Pebblebee trackers for Android initial review: The best option, for now, is still held back

Tracker tags are a simple idea, but one that’s easy to get wrong. While the failings of Google’s Find My Device network rest largely on Google, it’s equally important to get the hardware right, and that’s where I feel Pebblebee’s Android trackers really shine. For now, they’re the best you can get.

The hardware

Pebblebee offers a trio of trackers for Android’s Find My Device network. There’s the Clip, the Card, and the Tag. Each has its own use case.

The Clip is the most general of the three, and also the cheapest at $29.99. The tracker features a circular design with a built-in hole. This hole could be used with a traditional key ring, but it comes in the box with a carabiner-like clip. I used this to attach the Clip to my backpack, where it’s felt strudily attached ever since. The Clip’s hardware also includes an LED light around the edge of the hardware to show battery and pairing status. There’s also a full-size USB-C port for charging the internal battery. 

Next in line is the Card, a tracker dedicated to housing in your wallet which runs $34.99. The Card is roughly as thick as two or three credit cards and pretty easily slides into even the thinnest wallets. I use a very small Peak Design Slim Wallet and the Pebblebee Card fits in perfectly with my cards and documents already inside. The Card, unlike the Clip, requires a proprietary magnetic charger to replenish its internal battery. This is a bit more cumbersome, inherently, but it works well enough given the fact you only have to do this every year and a half (at least by Pebblebee’s estimate).

Finally, there’s the Tag which also costs $34.99. This is the smallest of the batch, and comes with an adhesive sticker and a rubber case to help you mount it to different places. This one seems ideal for something like a bike or some other hard surface item, but the small size also makes it the most versatile of the bunch here. It’s equally good for tracking a big object, or just sneaking into a tiny little spot in your bag. Like the Card, this one requires a charger, but the charging cables are interchangeable if you buy both devices.

Setup

Setting up a Pebblebee tracker for the Find My Device network is dead simple and handled entirely through your Android phone without the need to install any new apps. On unboxing, you’ll be given a QR code that leads to a web app with easy-to-understand instructions. But, even if you skip that, it’s pretty simple.

Each of the trackers has a button under the logo which activates pairing mode. I found that a slow double-tap is the most reliable way to trigger the Fast Pair on my phone. I also found these to connect way faster than the Chipolo trackers I’d set up prior to that.

• Hands-on: Setting up Pebblebee’s Find My Device trackers

After the Fast Pair UI pops up on your phone, setup is as simple as linking to your Google account, then diving into each tracker in the Find My Device app and setting the name and item type. It’s all super easy.

How well does it actually work?

But the big question, of course, is how well this all actually works. 

It’s a mixed bag.

Here’s the good news. Pebblebee, I feel, has the best Find My Device hardware available today for Android’s network. In my experience Pebblebee’s trackers are more reliable compared to options from Chipolo. They connect within a few seconds if they’re nearby and generally succeed in making the connection 90% of the time. So, put simply, it works.

But the downfall here is the Find My Device network itself. The network isn’t fully rolled out yet and only works (by default) in “high-traffic” areas. This means that it simply won’t work in say, a home in the suburbs. So, hypothetically, if I leave a tracker in my bag in a friend’s car and they don’t use an Android phone, it’s unlikely it’ll be found unless they happen to drive through a busy area of town. I strongly feel Google made a misstep in making that the default setting, even if it does offer better privacy on the whole.

The other downside is the polling rate at which the network seems to try to find nearby trackers. On a trip to Paris, where the network is even less widely rolled out than it is in the States, I noticed that a tracker in my hotel room (right near the door) never once updated while I was out for the entire day. I’m hoping to learn more about how these trackers update as I do more Stateside traveling in the coming weeks, but so far I’ve not been super impressed with how often the trackers actually update their location.

This also applies even just at home. One of the things I was really excited about with Find My Device was that Google said it was going to leverage Nest devices and be able to tell you how close your device is to a particular speaker or smart display in your home. That’s wildly cool and would be super useful for finding keys or a wallet, but that doesn’t work nearly as well as I hoped. Some devices will tell me they’re “near Office Nest Hub,” but others just tell me they’re “near Home,” the latter being pointless information to be frank. Even when they do give me a speicifc device, too, it’s often not the one they’re closest to (though, admittedly, I definitely have more Nest devices in my home than the average user).

There’s also the lack of UWB, a needed talking point. UWB (ultra-wideband) allows Apple’s AirTag to be found with pinpoint directions from a nearby iPhone. Samsung offers the same with its Galaxy SmartTag 2. But Pebblebee doesn’t. The Find My Device app uses Bluetooth to give you a rough estimation, but it’s a lot more cumbersome and relies on more guesswork to help you actually find the tracker. Is it a dealbreaker? Absolutely not, especially seeing as many Android phones don’t even have the needed hardware. But I can’t help but wish that Pebblebee will offer this in a future version of its trackers. In the meantime, it looks like Motorola will be the first to offer this functionality.

The bones of a good tracker are within the Find My Device network, and Pebblebee’s hardware seems up to the challenge, but actual use has been disappointing.

Final thoughts… for now

I waited in eager anticipation for a year for AirTag-like trackers to come to Android. Google’s reveal of the Find My Device network was exciting, and I was so ready to start using trackers. 

But, now that they’ve arrived, they’re simply underwhelming. 

As my colleague Damien explained in his review of Chipolo’s trackers, the current state of these trackers on Android is “woeful.” I don’t think that’s the fault of the trackers themselves, though. Especially in the case of the Pebblebee options, which on a hardware level seem to be solid, it really just comes down to the failings of the Find My Device network and how it’s been implemented on Android.

And Google seems to be willing to admit things aren’t in the state they should be. The company says improvements are coming, and is owning up to the fact that the default “high-traffic” setting just doesn’t do the trick in most cases. I don’t see that default changing anytime soon, as going back on that privacy decision would look far worse than if Google had just made it work everywhere to begin with. 

So, with that in mind, this isn’t a final verdict. I think it’s far too early to make a call because, even with Google’s built-in flaws, the network isn’t even fully available yet. We’ll continue to test these trackers out over the months to come as it does go online across the globe.

But, for now, I think Pebblebee has the strongest offering. Between better connections, rechargeable batteries, and the hardware itself, this is the best option available today. And it’s a shame that Google is holding it back from its true capabilities.

Where to buy Pebblebee’s Android trackers

• Pebblebee.com
• Google Store