This is the one Apple app that Android users need to download

Android users might not have an AirTag but this is the only way to be sure you're not being tracked by one

Tracker Detect app for Android
(Image credit: Future)

Apple's AirTags have proved extremely popular as a way to keep track of everything from your key and luggage to your pets. We've even heard stories of cars being recovered after an Air Tag was left inside. 

There have also been a few less ethical uses, such as parents placing them in their kids' bags or clothing or even used to other people. If you're an Apple user, it's now easy to find out if you have another AirTag close to you, but often Android users have been left in the dark. Until now. 

Tracker Direct is an Android app created by Apple for just this purpose and is available now on the Google Play store. It allows you to detect AirTags and other devices on Apple's Find My network. The app will not only alert you to the device's presence but it will tell you exactly where it is and help you identify it. 

Tracker Detect for Android

(Image credit: Apple)

While the obvious use-case here is to identify surreptitiously placed trackers about your person it also has more innocent uses. If for instance, you find an item – a bag or keys – that has a tracker on it, it will help you to reunite it with its owner.

The downside here, of course, is that anyone purposely taking your possessions can use this to scan for an AirTag and remove it so that it can no longer be tracked – which could impede one of the AirTag's best uses.

So maybe the answer here is that this is a useful app to have but not one you want to tell too many people about.

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Mat Gallagher

As T3's Editor-in-Chief, Mat Gallagher has his finger on the pulse for the latest advances in technology. He has written about technology since 2003 and after stints in Beijing, Hong Kong and Chicago is now based in the UK. He’s a true lover of gadgets, but especially anything that involves cameras, Apple, electric cars, musical instruments or travel.