AirCard has features that Apple cannot offer

Apple AirTag is a sensational device, one of the top 25 travel gadgets out there. But its shape isn’t perfect for every situation. It doesn’t fit well in a wallet, for example, because the leather initially bulges unsightly due to its cute, rounded design. And since you definitely don’t want to lose your wallet, you need an alternative.

Now there is one. It’s barely thicker than a credit card and offers the same sensational findability as AirTag because it’s compatible with Find My. It’s called AirCard, and it has other neat features that AirTag can’t match and that other trackers have yet to roll out.

A word about the Nomad Card for AirTag, though. This is a nicely designed accessory – as you would expect from Nomad, a reliably brilliant brand – that largely solves the pesky bulging problem. It’s a card-shaped device with an AirTag-shaped hole in the middle. It is flat on one side and slightly curved on the other so that the bulge is distributed. It’s a great option and you can buy it now for $20 at nomadgoods.com.

But it’s the new AirCard that’s really changing the game. It’s as flat as a pancake (though probably a little less flavorful) and the size of a credit card, so it’ll easily fit in your wallet.

It’s 2.2mm thick, which is about the thickness of a 1.6-inch credit card. Despite this, it feels sturdy and durable thanks to the smooth and tactile tempered glass shell covering the aluminum body and lacks any unwanted flexing.

AirCard is compatible with Apple’s Find My network. As you know, this means that Lost Mode will silently send messages to any passing Apple device, which will return that information to Find My without disturbing the Apple user. The Find My app will then alert you to the last seen location of the AirCard. It’s the breadth and depth of this Find My network that makes the AirCard so appealing.

Also, it looks cool with see-through elements that are all the rage right now. And thanks to the speaker with a volume of 105 dB, it can reproduce sounds, according to the company. That means if you search for it via “Find My,” you can instruct it to make a noise, and a snappy trill tune can easily be heard from across the room, though perhaps not much farther away. The little tune is oddly catchy, by the way – I just caught myself whistling it by mistake.

There’s also NFC and a QR code that acts as a digital ID. NFC is there so you can touch it with a phone to instantly transfer your data through the company’s bespoke platform. This worked immediately on my Google Pixel 7 Pro. Other phones can scan the QR code to get the same result. It also means that if someone scans the code while in Lost Mode, your information and any messages you have left could be shared, for example if you offer a reward.

And the eye-catching design, by the way, means someone who finds it might be more tempted to scan the QR code given it’s such an intriguing device.

Most of the card is made up of a battery, a super-thin 540mAh lithium cell that the company claims will last two and a half years. It is non-rechargeable, but after this time you will receive a code for a 50% discount on a replacement. If you send it back to AirCard, most of the components will be reused, the company says, or you can continue to use it as a digital business card.

It is available on kickstarter.com and is expected to ship in August of this year. After that, it will be available on Rollingsquare.com in the third quarter of this year. The expected price is around $42 (€39), but that could change. However, there are several early bird prices on Kickstarter. Please note that the Kickstarter campaign will end soon.