Apple’s Find My will soon let you to share the location of lost items with others, including airlines
Coming soon to the Find My app via iOS 18.2 is a new feature called Share Item Location.
Find This new feature will allow users to easily and securely share the location link of an AirTag or Find My accessory like an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, with anyone else.
This feature was ostensibly designed with airlines and travel in mind because it will help airlines locate and recover lost luggage and items.
To this end, over 15 airlines have said they will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service processes for locating lost or delayed luggage. These airlines include Singapore Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, United, and more.
Erik Snell, Delta Air Lines’ senior vice president of Airport Customer Service, Cargo Operations, Ground Support Equipment, and Global Clean, was excited about this new feature and said:
While more than 99 percent of checked items make it to their destination as planned, we know how stressful it can be for customers when they don’t. That’s why we’re excited to support Share Item Location beginning later this year.
David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer, said the airline is looking to incorporate Share Item Location into its baggage recovery process and said:
We know many of our customers are already traveling with AirTag in their checked bags, and this feature will soon make it easier for them to share location information with us safely and securely, helping our customer service agents work more efficiently and giving our customers added peace of mind. We plan to accept Find My item locations in select airports initially, with the goal of introducing the service systemwide in early 2025.
As mentioned, this new feature will come with iOS 18.2 and like all other Apple features was built with privacy and safety in mind. The shared location link is temporary and will be disabled once the item is reunited with the user. The link can also be disabled at any time by the user and will automatically expire after seven days. This way, it cannot be used by others to inadvertently track the user.
iOS 18.2 is currently available as a public beta and is expected to be released to the public sometime in December.