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Although the months and months of rumors that have come before the arrival of the AirTag have given us a fairly clear idea of ​​its operation before its official presentation, we still have doubts about what the modus operandi will be in certain situations. For example: what do we do if we suddenly come across someone else's AirTag? How should we proceed?

Fortunately, Apple itself gives us clues about it with an official support document that tells the process step by step. It will be enough for us to do a simple check using something that we always have with us: our mobile phone.

Find, approach the mobile and return

Thanks to NFC technology, any modern smartphone that has it (be it an iPhone or an Android terminal) will work. What we have to do is bring the mobile closer to the white part of the AirTag that we have found, because if that AirTag has the lost mode activated, a notification will appear on the phone screen. In case of having an iPhone, this will work better if we touch the AirTag with the top of the device.

In the notification we will see access to an Apple website with the subdomain found.apple.com. In it we can see a message from the owner of the AirTag, that if he has previously put it in 'lost mode', he will have been able to leave instructions on how to return it. Naturally we assume that along with the AirTag there is a valuable object of that person who has lost it.

The AirTag may beep - that's what all these beacons are going to do if they've been set to 'lost mode' and sense themselves moving. As soon as you bring your mobile closer to the AirTag and the NFC works its magic, the beeping will stop.

Apple does not intervene in the process of contacting the owner of the AirTag to return it, but the idea is that between the two people you agree to meet. If for some reason beyond your control you cannot meet him, one thing you can do is leave the AirTag at a police station or lost property office.

What if the person who has my AirTag is a thief?

The support document does not specify details about what to do in case the person who found your AirTag (and the item to which it is attached) has taken it intentionally, but we can see how the AirTag itself will act . It will beep and therefore the thief will be aware of its existence, and at most he will be able to pause the alerts for 24 hours using his mobile. Once that time has passed, the AirTag will start making sounds again every time you move.

These are only hypotheses, but it is likely that the thief keeps the stolen item and gets rid of the AirTag, seeking that his position is not revealed. If that happens, knowing that the autonomy of the AirTag is one year, we could get it back sooner or later.

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