Although smartphones, tablets and laptops normally grab tech headlines, one of the most useful gadgets you can buy costs a lot less.
If you’re prone to misplacing your keys, wallet, phone or even pet, a Bluetooth or connected tracker can help save you a lot of headaches for not too much outlay. Popularised by the Apple AirTag, which costs £35 for one, there are several competing products out there that use smartphone and mobile network tech to help reunite you with your lost stuff.
More precious than any electronics are indeed our pets, and that’s why tech firm Life360 has announced the Pet GPS, a tracker designed to help you locate your temporarily tardy dog or cat.
The subtle black tracker can attach flexibly to most pet collars and connects to the Life360 app and service. Life360 owns the Tile brand of trackers and is popular among parents who can add their children’s smartphone to the app to see their location, whether they have an iPhone or Android phone.
That piece of mind now extends to the whereabouts of the family pet. Unlike AirTags or other Bluetooth trackers, the Pet GPS goes a step further, as the name suggests, by adding GPS tech to the mix. Using GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beaconing, Life360 claims the tracker will update in the app with its real-time location every 10-12 seconds.
Where AirTags rely on the device passing nearby to the public’s iPhones to triangulate its position, the Pet GPS can ping you with your pet’s whereabouts even if it has strayed miles from any connected devices. Even people you don’t know who have the app installed can be notified if your lost pet is nearby, crowdsourcing help along the way to your reunion.
“Traditional safety measures like microchips require a vet or shelter visit and often have missing or outdated info, and all-purpose Bluetooth trackers can struggle to locate pets on the move, especially in remote areas”, said Lauren Antonoff, CEO at Life360.
The Life360 Pet GPS costs £49.99, which is not a lot to pay for the comfort of knowing your pooch isn’t far away. However, that’s unfortunately not where the spending will end. Unlike AirTags, Life360 products require a monthly or annual subscription to unlock and use all their features.
The Pet GPS demands you sign up to Life360’s Gold or Platinum tiers, which cost £9.99 and £19.99 per month respectively.
This gives you access to 30 days of location history and means your child’s phone or other Tile trackers can be added to your account all under that subscription cost, but it does mean it’s another monthly payment to add to the list.
Life360 says it’ll waive the activation fee for the first Pet GPS tracker you add to your app account. Any additional Pet GPS devices are charged at £79 each to activate. Express.co.uk has asked Life360 to confirm what this activiation fee covers.
Even with these mounting costs, you might see the value in buying into the Life360 ecosystem and the Pet GPS if it means your pets will be that bit safer – or at least more trackable.