Apple's brand new AirTags have been available in much of the world since Friday last week. While Apple tries to describe the ways an AirTag can be used to find lost items, many users are still surprised and disappointed to learn that the location of an AirTag cannot be shared with other family members.
At first glance, sharing the location of an AirTag via Apple's Family Sharing feature should be a breeze, as individual members of a Family Sharing group can use the "Find My" app to see the location of other family members' Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, AirPods, and Apple Watches. A quick note: This, of course, requires the active consent of each user to share their location. Be that as it may.
“If Tile has already figured out how to do this, I’m sure Apple can too.”
Given these Family Sharing privileges, many users understandably assumed that an AirTag attached to an item regularly used by more than one person in the household (e.g., a set of keys) could be tracked by multiple family members in Find My. Unfortunately, AirTags don't work in Find My like other Apple devices. As a result, several users have expressed their displeasure on Apple's community support forum, on Reddit, and various other online platforms. writes for example Apple Communities user MikeyPD:
It's very disappointing that there is currently no option to share AirTags with family members. This is a very handy feature that Tile (and other trackers too) offers. I think I should have read up on this before ordering. I guess it just seemed like such a no-brainer feature that I didn't even think to check it. I hope this feature is added soon. If Tile could already figure out how to do this, I'm sure Apple can too. This is quite a flop.
As a reminder, as Apple has previously explained, the only AirTag privilege granted to people in an iCloud Family Sharing group is the ability to mute the “AirTag Detected” security alert that appears when an AirTag is with them but is registered to someone else—for example, their partner.
AirTag Family Sharing: Apple could add feature via software update
Side note: The owner of the AirTag can also disable the safety alerts to prevent another person's iPhone from recognizing it as unwanted tracking. But that's all the Family Sharing functionality does. AirTags are only intended to be owned by one person. This means that there is currently no way to share the location of an AirTag with another family member who uses a separate Apple ID. Why this is the case is of course not known. At this point, one can only speculate. It is likely that Apple ignored this feature due to privacy concerns. However, it is not impossible that Apple will add the option at some point via a software update. (Photo by hadrian / Bigstockphoto)
