Apple hasn't refreshed the AirTags since their 2021 launch, despite the fact that they've become one of the most popular item tracking products. That's going to change in 2025, and we are expecting the AirTags 2 in the coming months.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman initially said that the next-generation AirTags would launch in the middle of the year (which is now), but we might have a longer wait. Recent information from 9to5Mac suggests that Apple will debut AirTags 2 in September at its iPhone launch event.
If Apple were going to launch new AirTags in the middle of the year, we probably would have seen them introduced at WWDC in June. That didn't happen, so September is the next likely target date. Gurman did say just ahead of WWDC that the updated AirTags are "nearly ready" to launch, and there is a possibility that AirTags 2 will be announced via press release rather than at an event, so it's still unclear whether Gurman or 9to5Mac is correct.
Rumors agree that new AirTags are not far off, so expect to see them at some point between July and September. If you're planning to buy an AirTag, it's probably worth holding off to see what Apple has in store.
There are no rumors of an updated design, so the AirTag 2 might look a lot like the original AirTag. We're not expecting a rechargeable battery either, which is a bit of a disappointment.
The AirTag 2 is expected to include a second-generation UWB chip that improves tracking range. With the new technology, you will be able to track an AirTag with Precision Finding from up to 3x further away. The UWB 2 chip in the iPhone has a range of approximately 200 feet, and the AirTag 2 could match that.
Apple is planning to make the speaker in the AirTag 2 harder to remove, which will prevent people from pulling out the speaker and using the device for stalking purposes. Along those same anti-stalking lines, Apple plans to make the speaker louder than before too.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested Apple will integrate the next-generation AirTags with the Vision Pro for improved spatial computing, but it's not quite clear what role AirTags would play.
Pricing is not expected to change if there aren't going to be notable new features, and battery life is also likely to remain the same if Apple is sticking to the CR2032 batteries.
What new features would you like to see in the AirTag 2? Let us know in the comments below.
