Keys you cannot find just as you are leaving, a wallet left on a café table, a bag forgotten on a bench: most lost items go missing a few metres from us, during a brief moment of distraction. That is exactly when an anti-loss tracker helps.
What an anti-loss tracker is, and what it is not
An anti-loss tracker is a small device linked to your smartphone over Bluetooth. It has no SIM card and no GPS chip: it does not transmit its position continuously and cannot follow an item kilometres away. Its job is simpler, and that is what makes it handy every day: helping you not to lose something, and to find it quickly when it is not far away.
Finding an item nearby
This is the most common use. The keys have slipped between two cushions, the wallet is in the pocket of another jacket: one tap in the app makes the tracker ring. Just follow the sound. At home or in the office, it is often quicker than turning everything upside down.
Getting a warning before you leave without it
This is the most useful feature, and the least known: the separation alert. If the tracker gets too far from your phone, both ring. You leave the café without your bag, you get out of the car leaving your wallet on the seat: the alert goes off as the distance grows, while there is still time to turn back.
Knowing where to start looking
If the item stayed out of range, the app shows on a map the last place where the connection with your phone was lost. It is not real-time tracking: it is the point where you were last together. That is often enough to know whether to go back to the restaurant, the office or the car.
The limits to know
Bluetooth range is roughly 10 to 50 metres depending on the surroundings: walls, metal and crowds reduce it. Beyond that, the tracker can no longer be located, and it cannot find an item that has been stolen and taken far away. For a bike, a vehicle or checked luggage, you need a different kind of device. An anti-loss tracker meets a specific need: everyday forgetfulness and misplaced items.
The matching product
The Wireless Anti-Loss Tracker attaches to a key ring or slips into a bag or wallet. It works with the iFindU app (iOS and Android): remote ring, separation alert and last known location, with no subscription. The rest of the range is in the SentinHome catalogue.
Further reading
To protect a vehicle against theft without break-in, see the RFID anti-theft pouch. And for personal safety on the move, the personal alarm keychain.