I didn’t used to think of myself as someone who lost things, but ever since my credit cards, train tickets and loyalty cards made their way onto my smartphone, I’ve found I lose my wallet all the time.
I still like to keep a wallet despite the rise of Apple Wallet and Google Wallet (depending whether i am using an iPhone or an Android phone, I’m a tech reviewer, after all), partly because I used to obsess over wallets and their designs, and partly because sometimes you do actually need the cards inside
Paying larger sums or entering the number for online payments have me reaching for my wallet, as does the keycard for my office, which cannot be digitised, apparently. But given that sometimes I could go a whole week without needing my physical wallet, I have mislaid it more times than I care to mention over the last few months.
I’ve been rescued on several occasions by a £30 gadget called the Tile Slim, which I’ve been testing since last September to see just how useful it is. Turns out, for me, the answer is incredibly useful.
I’ve long used Apple AirTags on my house keys and in my hold luggage when I travel by air, but I have never lost my keys (now very much tempting fate, I’m sure), and I only ever open the Find My app on my iPhone to check my budget airline of choice definitely put my bag in the hold.
When Tile released the Tile Slim last year, the firm sent me one to try out. It’s credit card shaped but a little thicker to contain its components which include a battery and tiny speaker. The idea is to slip it in your wallet and be able to track it down if you misplace it. It’s a preferable shape to a bulbous AirTag or Tile’s own regular trackers for this purpose.
The Tile Slim works very well if I’ve lost my wallet in the house or at the bottom of a bag. When setting up, you link the tracker to the Tile app, which you can use to ring the Slim if it’s within a 350ft (106m) range. The little tracker chirps merrily, and I am reunited with my wallet for another ill-advised online shopping spree.
The beauty of AirTags is that they ping off all iPhones in the area, not just yours, helping to triangulate their location. This crowdsourced network means you can be on the other side of the world and still see where your AirTag is, even if that means you’ll probably never see it again.
This is technically the case with Tile, which is owned by location sharing firm Life360, but in reality the network is a lot sparser than Apple’s. Fewer people use Life360 and Tile globally, so if I did lose my wallet and then stray out of the tracker’s range, I’m much less likely to find its live location.
Instead, the app will tell me where the Tile was last ‘seen’ by my phone, giving an address. Tile also says the location will update if it is pinging by someone else’s Tile app. I could retrace my steps if I left it somewhere, but the location won’t necessarily update if it moves, whereas an AirTag in this scenario would be more likely to track as it’s pinging off other people’s phones, rather than only people with the Tile app installed and running.
There’s a QR code on the back of the tracker that someone can scan with their phone if they find it. This lets them share its location and add an optional message to you. Fingers crossed for good samaritans.
Tile competitor Chipolo has wallet trackers that connect to Apple’s Find My network, and Google’s too. These wider networks that rely on iPhones and Android phones are more useful for tracking, though I have not tested this specific Chipolo product.
The other downside to the Tile Slim is it has a non-replaceable battery. Tile says it should last for three years, and mine is still working after nine months. But even Apple, which seals all its other products, lets you replace the disc battery of an AirTag yourself. When the battery dies, this Tile Slim will become useless, and I’ll need to recycle it and buy a new one. Tile is far from the only offender here, but it’s not a great look.
I like how I can double tap the button on the Tile Slim to find my phone, and you can set up an SOS feature with the same button to alert trusted contacts if you’re in danger via the Life360 service, which is popular among families to track locations of children and loved ones.
At £29.99, the Tile Slim is a solid investment if, like me, you are always misplacing your wallet in our new digital age. You just need to hope you’re fairly close to your wallet when you lose it if you want to find it.