Apple will now let you share the location of a lost AirTag with other people. The Find My feature, called Share Item Location and available as part of the just-launched iOS 18.2 public beta, will allow you to share the location of lost luggage with an airline, for example.
When using the feature, you can generate a Share Item Location link within the Find My app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Once you share the link with someone, they can click on it to view an interactive map with the location of your lost item. Apple will update the website automatically when the lost item moves, and it will also display a timestamp when it moved last.
Apple will turn off the feature once you find your lost item. You can also manually stop sharing the location of an AirTag at any time, or the link will “automatically expire after seven days.”
The ability to share your AirTag’s location is available in “most regions worldwide” as part of the iOS 18.2 public beta. If you don’t have the beta, Apple plans on rolling out the update to all users with an iPhone X or later “soon.” MacRumors reported on the capability in the second developer beta of iOS 18.2 last week.
As part of the rollout, Apple is partnering with over 15 airlines, including Delta, United, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Air Canada, and more. All of these airlines will be able to “privately and securely” accept links to lost items, as “access to each link will be limited to a small number of people, and recipients will be required to authenticate in order to view the link through either their Apple Account or partner email address.” This feature will be available to airlines in the “coming months.”
Additionally, SITA, a baggage tracing solution, will also implement Share Item Location into its luggage tracker.
Read the full article here
