- You ever lost anything on the Underground.
Say like your keys, this video could be for you
with the release of a new Apple product, this is an AirTag.
It uses Bluetooth, not GPS.
As we'll discuss later.
To let you find things.
And what I'm wondering is, if you lost something
on the Tube, on the underground, on a platform
does the WiFi that exists on the U nderground
detect these and give you the location?
Today, we're going to find out.
But to make this work
I'm going to need some assistance.
So I've employed ... by which I mean, asked to turn up for free.
My tech friend, David, to help me with this.
Mr. David McClelland.
- Hello, how are you doing?
- [Geoff] Check journalist extraordinaire.
- We're going to do a thing, Geoff
what are we going to do?
- [Geoff] Okay, I've just sanitised it.
- Okay.
- [Geoff] Would you like to?
- Thank you for that.
- [Geoff] We'll do the hand off.
- Here we are.
- Just for a laugh.
I got a prop of some child's keys
that I thought you could have.
Let's pretend those are my keys
but I haven't actually attached the AirTag to the keys.
The challenge is
is that you're going to take my fake keys and my AirTag.
- Yep.
- And starting at King's Cross.
I'm going to give you a 20 minutes headstart.
- Okay.
- And you're going to go to any random Zone 1
tube station without telling me
I don't know where you're going.
And then in 20 minutes time, I'm going to use the
find my app on my phone and see
if the wifi on the underground has geo location built in.
And because you've only got your Android phone
you're not your iPhone, your iPhone won't detect it.
We're relying on other people's Apple devices
underground to report in where my AirTag is and where you are.
Is that correct?
- Yes, it is.
And I'm going to put all of my other apple devices
including my apple watch onto aeroplane mode as well
just to make sure that there's no sneaky Apple magic
with another non iPhone device that might be
helping to locate this.
20 minutes Geoff?
I don't know that peoples eh iPhones on the Underground.
First of all, they would need to be connected
to the wifi on the underground
which I don't think many peoples are necessarily
going to be automatically.
So yeah, I think it's as well
that we set a time limit maybe an hour.
I don't know.
So five o'clock meet back here.
Let's meet back here.
- [Geoff] If I don't see you then here at five.
- All right.
- [Geoff] I hope.
- Mask on.
Right, so I just left Geoff upstairs.
Let's take a look at which, which station to go to.
I'm at King's Cross Pancras at the moment.
I think I'm going to make it a little bit interesting
and head down to Monument.
Plenty of platforms here for him to get lost.
Here we go.
Going deep, deep down on the Northern line.
I've got 20 minutes to get as far away from him as I can.
- So it does work when, out in the wild, because
as David moved across the Kings Cross concourse,
to head for the Tube,
it's a it's reporting that it's not with me
but it's on the Concourse at King's Cross
but will it work when he's on a T ube platform?
He thinks not.
I think it might.
This is exciting.
Check it on my phone.
What there is, you can use the built-in Find My Phone app
which for years, Apple iPhone
and iPad users have been able to see the location
of their friends who choose to share the location
and your other devices, but they all use GPS.
What's interesting about the AirTags is
that they don't use GPS.
They just use what Apple refer to as the 'Find My' network
and are reliant on other Bluetooth devices.
You know what?
Whilst I wait for David ... here is David back
in his tech studio to explain the pros and cons of AirTags.
- Apple Air Tags
help iDevice users to locate something that they've lost.
And there are three main technologies inside.
First of all, good old Bluetooth.
So if you're within shouting distance of your air tag
then this will help you to find it with a few quick bleeps.
Very simple.
If it's not close by then
it still uses Bluetooth to tell you where it is.
But this time by connecting
to other nearby people's Apple devices
which securely and without them ever, ever knowing
relay your air tags location back to you.
Now the clever bit here is that there's no GPS in here.
It uses the location from other nearby people's
Apple devices to tell you where it is and that location
it just appears in a map on your phone.
Other products, they do do a similar thing.
Tile is the big example there
but the advantage that Apple has is scale.
There are a billion or more iPhones out there
all creating this comprehensive,
find my mesh network.
Also in here is ultra wide band.
So if you have a phone with a U1 chip iPhone 11
or newer, then this gives you precision finding
it's like localised GPS on steroids, and it directs you to
within a few centimetres of your Air Tag and finally NFC.
So if you find an Air Tag that isn't yours, then tap it
onto your NFC enabled phone.
And this works on Android too.
And it'll give you information that might help you to
get this back to its owner.
Air Tags have strong privacy and anti stalking measures too
but do they work on the underground?
So here's me back.
Only a handful of stops away from Geoff.
It's taken what?
20 minutes or so for me to get here.
So that means Geoffs going to be setting off
any moment now.
- It's come up to 20 past four.
I'm having a drink, but he does not move.
- Unfortunately they're no seats here.
So let's see are any on this platform.
- It's still saying my keys are here
on the Concourse of King's Cross.
No, it's just moved.
Hang on.
It just disappeared.
- So I'll tell you what to make life easy for Geoff.
I'm just going to hang around on the platform here.
- I didn't set that up, as I said that
so the little key symbol was showing
at Kings Cross as I was recording, it then it dropped off.
- You know, this would be the platform who be coming in on.
So at least he might see me not have to
go rooting around one of the platforms.
I don't wanna make life too difficult for him.
- My other plan is, is I'm going to go
to the tube platform and attach and log onto the Wi-Fi.
In case being on tube Wi-Fi helps
rather than use my 4G signal.
- But a lot of people are down here on their phones
connected to the Wi-Fi.
I saw a couple
of people stood only a couple of metres away from me.
So in theory, the Air Tag will have
been able to connect to their phones.
- Hang on.
Before I do.
Its worked,
can you see?
It says, it's at Bank, he's gone to Bank.
I need to get to Bank.
I said, I'm going to make it in time, David, I'm coming to
get you at Bank.
Let's go.
So he's clearly taken the Northern line southbound
from Kings Cross to Bank, but I've got to get there
before 4.45 and it's 4.23 now.
I've got just a, just over 20 minutes to get there
and find him.
I know the position of the Northern line platforms
underground and the Northern platforms run
down Lombard street.
And it's actually, it's saying the keys
are at the entrance exit to the Northern line platforms
at Bank on Lombard street.
So I think he's on the Northern line platforms that are
on the Lombard and not the central David.
You could have been sneaking like change
to the central line platforms.
I know where you are, I'm coming to find you.
- [Transport Announcement Female] The next station is Bank.
- [Geoff] Look what I can see.
- And there it is.
- [Geoff] At Bank station.
(David laughing)
- [Geoff] Found you my friend, literally found you.
Shall we do the wise thing
and let's go up to the surface.
- Upstairs, good work, Geoff.
- So we come out of Bank.
You didn't think was gonna work.
Why not?
- Well, like I say, because we were underground
and you know
GPS doesn't work underground, but the thing that I forgot
and I realised as soon as I got on the platform
at Bank was I was stood there, busy platform.
Everyone had their phones out.
Everyone was connected to the Wi-fi and through
Wi-Fi you can get a location lock.
I did not think that would work underground, but it did.
What, what did you see?
When was the first time you started to see me,
where I was at Bank.
- I was having a drink up
on the Concourse at Kings Cross and it disappeared.
I went, it's moved, it disappeared.
And then 20 seconds later, you reappeared.
And it said very clearly Lombard street.
And that just must mean that the Wi-Fi on the underground
does have the all-important geo location function built
into them, no?
- But the thing is that you obviously have a very
in-depth knowledge of street names versus London
underground stations.
The average person who may have lost their handbag
or their phone
or their keys, their keys.
- But it shows that you're at Bank.
- Well, it showed you, I was at Lombard street.
How would the person have known that that was Bank station
in which platform I might've been on, right?
- [Geoff] Right, yeah, yeah.
It could have been, it could have been up on the surface
at Lombard street, down on the tube platforms.
- Or, or up in the air.
- But to answer the title
to the question that's in the video, click bait,
do Air Tags work on the London underground?
Yes.
- Sort of but, would it have helped you to
find your Air Tag in the real world?
- It totally works.
Thank you very much.
- Oh and your keys, don't forget your keys.
- In all amusements,
I'm going to give this
to David to take home back to back to the Midlands.
I'm going to see if I can track you as you go home today
on the train, but in one other amusing twist
thanks to so apple Air Tags, they cost 29.95 to buy.
If you buy the official leather key fob to attach it
to your key ring, that costs 34.95.
So the accessory costs more than the gadget.
- It does.
This is one of the cheapest gadgets.
If not the cheapest gadget really that Apple does.
Yet actually I think there's an awful lot
of fun that you can have with it.
- David, would you like to plug your YouTube or
your Twitter or where can people find you, et cetera?
- Well, you can find Geoff and I talking together
semi-regularly on the frackulous podcast and.
- Link below.
You can find me on Twitter at David McClelland.
Yeah, find me there.
Thanks a lot, Geoff.
- See you soon.
Bye, press subscribe!
- [David] Ha, it works!