Samsung EPP: 4-Pack Samsung Galaxy SmartTag2 Bluetooth Locator Tracking Devices Expired

These have worse practical performance than the first generation, which is sad because the hardware is much better. These are crippled because of various factors that shrink the available pool of pingbacks to a relatively small fraction of Samsung phones, and that fraction gets smaller if you consider all Android phones, or all phones in general.

Pingback phones are opt-in with the 2nd generation. When the phone is being setup, the owner has to check the box to include SmartThings Find, otherwise it won't participate in the tag ecosystem. And to even be eligible, a phone has to be one of the luxury-trim flagship models from within the past three generations (e.g. S21 Ultra, S23+, ZFold5). Base models (e.g. S23) and fan editions are not supported for either tracking or participating in pingback. You might see a lot of people walking near the tag, but if they use a S10, A54, ZFold1, S22 FE, Pixel, Nokia, OnePlus, iPhone, or didn't give explicit consent on setup then it does you no good.

Where were you able to learn these specifics on the limitations for pingbacks? I tried researching yesterday when this first posted but haven't found that many concrete sources that are as technically detailed as your descriptions.

I ordered a single one out of caution. I have the original SmartTag and will try both side by side on an upcoming trip's check in bag and see how each performs

As far as I know the information stated about compatability is wrong - sorta. The new smart tag version 2 have both the older technology and the UWB technology. The UWB stuff will only work with a newer phone that has that capability. That's basically only useful when the device is close to you anyways, to help you find it with some directional stuff and the AR stuff. However, it's *not* needed for the device to ping off of other people's devices to be able to be located. At least that's what my understanding is, and from what I've seen in real life usage, both older ones and the newer ones picked up locations about the same on the last trip I did.

I think the bigger and more important question is going to be when Google decides to find release the find my device that's open to all of android devices. I know they delayed because they were waiting on Apple to implement the capability to notice unknown trackers that were google trackers to help the stalking stuff, but it's been about 8 month since that was supposed to come out, which makes me wonder if we'll ever see it. I'm not convinced apple isn't just holding out on releasing it to help hold onto their larger share of the tracking device stuff, there's no real incentive for them to release that update to be able to help google out, so google just needs to release their system and put the pressure on apple to deal with it. And of course, the indications are that the samsung tags won't be compatible with that network, although I wonder if they'll get enough pressure to change that, because one would think it might be something that'd be fixable with a firmware update.

Any update on your findings comparing the different versions? And by original SmartTag, do you mean you have the very first SmartTag that Samsung came out with or the SmartTag+?

Didn't get to use yet for tracking through airports and a flight. But did a trial run at home.

My spouse, who uses an iPhone, took the car keys with a Tile Pro, SmartTag (not plus), and SmartTag2 attached to work. I didn't check if it was able to track / follow them in real time, but the location history for both Samsung tags was pretty accurate. It accurately pinged along the driving route (freeway mostly) to and from work at several minute intervals apart. This is the suburbs of a major metro area though, so many other Samsung users around I imagine.

The Tile Pro I've found generally is incredibly hit or miss, and not worth buying anymore with the alternative competition.

Thanks for the update. Did you see the same location history for both Samsung tags? There was a question in this thread about which Samsung phones are able to ping which tags. Someone was suggesting that there were fewer Samsung phones that could ping a SmartTag 2 compared to the original SmartTag. So wanted to understand if there are really any advantages of the older SmartTag compared to the newer SmartTag 2.

Also, are you using a Samsung phone to view the location history? Not clear to me if a Samsung phone is required for this as well.

Yes location history was pretty identical for both Samsung tags. Every 2-3 mins, maybe every mile or two, on the freeway has a ping for the commutes to and from work.

I have a Samsung S21 FE phone. Dunno if this would work on a non Samsung

-edit / update to above tracking capability
We tried again to check on the commute to work and I tried updating the tag locations throughout the drive to work. The SmartTags both performed poorly on the commute. No updates from either SmartTag along the commute at all today. The first update I saw was from the workplace where many people are. Guess it was hit or miss whether someone on the commute has a Samsung phone capable of picking up the ping.

The Tile to my surprise updated periodically throughout the drive, 4-5 updates. So I take back what I said above about Tile. All these devices seem hit or miss. AirTags which we also use seem the most reliable.