Tile launches a new cat tracking tag with three years of battery life

Tile, rival to AirTag now owned by Life360, today launched a new cat tracking tag to help pet owners find their furry friends. The new device, "Tiles for Cats", it's basically a modified version of Tile Sticker with a silicone collar that costs $39,99.

The company claims that the Tile for Cats' battery lasts up to three years and that the sticker can be easily changed. The tracker also has a range of 250 feet (76,2 meters) and works with Android and iOS devices.

The new device not only helps cat owners locate a missing pet, but could also be useful for those times when the cat is simply hiding in a "dark place," Tiles says.

Like other Tile devices, the product offers integration with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant so you can easily find your cat using voice commands.

The package includes a Tile sticker and a collar attachment that is compatible with almost all standard cat collars. The company claims that the accessory can be stretched up to 1,7 times without breaking. Also, Tile for Cats is waterproof, so a few drops of liquid or a cat licking it won't affect it.

This is the company's first foray into pet products, as it doesn't yet offer a Tile for dogs, for example. But the company had already hinted last year, after its acquisition by family tracking app Life360, that it considered pets part of the "family."

The move is also a clever ploy by the company to modify an existing product in order to offer a low-cost Bluetooth-based tracking solution for a specific niche.

There are many GPS trackers on the market starting at a base price of $50, and some offer monthly subscriptions for additional features. However, at around $40, Tile's device is more expensive than Apple's $29 AirTag, plus a few more dollars for the cat collar. Tile's device also has a smaller "search network" as it Air Tag Take advantage of Apple's vast network of more than 2.000 million of iPhones and other Apple devices worldwide, while Tile is limited to the Life360 user base.

Even so, AirTag doesn't come with a mechanism to clip it to a pet's collar; To do this, another product would have to be purchased, which would increase the total cost. Tile for Cats It's available now on Tile.com and comes in black and white.