You’ll soon be able to chime a missing AirTag with your Mac
The upcoming macOS Ventura 13.1 update brings the new Freeform app for project collaboration, but a smaller feature could be even more useful: According to the latest beta, macOS 13.1 will finally give Mac users the ability to place an AirTag nearby. to ring. A simple update to the Find My app (via Macrumors) adds the option to “Play Sound” on connected AirTags, where previously Mac users could only use the app to locate the tiny trackers.
As many commenters point out, it’s strange that this feature wasn’t available before. AirTags were released in April 2021 and the whole purpose of the device is to make objects easier to find. Tracking its movements in the Find My app allows you to see the general location of a tagged item on a map, but the mini speaker in the tracker is an essential tool for setting up at medium to close range. (The alternative is to use the Precision Finding feature, but this is limited to devices with a U1 chip, which no Mac has.)
It could be argued that Macs aren’t suited to tracking down an AirTag that has gone AWOL, and that’s not unreasonable: chasing down a stolen bike with an iPhone in hand is much more plausible than with an iMac or even a MacBook. But this is to ignore the situation – which became more and more common during the lockdown – when you’ve lost something around the house and just want it to beep.
For now, the new feature is limited to beta users. To download the latest version of macOS, you must join Apple’s beta program. The full release of macOS 13.1 is expected this month.
