Tile Is Adding a Literal SOS Button on Its Trackers

Tile trackers have an odd reputation. For one, they’ve long been Apple’s main competitor for its AirTag Bluetooth trackers. At the same time, those tags have run up against accusations they facilitate stalking, even more than Apple’s ultra-popular tracker. Device maker Life360’s latest Tile trackers now have a button to alert your friends if “something is wrong.”

The new trackers have a multi-function button that can alert the users’ friends and the SOS function in the Tile app if “something is wrong.” Press the button three times, and it will send a notification describing your emergency to contacts designated in the Life360 app. If you want your tracker to contact emergency services for you without needing to dial 911, you’ll need to pay for a Gold or Platinum Life360 app subscription for $15 or $25 a month. Those subscriptions also net you a free tracker and other benefits like crash detection.

The company unveiled its first new trackers since Life360 first bought up the brand in 2021. They include a $25 Tile Mate and a $35 Tile Pro with a louder ring and a 500-foot range compared to the previous Pro’s 400-foot range. There’s an additional wallet-sized Tile Slim and a $25 Tile Sticker. As the name suggests, the sticker can purportedly attach to anything and allow for Bluetooth tracking on practically anything. 

Ever wanted to track where you put your portable power bank? The sticker might be a good option. All of them are available starting Monday. The SOS features seem interesting, but despite the new built-in panic, it won’t do much to stop the accusations that Tile has been pretty lax with its anti-tracking efforts.

Tile has been on-again and off-again in its efforts to deter stalking with its trackers. The company rolled out anti-tracking software back in 2022. Like Apple’s AirTag scanning, the “Scan and Secure” feature lets Life360 users search for unwanted tags on their person, though you need to go through the app. The company then implemented another feature that allowed users to make their tags invisible, hiding the trackers from its own scans. To enable the invisible trackers, users needed to offer up biometric data and consent to a potential $1 million lawsuit if they were convicted of stalking. At the time, Life360 claimed the loophole in its anti-stalking initiative was to help users recover stolen items.

“Unlike competitors like Airtags and upcoming products compatible with the Google Find My Device Network, Tile doesn’t alert thieves if they steal an item with one of our trackers,” Tile claims in its press release about its Anti-Theft mode.

Last year, two women in Texas who say they were stalked with the help of a Tile tracker helped file a class action lawsuit against the company. The pair of alleged stalking victims claimed the tracker maker “marketed its product both explicitly and implicitly for the purpose of tracking people—particularly women.” In response, Tile says it does not condone stalking with its trackers and works with law enforcement when those cases crop up. The company also claimed at the time it had received no reports of misuse of its anti-theft mode. That case is ongoing, and Tile’s attorneys has argued that the case should be moved into arbitration.

So the new tags still don’t help anybody concerned they’re being hounded with the help of a Tile tracker. Still, for many people—especially women—who dread electronically-enabled stalking, then it could prove a substantial, though incredibly ironic, peace of mind.