lost luggage recently. Even though Tile had the biggest network, it still wasn't enough. My luggage visited a few large international airports without a single ping. It really seems that OS integration is the only way to get enough scale.

Same experience - I also went all in on tile - it really does not have the density of reporting and I'm also pretty sure lacks privacy protections apple has.

and none of the anti stalking measures.

Tile recently announced an agreement with Amazon to use their new Sidewalk network which should help them stay relevant.

https://macdailynews.com/2021/05/07/tile-teams-with-amazon-i...

Have you actually used the tile network to successfully recover something? I was big on tile a few years ago, but they didn't help me find two things that were lost. Just not enough of a network. I'm hopeful AirTags will work better.

Its a network effect. Its basically the dominant players become more dominant. It makes apples phone's more useful, and Apple is unlikely to let any competitors use they're phone for a similar service, especially not by default.

If you have an iOS device, you're tracking all these airtags around you physically for Apple. Apple's not paying you for that service. It probably uses a little battery life, but all these individual device make the network great. But if you bought an airtag that's a great thing.

I’m not sure I understand you. How does the introduction of AirTags diminish the Tile network? Are you assuming Tile users will switch?

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