Life360, an industry leader in family locator apps, has fully absorbed Tile’s lost-item tracking technology into its flagship app. This news follows from more than three and a half years after Life360 bought Tile for $205 million dollars in 2021. The move is a big win for improving user experience, making it easier to track and measure everything in one place.
In 2022, Life360, Tile’s parent company, announced its plans to integrate Tile’s features into its own app. With this integration now live, Life360 users can find their most important items directly from Life360, thanks to Tile’s powerful item-finding technology. This step would render the Tile app and its future equivalents redundant in time. Many users will find themselves turning to Life360, whose best-in-class tracking services may tempt them away from the competition.
To owners of the new Tile devices, the integration will provide big advantages. Over the next few weeks, the Life360 app will be powered by these devices. Those who misplace items will have the advantage of viewing up to two days of location history for free, streamlining the process of locating lost belongings. According to the company, this feature in particular is meant to woo existing Tile users who want a more sophisticated answer to item tracking.
As Life360 adds Tile’s capabilities, it hopes to merge its user base with Tile’s. If successful, this strategy would make Life360 the biggest locating network in the industry. If current Tile users migrate to Life360 as their main tracking solution, the potential becomes even richer. The competitive landscape includes challengers such as Chipolo. They’ve released a new form factor for lost-item trackers that work fluidly with Apple and Google’s finding networks already baked into their smartphones.
Tile has been a longtime competitor in the Bluetooth-based tracker market, competing with products such as Apple’s AirTag. Through the addition of Tile’s technology, Life360 diversifies its service offerings and strengthens its mission of connecting families and keeping them safe. The integration not only brings new capabilities to Life360, it enables the company to evolve its solution away from simple location tracking to a more robust item-finding experience.
Sarah, a reporter for TechCrunch, who has been following the story as it unfolded between Life360 and Tile. She explains the far-reaching consequences of their union for advertisers, publishers and…well everyone. The rollout of Tile’s technology into Life360 is the latest sign that dangerous consumer tracking solutions are on the rise.
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