Vratislav Holub The smart AirTag locator is a great accessory for every apple lover. As the label itself implies, with its help you can track the movement of your personal belongings and have an overview of them even if they are lost or stolen. The biggest benefit of AirTag, as with the rest of the products from the Apple portfolio, is the overall connection with the Apple ecosystem.
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Flying around the world with Apple AirTag is therefore part of the Find network. If it is lost or stolen, you will still see its location directly in the native Find application. It works quite simply. This apple network uses the devices of users all over the world. If one of them is located near a specific locator, if the conditions are met, it will send the known location of the device, which will reach the owner via Apple's servers. This way the location can be continuously updated. Very simply, it can be said that "every" apple picker who passes by the AirTag informs the owner about it. Of course without him even knowing about it.
AirTag and Family Sharing
Although AirTag appears to be a great companion for every household, where it very easily keeps track of the movement of important objects and ensures that you never lose it, it still has one major flaw. It does not offer a form of family sharing. If you would like to place the AirTag in, for example, the family car and then monitor it together with your partner, you are out of luck. A smart locator from Apple can only be registered to a single Apple ID. This represents a rather important shortcoming. Not only can the other person then not be able to monitor the evolution of the device's location, but at the same time they may encounter a notification from time to time that the AirTag may be tracking them.
Why can't AirTags be shared?
Now let's look at the most important thing. Why can't AirTag be shared in family sharing? In fact, the "fault" is the level of security. Although at first glance such an option appears to be a simple software modification, the opposite is true. Smart locators from Apple are based on an emphasis on privacy and overall security. That is why they have so-called end-to-end encryption – all communication between the AirTag and the owner is encrypted and no one else has access to it. That is where the stumbling block lies.
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It is also important to understand how the mentioned encryption works. Very simply, it can be said that only the user has the so-called key needed for authentication and communication. How end-to-end encryption works can be found here. This principle is a major obstacle to family sharing. In theory, adding a user would not be a problem - it would be enough to share the necessary key with them. But the problem arises when we want to remove the person from sharing. AirTag would have to be within Bluetooth range of the owner to generate a new encryption key. However, this means that until then, the other person will still have full authority to use the AirTag until the owner gets close to it.
Is family sharing possible?
As we mentioned above, family sharing is theoretically possible, but due to end-to-end encryption, it is not entirely easy to implement. It is therefore a question of whether we will ever see it, or when. A big question mark hangs over how Apple would actually approach the whole solution. Would you like this option, or do you not need to share your AirTag with anyone?
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I would definitely welcome it, actually this is the reason why we don't have a rear AirTag at home.
It would fit on the car handle that my wife and I share...