Finding my travel luggage

The most annoying part about checking your luggage is waiting for it to arrive at baggage claim. The second most annoying part is searching for your bag amid dozens of others that look just like it. So when I traveled recently, I slipped a Tile into my luggage tag to see if it would make my bag easier to find.

This was useful

When my luggage finally showed up, the Tile app on my phone showed that the tracker was nearby. I pressed a button to play an alarm from the Tile; it was just loud enough for me to spot my luggage as it arrived.

Finding my car

In a crowded parking lot, my silver Toyota Prius is unremarkable and can be difficult to find. So when I parked in a large lot recently, I stuck a tracker into the glove compartment.

It worked (though there are better ways to find a car)

When walking through the parking lot, I opened the Tile app, which showed the last known location of the tracker on a map. I followed the map, and as I got closer to the location that it indicated, the app signaled the tracker was nearby.

This was helpful, but there are probably better methods for keeping track of where you parked. Some mapping apps, like Google Maps, can automatically detect where you parked and make a note of it on a map. But since I often drive without using a maps app, leaving a tracker in my glove compartment was a decent backup solution.

Tracking my dog

Plenty of pet owners are paranoid about their dogs or cats running away. I was curious to see how effective a Bluetooth tracker would be at tracking down a fast-moving animal.

I recently attached a Tile to the collar of my Labrador retriever, Mochi, and asked my fiancée to take the dog somewhere so I could try finding her.