Tile, Inc. (stylized as tile) is an American

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

company which produces

tracking device A tracking system or locating system is used for tracking persons or objects that do not stay in a fixed location, and supplying a time-ordered sequence of positions (track). Applications A myriad of tracking systems exist. Some are 'lag ...

s that users can attach to their belongings such as keys and backpacks. A companion

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

for Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

allows users to track the devices using Bluetooth 4.0 in order to locate lost items or to view their last detected location. The first devices were delivered in 2013. In September 2015, Tile launched a newer line of hardware that includes functionality to assist users in locating smartphones, as well as other feature upgrades. In August 2017, two new versions of the Tile were launched, the Tile Sport and Tile Style. , Tile's hardware offerings consist of the Pro, Mate, Slim, and Sticker. Since September 2018, former

GoPro GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video editing software, video-editing software ...

executive C. J. Prober has been the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Tile after he replaced co-founder Mike Farley. In November 2021, Life360 agreed to acquire Tile in a $205 million acquisition, and is expected to integrate the two services.

Function

Tile manufactures hardware devices, "Tiles", that can be attached to items such as keychains. By attaching the device, a user can later use the Tile app to help locate the item if it is lost. The Tile application uses

Bluetooth Low Energy Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE, colloquially BLE, formerly marketed as Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) aimed at novel applications ...

4.0 radio technology to locate Tiles within a range, depending on the model. Each Tile comes with a built-in speaker, and the user is able to trigger the device to play a sound to aid in the location of items at close range. The second generation of Tile devices produce sound at a volume of 90 decibels, which is three times as loud as the previous generation of products. The second generation also added a "Find My Phone" feature, which can be used to produce a sound on the user's paired smartphone when the user presses a button on the Tile device. The Tile app can locate Tiles beyond the Bluetooth range by using "crowd GPS". If a Tile device is reported as lost and comes within range of any smartphone running the Tile app, the nearby user's app will send the item's owner an anonymous update of the lost item's location. Users can also share their Tiles with others, which allows both participants to locate shared Tiles. Tile's first generation products have built-in batteries with a battery life of about one year. Owners of these devices were automatically notified when the batteries were nearing depletion and were eligible to receive a discount on a replacement product. Users could then return Tiles with depleted batteries in order for them to be recycled. In October 2018, the Tile Mate and Tile Pro were redesigned to have user-replaceable batteries. These models have lower water-resistance ratings than models that require factory battery replacement.

Funding

Tile's developers used Selfstarter, an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

website platform, to

crowdfund Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

the project through pre-orders. As of July 7, 2013, Tile had raised over by selling preordered Tiles directly to 50,000 backers through their website. In 2014, Tile raised additional

Series A funding A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in excha ...

of US$13 million led by

GGV Capital GGV Capital was an American venture capital firm. The firm was established in 2000 and was headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Formerly known as Granite Global Ventures, the firm had become one of the most active American investors in the C ...

and a further US$3 million from

Khosla Ventures Khosla Ventures is a private American venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. It was founded by entrepreneur Vinod Khosla in 2004. The firm works with early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile technology, artifici ...

in 2015.

Dispute with Apple

In May 2020, Tile sought assistance from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in a dispute it had with

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

regarding the provision of its services on Apple devices. It claimed that its app was not activated on Apple devices while the Find My service provided by Apple is activated automatically. Apple denied the allegation. In September 2020, Tile joined the

Coalition for App Fairness The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) is a coalition comprised by companies, who aim to reach a fairer deal for the inclusion of their apps into the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. The organization's executive director is Meghan DiMuzio ...

which aims to reach better conditions for the inclusion of apps into app stores.

Hacking incident

In 2024 a computer

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

acquired the credentials of a suspected former Tile employee and gained access to the company's internal tool that processes location data for law enforcement, as well as customer data such as names, addresses, emails, telephone numbers, and order information. Other functions that were compromised include changing the email address linked to a particular device and creating administrative users. Tile said only its customer support platform, not the service platform, was breached and it has disabled credentials to prevent further unauthorized access.

References

External links