Using AirTags With Older iPhones
AirTags utilize Apple’s U1 chip to provide accurate location information, allowing you to locate a lost AirTag with a tremendous degree of accuracy. The catch is a lot of iPhones don’t include the U1 chip. The iPhone X and older iPhones don’t have it, and it was also left out of the second generation iPhone SE even though the chip was already around when that phone was released. As of the M1 iPad Pro (2021), no iPad has it either. You can use AirTags with older iPhones, iPads, and even Macs, but you can’t access all of the functionality. You can also set up AirTags with an older iPhone, so you can use AirTags even if you haven’t updated your iPhone in a while, or you have a second generation iPhone SE which lacks a U1 chip. The biggest difference between using AirTags with older iPhones and the newer iPhones (with the U1 chip) is you can’t use the Precision Finding feature if your phone doesn’t have the U1 chip. Without the U1 chip, your phone also can’t help other people find their lost AirTags if you happen to find yourself in close proximity to a lost AirTag. You can still check a lost AirTag for a message if your older iPhone has NFC, but your phone won’t automatically sense a lost AirTag and ping Apple with its location if you don’t have the M1 chip.
How to Set Up AirTags With Older iPhones
You can set up an AirTag with an older iPhone, but there are some limits. Your iPhone needs to be running iOS 14.5 or newer, Find My needs to be turned on, you need to turn on Bluetooth, and you need to turn on Location Services. If you have an iPad running iPadOS 14.5 or later and meets the other requirements, you can also use the iPad to set up AirTags. Here’s how to set up AirTags with an older iPhone:
How to Use AirTags With Older Phones
You can use AirTags with your older iPhone through the Find My app just like newer iPhones, with the exception being the Precision Finding feature will be locked out. That means you can use your older iPhone to put an AirTag into Lost Mode, view a lost AirTag’s location on a map, and rename AirTags. Here’s how to find your AirTags with an older iPhone:
