Apple’s AirTag users will find it easy to spot lost luggage with an airline. The company now lets you share the location of a lost AirTag with other people. The Find My feature, called Share Item Location and available as part of iOS 18.2 public beta, will allow users to share the location of lost luggage with, for example, an airline.
The Share Item Location addition can create a link with the Find My app on an iPhone, iPad or Mac. You can then share that link with someone to pull up a map that will show the location of a missing item. You can manually turn off sharing or the link will “automatically expire after seven days”.
Of course, you need to ensure there is a charged battery in your AirTag before beginning your journey.
Apple has said that in the coming months, more than 15 airlines — including Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic, and Vueling — will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service process for finding delayed bags. More airlines will be added over time.
Share Item Location is built on the Find My network, a crowdsourced network of over one billion Apple devices that use Bluetooth wireless technology to detect missing devices or items nearby, and report their approximate location back to the owner. The entire process is end-to-end encrypted and anonymous.