Tile should—and needs to—do better than the DIY-looking “Tile for Cats”

Enlarge / So they put a Tile tracker on a cat... now what? (credit: Tile)

Did you know Tile sells Bluetooth trackers for your cat? Why don’t you just stick a small tracker on something cheap and attach it to your cat’s collar, you say? Well, that’s exactly what Tile did. At a time when Bluetooth-tracking companies should be rethinking their approach and reputation among shoppers, a Tile Sticker slapped on a cheap collar attachment feels like a wasted opportunity.

It took a surprisingly long time for Tile to release an official pet tracker, but Tile for Cats finally became available Wednesday for $40—$10 more than a Tile Sticker's solo MSRP. Tile's announcement describes the product as the simplistic solution it is. It merely “combines Tile Sticker with a silicone collar attachment."

And that's the first reason why Tile for Cats doesn't feel like an exciting new product—and it doesn't look like one either. If someone wanted something that looked like a DIY pet tracker, they'd probably make one. That device would also probably have something cuter written on it than "Tile," like this GPS pet tracker on Hackaday that says "Squeak."

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