Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag With UWB Beats AirTags to Market, Launches April 16 for $39.99

Samsung will release the Galaxy SmartTag Plus on April 16 for $39.99, becoming the first mainstream item tracker with support for ultra-wideband technology, The Verge reports.

samsung smarttag luggage
In January, Samsung announced the "Galaxy SmartTag," a small squircle-shaped device that can be used to track and locate items such as keys, bags, and more. Samsung announced two versions of the SmartTag, one that uses Bluetooth LE 5.0 technology and the SmartTag Plus variant that utilizes UWB technology.

UWB, or ultra-wideband technology, offers more precise, short-range location tracking compared to typical Bluetooth. The technology has grown in adoption in recent years as the market for supported UWB accessories is expected to grow.

Yesterday, Apple opened up its Find My network for accessories makers to take advantage of UWB in Apple devices. Under the network, accessory makers will tap into the Find My ecosystem, allowing customers to track their items on their iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Even though the ‌Find My‌ network is tailored for UWB accessories, the Galaxy SmartTag Plus uses
Samsung's own "Galaxy Find Network" and will not be compatible with Apple devices.

Notably, while the ‌Find My‌ network is open to third-party accessory makers who manufacture UWB trackers, Apple has yet to release its own. For the past nearly two years, rumors have swirled about the launch of AirTags, circular devices that would offer UWB item-tracking. Apple has yet to announce the tracker, but it is committed to opening up the ‌Find My‌ networks to others.

One aspect of the AirTags experience is rumored to be the ability for users to use AR inside the ‌Find My‌ app to get directions to their item. Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag Plus now offers that same experience, allowing customers to use a viewfinder in their UWB-enabled Galaxy smartphones to get led to the location of their SmartTag, and hence, whatever item it is attached to.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

Art Mark Avatar
55 months ago
It's all fun and games until the Samsung trackers burst into flames...a joke! Just a joke. But...
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
shapesinaframe Avatar
55 months ago
Since when has Apple ever been first to market for anything? It’s their strategy to NOT be first to market, let the other guys figure out all the bugs and then they launch a product that does it better.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tekriter Avatar
55 months ago
At least the Samsung tag HAS A HOLE IN IT so you can ATTACH IT TO STUFF. I can’t understand why the Apple tags will, apparently, require an additional part - a case - to attach clips, lanyards, etc.

A dongle for a tag.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Expos of 1969 Avatar
55 months ago

Since when has Apple ever been first to market for anything? It’s their strategy to NOT be first to market, let the other guys figure out all the bugs and then they launch a product that does it better.
Perhaps they should have taken that approach with the wonderful butterfly keyboard.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Abazigal Avatar
55 months ago
It's still Samsung going up against the might of Apple's ecosystem and install base on their home turf.

At the end of the day, it's like saying the galaxy gear was released before the Apple Watch. Neither is an alternative to the other, and what people ultimately buy is still going to be dictated by their choice of smartphone.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hodar1 Avatar
55 months ago
Guess I am still not sold on the marketing side, especially at $40+ each. If stolen, a thief would simply remove them. Around the house, I guess my home isn't so cluttered that I need to add a tracking device to anything. What would you track, using a tile, that cannot or is not already being tracked?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)