Let's be honest. We only really relax when our cat is purring at home. As soon as she steps out the door and heads off on her rounds, a feeling creeps in that is hard to put into words. Practically every owner of an outdoor cat knows that anxious feeling when the cat hasn't come home as usual. What's happened to her? Where is she? Is she okay? Many cat owners carry these worries day after day, even if sometimes only in the back of their minds. And yet many cats are out there every day, facing plenty of potential dangers: cars, open basement doors, other animals or even people can become a threat to our furry friends. It's only logical that manufacturers started developing cat trackers several years ago to follow cats on their adventures with the help of technology.

Since keeping some cats exclusively indoors is neither possible nor desirable, we cat owners look for technical solutions to keep an eye on our outdoor cats. In recent years, many manufacturers have tried to offer solutions in the form of so-called cat trackers. If you do some research as an owner, you'll quickly find lots of offers online – and they consist almost entirely of GPS trackers. Locating the cat plays a major role here, but being able to trace the cat's wanderings (a so-called heatmap) is also appealing to many owners. On top of that, GPS is a proven technology that many of us use in other areas of life too. That all sounds pretty good at first – doesn't it?

Well-known providers include, for example, the “GPS Tracker by Tractive” or the “Curve by Vodafone”. GPS as a safe and familiar technology – you can't go wrong with that at first. Or can you? Because the market is highly competitive, entry-level offers appear to be cheap. BUT: as consumers of these offers, we quickly identified some decisive disadvantages. GPS trackers only work with a SIM card subscription, because in addition to an active satellite connection for locating, the service also needs a mobile network connection to transmit the GPS data to the cat owner. As a result, many GPS tracker users end up in a subscription trap, paying monthly or annual fees whether or not the cat tracker is actually being used. From a study we conducted ourselves, we know: it's exactly this paid subscription required to run a GPS tracker that quickly leads to great frustration among cat owners. You should be aware that buying a GPS cat tracker comes with ongoing costs of 50 to 120 euros per year – depending on the contract term and payment method.

Another disadvantage, and a far more serious one in our view, is the weight and size of the trackers. With today's technology, GPS trackers are very large and heavy from a cat owner's perspective. For medium-sized and large dogs, that's not a problem, but for the majority of cats a GPS tracker is uncomfortable. Quite a few of our own pets flatly rejected such devices and tried to shake them off – in other words, to get rid of the very device that's supposed to help find them. Ideally, cats should be able to wear trackers all day, or at least most of the time – just think of all the cats that leave their homes on their own. Owners can't check every time whether the annoying, heavy tracker is really in place. And last but not least – a GPS tracker uses a lot of energy, which is why the battery needs recharging every few days. A second battery can make sure the tracker is always charged, but that's not really practical in everyday life for cat owners either. All in all – GPS trackers are not practical in everyday life for cats and an expensive affair for their humans. An alternative would be nice – but which one?

In April 2021, Apple started selling a new product – the AirTag. At first glance, this inconspicuous product offers a "single use case" solution: "Lose your knack for losing things." AirTag is a product for finding lost items. Practically overnight, the little piece of plastic became the new must-have for keeping track of – or finding again – things like keys, wallets or backpacks. Unlike a GPS tracker, the AirTag transmits its position via Bluetooth. That's why the AirTag needs no mobile contract and no monthly subscription. Using the "Find My" app, Apple users can now see their AirTag items on a map alongside their own iPhone.

A huge advantage of the AirTag is its light weight and discreet design. So simple, so small, so light. You intuitively think: this is exactly how an AirTag should look. Now, the AirTag isn't the world's first Bluetooth tracker. The company Tile, for example, launched stylish Bluetooth trackers years ago. But all Bluetooth trackers share one major problem: their short range of 30 metres at most. In practical terms, this means you have to be close to the Bluetooth tracker with your search device to find the item. To increase the chances of finding it, other providers have developed an anonymous search network that you can join via an app, for example (see the Tile network). So how does Apple solve the range problem? With the AirTag, locating works worldwide despite the short radio range. Really? Yes, it actually works – thanks to the sheer number of Bluetooth devices it can connect with. After all, Apple's network is pretty big. Hundreds of millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs are automatically part of Apple's Find My network. That's the magic ingredient in the AirTag recipe, so to speak, which no other provider in the world can copy. This gives the AirTag an almost unbeatable advantage over conventional Bluetooth trackers. What's more, with the latest Ultra Wideband technology, the AirTag can be pinpointed to within a few centimetres – when it's less than 10 metres away.

The AirTag is a great product, but can it also be used to find cats? We think so. And surveys show that many pet owners already use the AirTag to track their darlings – or would at least like to. That's only logical, since there's no better Bluetooth tracker in the world for finding "items". For dogs, attaching an AirTag to an existing collar is easy. For cats, our Nemo cat collar now makes this possible in a safe and cat-friendly way, too. We expect Apple to further optimise the AirTag for the use case "finding pets" in the coming years.

We want to be transparent. The AirTag also has disadvantages: for example, if it gets lost somewhere with hardly any Apple devices around. Then all that technology is of no use. In other words – an outdoor cat in a rural area with few mobile devices nearby will remain invisible on the map, AirTag or not. After all, the AirTag does not allow active tracking of the cat. When it comes to finding a lost cat, however, even the last known location can be a big advantage – and definitely better than having no information at all. The product's development is far from finished, which is why certain features can and will still change. Some features don't make much sense when it comes to pets. For example, it has been observed that the AirTag sometimes plays a sound when it has been separated from the person who registered it for a certain amount of time. The reason for such features is privacy: the aim is to prevent the AirTag from being used to spy on people. Cats can get a fright from the sudden sound. We therefore recommend getting your cat used to the AirTag slowly and practising with the sound, too.