Tile - Find lost keys & phone

I also like this idea and have been looking for something like it, but I wonder if the batteries in the tiles can be either replaced or recharged or when the battery dies would you have to get a whole new tile?

My sister got something like this for Christmas but instead of tile this one is called trackr. Has anyone heard of it? I am also wondering about app accessibility and batteries for this one.

I actually received a set of tiles for Christmas, and while setting up an account with the app was doable, despite the issues with some of the elements being badly labeled, the login screen itself has a major issue. While the edit fields on the sign-up page are detected by VoiceOver as actual edit fields, the login screen fields are not. I had a live chat with a company representative earlier this afternoon, and have apprised them of this issue, given the potential this app has for use, e.g. tracking ones luggage when trying to find it after a flight in baggage claim.
If I hear of any improvements , I'll happily be posting an update here.
As to the batteries, from what I've read, when they are exhausted, one has to order new tiles.

We have posted a current article on iAccessibility.net about this, and we have sent our article to the developers of Tile through Twitter You can view the article at Traveling Made Easy with Tile - iAccessibility

Good article. However I've heard wonderful reviews from blind people who have no trouble using the app. I don't have a tile myself, however a tactle button would not be a good idea s that mark can fall off.

1. VoiceOver accessibility of TIle is overall quite-poor: everything from sign-in, pairing, naming, location, etc. is not very usable...
2. Once battery is depleted, you must purchase new ones.
3. Trackr is not much better...
4. It'd be great if one/both of these solutions were accessible :)

Here is the exact tweet I got on both my accounts. It looks like they won't join this forum or my own.

Thanks for the feedback. If you suggestions to improve Tile submit them here: bit.ly/Tile-Ideas. We consider each one! :)

I'm not sure if this is a canned response. I get the feeling it is.

The Tile app is usable but certainly not designed accessibly. The names of tiles appear in the list as Text_Tile_name and relabeling them doesn't work. So, you need to memorize the order in which they appear on the list, if you have several of them. Although buttons throughout the app are unlabeled, there's recognizable text to reveal their function in almost all cases, and they can be relabeled. In the Settings panel, there are three unlabeled on/off buttons. The first one, under the Tiles heading, toggles whether or not to add the phone itself to the list of tiles. Under Options, the first button is whether or not to use Bluetooth (effectively turning the app on and off), while the second is to enable battery-saving mode. Location services for this app drain the battery quickly; I don't know if this option turns those off or does something else.
It goes without saying that the map view is unusable, although it would be usable if they were able to use the Apple Maps interface.
Adding a tile threw me for a loop for a long time, because the path to adding it goes through a screen for selecting which type of product. I mistakenly took this to be a screen for buying a product.
There's no usability issue with the Tile Mate itself: there's an embossed label on the button; and, besides, just squeeze the whole thing. The tones played by the tiles are customizable for each tile.
Finally, the settings panel contains a "free tiles" button, which sends you to a Web page that I couldn't find anything on about free tiles. Visiting it on a computer browser reveals that you get a free tile after you refer it to four people who then buy products.

Has anyone tried contacting Tracker to see if they would be willing to make their app more accessible? I lose my stuff alot then find it to lose it again so something like this would be great for me!

I contacted them via twitter on both of my accounts and got a reply saying to report the feedback at their help page. By the way that was not very helpful.

As of now, names of tiles are still unlabeled/unlabellable. I considered Tile pretty much useless for a long time, since it hardly ever actually could find my phone from the tile mate. It would lose contact and even now sometimes it finds my girlfriend's phone instead of mine, because I shared it with her so that she could do the honors if needed. More recently, however, it seems more stable. And, it's finally at least possible to double-tap the [insert image of tile here] to get to the screen where you can press the Find tile button. That used to be a trick, too. So, although what I said above still applies, it's at least usable. I think this is the one to put pressure on to make more accessible. It's smaller than the TrackR, and overall it has better reviews. I found the whole thing totally useless for several months of ownership, but in the past few days, I've successfully used it several times to find my tiled laptop and used my key ring to find my phone (which I can also do even more reliably, fyi, with IFTTT and an Echo Dot). Overall, I have found that I haven't needed it one single time to find my keys. Turns out I don't lose them as often as I thought. And, IFTTT does well to find my phone, when I don't have a Mac or a friend handy to call it. But it does seem to work better than it used to, fwiw.

Thanks for thsi, I was not aware of this. I might still get one of these as I'm losing my phone and my suit cases when I travel.

Well, I again gave them this link, and tweeted them, got the same canned reply. Thanks for the feedback, please dm us etc etc etc. I sure hope enough of us write, email, tweet, facebook, etc. I'm losing stuff all the time.

What's New in Version 2.10.0

Now supports VoiceOver - allowing accessibility for the Tile app to be navigated with ease.

On my initial pass through the app, it looks great.

THe update of TIle app went from unusable with VoiceOver to accessible.
This is awesome!

THis makes me want to continue with TIle and and not move to TrackR (just wish the feature-set and extensibility would match). e.g. separation alert and digital assistant service/skill.

I was pleased to discover this morning that the tile app from now works with voiceover. Advocating for yourself sometimes really works!

I opened the app to figure out where I'd lost my mind, and, lowe and behold, the app is beautifully accessible now.

I went to the web site and it looked like there may be different tials depending on what you wanted to use them for but I couldn't find any prices.

I would want to use the app to find things when I misplace them around the house, such as the glass I drink out of because a lot of times I'll put it down to do something and then forget where I put it so I thought I could attach a tial to my glass, then I was thinking of attaching a tial to the lawn chair that I sit in outside so I wouldn't have to move it every time I need to get up and I could go back to it where it sits using the app instead of moving it to where I can find it every time I get up. Would the app be good to use in those 2 situations, and if so does anybody know how much the tials are that I'd need to get?

You might need to check your spelling. That could be why you're having difficulty finding prices. The tile mate is probably your best bet, is $20 apiece. A little less if you buy them in a four pack. You can attach it to a twisty tie to put around a chairarm or Handle of a glass,

I normally hate to be one of these snotty people that corrects people's spelling, but I think in this case it might actually matter. In this case, the word tile is spelled t. I. l. e. If you look for T. i. a. l. you probably won't have much luck. I'm glad this app is finally accessible, i was thinking of calling it a mess, but now it might be something i'd consider using!

The App is ow fully accessible and in theory is a fantastic idea. I find the App doesn't work all the time to find the tile and less often when trying to find the phone with the tile. You actually have to be quite close. Eg. if your wallet is under paper on your desk and your standing next to the desk it work well. If you on the other side of the room for example 6 or more feet it does not always work. The manufactures state that it work from a maximum of 30 feet. I have found this rarely worked. However over all if your like me an can't see your wallet on the kitchen bench and can't exactly remember where you put it (senile moment) it is very helpful. and I'd recommend it. I suspect this App and tiles will improve over time.

I've been using Tile now for about 2 months now. It is fully accessible, and I would highly recommend it! Even though there is an investment in the tiles, it is well worth it if you are a person who is always losing your iPhone, keys, laptop, backpack or purse!

I've been keeping an eye on this app for a few months, and now that it's apparently more accessible than it may've been before I'm wondering if it would be good for a couple of things I'd like to use it for, and if it is I'd like suggestions of which of the tiles I need to get since there seems to be a few different ones on the web site.

I drink out of the same container all the time, a large thermal metal cup, and quite often I'll put it down somewhere and then I have trouble finding it when I want it again. It sounds like this app with the tiles would be perfect for locating the cup when I misplace it but am I right, and if so which of the tiles would work best? Btw there's no handle on this cup.

The other place I'd like to use this app is outside to find my lawn chair so that I don't have to always move it up by the house where I can find it if I need to come inside for a short time. I was thinking that I could attach a tile to the chair and then use the app to find it again if I had to get up for any reason. Again if this is feasible though I need to get suggestions about which tile would be best to attach to the chair.

To the commenter above me, I'm not sure about putting the tile on a cup, as it says they're water resistant but not water proof, unless I read that wrong. As for the lawn chair idea, interesting one, and based on what I saw, I'm guessing the tile mate might be the option, as you could then zip tie it to the chair.

As for me, I've not used these things yet, but now that I see the app is accessible, I just bought a pack and anxiously await their arrival. No more running around stressing about where on earth I might've set my keys the night before! I'm usually good about putting them away in the same place, but it never fails that the morning I'm in a hurry or overslept is when I misplaced them and am frantically trying to figure out what I was thinking when I had them last. And, that's just the first use I've come up with. I'm pretty sure I'll come up with more and quickly. :)

Does anyone know of any tutorial podcasts/podcast episodes for Tile on iOS? If so, direct links would be best.