Tile Mate Key Finder, Phone Finder, Item Finder

How many times have you lost your phone or wallet in your own house? You have searched everywhere, back and forth, for couple of times only to find them under a file of laundry clothes or on top of the fridge. You know what they say, it's always in the last place you looked. But it's on that dreaded morning when you are running late when it's really annoying to look for car keys or phone and can't find them. Well, Tile Mate has a solution for you!

Tile Mate is a phone finder, key finder, or an item finder in general that helps you track almost anything that can be difficult to find and you can't afford to lose. It's a square plastic tile that is 1.3 by 1.3 inches and 0.2 inches thick that you can put in your wallet or hook onto your keys, purse, or backpack so you can easily find them later on. It works with an app that allows you to ring the tile when it's missing or vice versa by ringing your phone through the tile.

Tile Mate is water resistant up to IP5 standards so you don't have to worry about it getting wet in the rain or spilled with drink. Just don't drop it in a pool or put in the washer and you're good.

The Tile app is free to download and very easy to navigate. It works on both Apple iOS and Android operating systems with Bluetooth 4.0 or BLE. Take note that the app communicates wirelessly with the tile via Bluetooth with version 4.0 or BLE. Without this, it won't work. The signal range is 30 to 100 feet which is the typical for Bluetooth. Using the app on your smartphone, you can ring the tile when it's within the Bluetooth range by hitting "Find." If it happens that you have your tile with you and your smartphone is missing, you can press the button on the tile twice to ring your smartphone, which is pretty cool. If you try to ring a muted phone, it will still ring loud. Just make sure your app on your mobile device is on. At 100 feet, it might not be most effective because you won't be able to hear the ring anyways. When your Tile and your mobile device are within range from each other, they constantly communicate with each other using the proximity sensor that shows your distance from your Tile. If they got out of range, your app will automatically save the last location so you can use it as a reference to point where the Tile is last located. You do not need to keep your Bluetooth on at all times. When you want to find the tile, just launch the app and hit the button on your screen to ring the Tile. But for best and most accurate experience, you'll need to have your app running at all times on your phone so that the location is up to date.

For $24.99 a piece at Amazon, it boils down to like $2 per month which is inexpensive considering the benefit of saving you time and money when you recovered your lost item. And if you buy the 4-pack or 8-pack, you'll save even more.

Tile Mate is not only effective on your phone, wallet, or small items. You can use the Tile on your vehicle so you can easily find it in a huge parking lot. When at the airport, you can sit back and do something else instead of standing by the carousel waiting for your luggage because the app can tell you when your tile is in range if you attached it to your luggage. Though Tile Mate is not designed for this, you can hook a tile on your cat's collar so you can find out where he's hanging out. I bet it would work on your kids too especially when in a mall or crowded places.

There are over 5 million Tile devices out there which allows you to take advantage of another bonus feature... the "Notify When Found." If you lost your Tile somewhere and someone with the app on their phone walks by your missing Tile, you will receive a notification of where it was found. Assuming it stays in the same location, you should be able to retrieve it. It might also help you find something stolen, as long as the item didn't change its last location. The app is free and you can ask your friends and family to download the app to help you locate your tile especially in case of theft. If you have a drone, this might help if it went out of range too. The Tile community is a great source when you need a helping hand.

With its small and sleek design, it makes a perfect gift for your friends and family or to someone you know who keeps losing things. Tile makes an excellent gift to anyone you know who is always missing something. You can give away your Tile as a gift as long as you have not registered it under your own account. A Tile can be shared between two devices logged into the same Tile account. But only one device can connect to the Tile at once.

You can buy the Tile sticker so you can stick it to your item just in case you don't want to use the hole. There are also stylish skins available for your Tile.

If you take your privacy seriously, then make sure you read and understand the Terms of Service and Privacy Statements of the company. Like mentioned in the PROS, the app on one's phone can communicate to every Tile in range, which means the Tile company knows where your Tile is or where it has been. The other app users won't be able to see the location of your Tile though.

The Tile's battery can only lasts for a full year and can't be replaced. Before the 12th month, you will be notified so you can participate in the reTile program by trading it in for a new Tile for a slightly cheaper price (typically $15). They will even send you a return envelope so you can send your Tile back for recycling.

Tile app is not compatible with Kindle devices and any Amazon devices. (There seems to be a connectivity issue with smartphones that have Android 6.0.0 Marshmallow but should be resolved if you update it to Android 6.0.1.)

It is not IFTTT (If This Then That) compatible which is a web-based service that allows the device to interact with other web services or applets. Maybe in the near future.

The Tile Mate is not a GPS tracker but a Bluetooth tracker. It is not designed to provide live update of the location of your Tile like a GPS or what is known as geo-fencing capability to define geographical boundaries.

There are other Phone or Key finder out there in various shapes and sizes but so far Tile Mate comes out on top in terms of reliability and customer support. For sure, Tile Mate will have more advanced features in the future or wide range of compatibility but it is definitely a nice little gadget.