Tile Mate vs. Pebblebee Tag: Bigger isn’t always better

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   Sleek and sophisticated

   Tile Mate (2024)

   The Tile Mate is a key chain-sized Bluetooth tracker that relies on the company’s well-established tracking network to report its location, leveraging Tile and Life360 users and Amazon Sidewalk devices. It comes in fun colors and also offers some advanced features like one-touch emergency SOS, but you’ll need to opt for a subscription to get the most out of it.

   Pros

   • Established tracking network

   • Advanced features and fun colors

   • Click-to-activate SOS via Life360

   Cons

   • Many features require a subscription

   • No support for Apple or Google Find My

   • Disposable when battery dies

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   Practical and rechargeable

   Pebblebee Tag Universal

   The Pebblebee Tab Universal is a surprisingly small tracking tag that works with Google’s and Apple’s Find My, although it no longer supports the company’s own tracking network. A rechargeable battery provides up to 8 months on a single charge, making it more environmentally friendly than most other trackers.

   Pros

   • Rechargeable battery with eight-month life

   Cons

   • No ultra wideband support

   • Held back by Google’s Find My network

For years, Tile has been synonymous with Bluetooth tracking tags. Introduced in 2013, the company’s little gadgets quickly became the most popular way to keep tabs on your stuff and find lost or misplaced items. They remain among the best smart tags, even today.

However, the tracking tag market exploded in 2021 when Apple introduced its AirTags trackers and a Find My network that could support other devices. Suddenly, another company with a billion more devices (and a trillion more dollars) was giving Tile a run for its money among iPhone owners. Now, Google has also entered the fray with its Find My Device network, threatening to displace Tile’s network entirely by pressing every Android smartphone into service.

While Tile has held steadfastly to its tracking network, its rivals have quickly moved to embrace Google’s Find My Device network since it allows for greater reach and universal compatibility. Among these is Pebblebee, which had its Tag for Android ready to go only weeks after Google’s announcement. Pebblebee’s tracking devices have been popular accessories for Apple’s Find My network, making them a promising addition to the Google ecosystem. However, are they enough to unseat Tile’s dominance? Let’s find out.

Price, availability, and specs

A single Tile Mate tag sells for $25, with discounts available if you buy it in a two- or four-pack. They can be purchased directly from Tile and the other usual retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and more. The batteries aren’t replaceable, but a single Tile Mate should last up to three years before that becomes a problem. While the Tile Mate works as a basic tracker for no additional cost, you’ll need to factor in the price of a subscription service to get everything that tag offers. The tags are available in many colors, from basic black and white to two-tone Navy Blaze, Aqua Lemon, Green Surf, and Pink Punch.

After offering a version of its tag for Apple’s Find My network for the past few years, Pebblebee released an Android-specific version earlier this year to work with Google’s nascent Find My Device network. It’s since discontinued the “for Android” version in favor of the Pebblebee Tag Universal, which works with Apple and Google devices. The Pebblebee Tag Universal sells for $35 directly from Pebblebee and can be found at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. It’s available only in black.

1. Tile Mate (2024)

   Material  

   Plastic

   Connectivity  

   Bluetooth

   Battery  

   Three years non-replaceable

   Range  

   Up to 100m (350 feet)

   Water Resistance  

   IP67

   Dimensions  

   37.6 x 37.6 x 7.4 mm

   Weight  

   8g

2. Pebblebee Tag Universal

   Material  

   Plastic

   Connectivity  

   Bluetooth

   Battery  

   Rechargeable; up to 8 months per charge

   Range  

   Up to 300ft

   Water Resistance  

   IPX6

   Dimensions  

   26 × 40 × 4.5mm

   Weight  

   6.5g

Design

Fun and practical

The Tile Mate has one of the more whimsical designs we’ve seen among tracking tags. That’s partly thanks to the company’s choice of fun two-tone color options, but even if you prefer your tag in basic black, it has a distinct look that makes it feel more like a tag you’d put on your key ring or your luggage, complete with an appropriate opening in the corner.

By comparison, the Pebblebee Tag is a more utilitarian affair, a small rectangular brick with rounded edges, available only in black. It’s designed to stick onto something rather than hang from it and includes a double-sided adhesive for that purpose. However, there’s also a black silicone sleeve in the box that can be used for attachment to a belt, backpack, purse, or even a dog collar. Pebblebee also makes a Clip with nearly identical features for those who prefer something more akin to a key tag.

The Tile Mate is 37.6mm square and 7.4mm thick at the center and weighs 8g. While it isn’t nearly as apparent from product photos, the Pebblebee Tag is surprisingly smaller and lighter than the Tile Mate, measuring 40mm x 26mm x 4.5mm and only 6.5 grams. It’s about as wide as an SD card but longer and thicker.

Still, the 4.5mm thickness is impressive, considering that the Pebblebee Tag packs in a rechargeable battery and all the circuitry required to charge it, with a pogo pin connector on the face for the included USB-C charger. The Tile Mate’s battery is sealed inside and is not replaceable.

The Tile Mate surpasses the Pebblebee Tag if you’re looking for something that can survive outdoor adventures, as it features a full IP68 rating, which makes it resistant to dust and immersion in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. The Pebblebee Tag only has an IPX6 rating, which the company says is intended to help it “survive unexpected splashes, spills, and showers,” but recommends against submerging the tag. That said, the Tile Mate isn’t designed to work underwater; Tile says it’s designed to handle “brief submersions” and shouldn’t be used for activities like swimming. However, either will work fine underwater if you seal them in a waterproof pouch.

Performance

David versus Goliath

The first Tile tags hit the market in 2013, introducing the world to crowdsourced location tracking. Tile wasn’t necessarily the first company to come up with this; it had many erstwhile competitors, but it managed to rise to the top and become a household name in Bluetooth tracking tags.

Tile has a mature and well-established tracking network, but it’s always suffered from one crucial limitation: reach. Bluetooth tracking tags rely on nearby devices like smartphones to detect them and report their location, but that only works if those devices know what to look for. The only realistic way for Tile to build a tracking network was through a smartphone app, but that also meant that only those running the Tile app could locate and report on nearby Tile tags.

While anyone can install the Tile app, there’s little incentive to do so for those who don’t own a Tile tag. As of 2021, Tile has sold a little over 40 million trackers, although it’s unclear how many of those are still active. Many users also buy more than one, which means the number of devices running the Tile app is probably less than half that.

In late 2021, Tile expanded its reach by joining Life360. This allowed Tile tags to be tracked by users of the popular location-sharing app, adding an estimated 70 million smartphones to the mix. Tile has also partnered with Amazon’s Sidewalk network to allow Echo devices and Ring cameras in nearby homes and businesses to pick up its tracking tags and report their location.

Crowdsourcing on steroids

Still, even if Tile’s network has hit 100 million devices, that pales compared to what Apple and Google can pull off. Since the two tech giants control their respective smartphone operating systems, they can add location tracking at the core, ensuring that nearly every smartphone on the planet can help report the location of lost tracking tags. Apple did this with the AirTag in 2021, Google followed suit earlier this year, and manufacturers like Pebblebee have been quick to get on board with both.

For Apple, that’s about 1.5 billion iPhones, although those need to be running iOS 14.5 or later. Google’s Find My Device network is potentially much more extensive since the company made the service retroactive to Android 9. In theory, there could be well over a billion smartphones ready and able to pick up the Pebblebee Tag and other Find My Device-enabled trackers.

This would lead many to believe that the Pebblebee Tag should fare better at reuniting you with lost items. After all, there’s a better chance of it being in the range of a device running Android 9 than one running the Tile or Life360 apps. Sadly, the reality of this is a bit more complicated.

That’s because Google has hamstrung its Find My Device network by being too cautious. Given the bad rap Apple’s AirTags have received for being abused by stalkers and car thieves, Google has decided to play it safe and effectively dial down the precision of its network.

While nearly any Android smartphone can pick up a Pebblebee Tag (or any other Find My Device-enabled tag), most won’t report its location on their own. The default setting on Android is to only report tags found in “high-traffic areas,” which means a tag will only be reported when “multiple” devices have detected its location. (Google declined to give us a specific number, but it’s obviously more than one.)

This increases privacy and reduces the possibility that a tag could be misused for stalking since its location won’t be reported if a target is alone. However, it also means you’re less likely to find your missing tag. Even in a high-traffic area, this setting results in a very imprecise location since Google’s algorithm aggregates multiple reports over several minutes or even hours to determine an “average” location for where the tag might be. In testing the Pebblebee Tag, we found that it could be an area of over 100m in diameter, even in a dense urban neighborhood. That’s not helpful when you’re unsure which coffee shop, restaurant, or store you may have left your bag, keys, or wallet at.

Both the original Pebblebee Tag for Android and the new Pebblebee Universal exhibited similar problems as recently as November 2024, so it’s clear that Google’s Find My Device network needs to mature a bit.

Ironically, this means that the Tile Mate is more likely to help you find your lost items. Only a single Tile or Life360 user needs to come across it to report a fairly accurate location. Your mileage will vary depending on where you live, since it still depends on how many Tile/Life360 users there are in your area, but Tile’s tracking tags remain popular among Android users, and they’ll likely continue to do so until Google’s Find My Device network grows up.

Advanced features

There’s more here if you’re willing to pay

Since joining Life360, Tile has moved to a partial subscription model for its tags. The good news is that a subscription isn’t required to get basic tracking capabilities, but you must subscribe if you want more sophisticated features like sharing and smart alerts.

The Tile Premium plan costs $2.99 monthly or $29.99 annually and provides a 30-day tag location history, plus smart alerts that can notify you when an item is left behind and the ability to share the location of your Tile tags with friends and family. It also includes an extended warranty. In the U.S., Tile Premium also provides up to $100 of insurance for any tagged lost items that can’t be found by Tile, which can be extended to $1,000 of coverage by opting for the $9.99/year Premium Protect plan.

Life360 members can also use a Tile Mate to send an emergency SOS alert by pressing and holding a button on the tag. These can be sent to family, friends, and other emergency contacts without a subscription, but you must pay for a Life360 Gold or Platinum subscription to request help from 911 or other emergency dispatch services automatically.

The Pebblebee Tag is more basic, but it has one advantage. Its location can be shared with friends and family without a subscription, as that’s a core feature of Google’s Find My Device network. Sadly, it doesn’t yet offer a left-behind feature. We expect Google to eventually add that, as Apple’s AirTags and other iOS-compatible Find My items have had this capability for a while. Pebblebee previously offered its own app and tracking network, but the new “Universal” tag no longer supports this, so you’re limited to the features available on Apple’s and Google’s networks.

Note that neither the Tile Mate nor the Pebblebee Tag supports ultra-wideband (UWB). That feature is still unique to Apple’s AirTags and Samsung’s Galaxy Tags, which can guide you to the couch cushion your keys are hiding in. Instead, you can make Tile’s and Pebblebee’s tags emit a sound — which gets reasonably loud — and then zero in on them with your ears.

Battery life

One is rechargeable, the other is disposable

The Tile Mate is fully sealed with a battery that the company says will last for up to three years. After that, you’ll need to toss it out and buy a new one at full price, as the company no longer offers its “reTile” recycling and exchange program. It’s not the most environmentally friendly solution, but three years is a decent run, and Tile claims that everything but the battery is recyclable through local e-waste programs. The trade-off here is to opt for the pricier and larger Tile Pro, which has a replaceable battery but one you’ll need to swap out every year.

Still, we have to give kudos to Pebblebee, which is one of the few companies that makes its tracking tags rechargeable. The Pebblebee Tag promises eight months between charges, and when it hits that, you’ll be able to top it back up in 4 to 5 hours with the included USB-C charging cable that pops onto a pogo plug on the surface. That proprietary connection means you’ll want to remember where you put the cable because, since you’ll use it so infrequently, you may lose track of it. You can monitor the Tag’s battery life in the corresponding app on your smartphone or by pressing the Pebblebee logo and checking how many times the LED pulses.

Which is right for you?

For years, Tile’s tags were the only game in town. While a few others tried to compete by building their own tracking networks, only Tile managed to reach the critical mass of users needed to ensure that you could actually find stuff with one of its tags attached. Even after Apple debuted its AirTags in 2021, Android owners could only look on somewhat wistfully at the new alternatives available and hope that Google would soon rise to the occasion.

Sadly, Google has been too cautious in its initial attempt to build out its massive crowdsourced tracking network, leaving Tile with the advantage. Thanks to hooking up with Life360 and partnering with Amazon Sidewalk, the Tile network now has a solid reach, especially in urban areas. Apple’s AirTags still do significantly better, but in the Android ecosystem, Tile remains the top pick — at least until Google ups its game.

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Still the champ

Tile Mate (2024)

Tile reigns supreme

Tile’s insistence on sticking with its own tracking network gives the Tile Mate an advantage over its rivals for now. Still, it also distinguishes itself by offering features that Google’s Find My Device network can’t, such as notifying you when you’ve left something behind.

We’re optimistic that Google will do precisely that, and the great thing is that when it does, all the tags that support Find My Device today should benefit from the improvements. After all, Google’s underlying technology is sound; it’s the implementation that’s problematic, and that’s entirely in the software. This means that if you’re willing to live with the current limitations of Google’s network, a Pebblebee Tag you buy now should take full advantage of any improvements Google makes to its Find My Device network. It’s also worth mentioning that it’s equally compatible with Apple’s Find My network, which means you can still use it if you switch platforms or hand it off to an iPhone-toting friend or family member.

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Lots of potential

Pebblebee Tag Universal

Should become more useful with time

The Pebblebee Tag Universal stands out among trackers by offering a rechargeable battery, which is surprising considering its small size. The tracker is hampered by Google’s Find My Device network right now, but we expect that to improve, and it works great with Apple devices as an AirTag alternative.