When AirTag goes into lost mode, all NFC-enabled devices, including those with Android, can read the locator’s pre-programmed discovery message, a small but potentially important feature that could help return lost items.
NFC functionality was discussed a bit during Tuesday’s “Spring Loaded” event, but a new supporting document provides additional details about the feature.
According to Apple, picking up and touching the white part of a lost AirTag on an NFC-enabled device redirects it to a web page that can display the owner’s phone number. Additional information such as the AirTag serial number is also provided.
AirTag users must provide their contact information during the setup process and place the device in lost mode for the feature to work.
Apple, in its supporting document, points out that Android devices can also interact with an AirTag in lost mode.
“You can see a lost mode message on any NFC-enabled smartphone, such as an iPhone or Android phone,” says Apple.
It should come as no surprise that Apple included support for NFC, a widely adopted communications protocol, in the small tracker. Beyond Android, a lot of other common computing devices incorporate NFC support, which greatly increases the efficiency of AirTag.
AirTag’s main mode of communication is an ultra broadband radio, deployed on Apple’s U1 chip, which sends pulses to other U1-equipped hardware such as the iPhone. The crawler’s precision search feature is powered by UWB and is currently exclusive to the iOS platform. It also uses Bluetooth to communicate with Apple devices, which then send information about nearby AirTags and their location data associated with the Find My network.