Tack GPS [Lowest Monthly fee| 30 Days Battery Life| FCC Certified] -Child, Kids, Pet, Dog, Cat, Elderly, Alzheimer, Car, Vehicle, Bike, Personal Tracking Device. GPS +WiFi +Cellular

Review update - October 2024I had a glitch with the USB plug on the unit. It wasn't charging. I had no problem getting service help from Tack.My 2022 model was superseded by an updated design. Mine was just out-of-warranty. Tack gave me a big discount on a replacement with their newest model. I then purchased a second unit to tag the grandchildren. At an event or even in a park kids are fast. They too easily disappear causing anxious moments while we look for them.I was reminded of that while visiting an Apple Orchard with two of them. They are looking for fun and don't see the dangers that parents and grandparents see. We had them tagged with Samsung Smart Tag2's. Which are pretty reliable but require proximity to an Android phone.The Tack GPS unit is completely independent and capable of on-demand location identification. So it's better then an AirTag or SmartTag which should anyhow be essential gear on any child under the age of 10.A Tack GPS+ device is one step better. It also has an alert function to message parents if the kids became lost.I'm happy with the size, recharging, and tracking. I imagine the next version might see continuous tracking. That's an issue with battery size and monitoring costs. The Tack unit has a one hour mode which doubles the frequency of tracking pin drops. I hope they can make that continuous for at least 8 hours in a future model.First review from October 2022I was looking for a theft location gadget to help locate my road bike should someone steal it.I physically examined and tested six different GPS location devices. Tack GPS was not in available last year when I did the testing. I liked Invoxia and selected their gum stick size device. I thought it was the most easily hidden and it provided pretty much continuous monitoring. Unfortunately it failed after a couple of months of use. Invoxia text support was horrible and would not help.I then reviewed everything on Amazon and found the Tack GPS unit. The phone app was not as simple as Invoxia but at least the unit works and the Android app is functional.The only glitch for me as continuous monitoring on demand or when the unit is moving. Tack GPS limits such monitoring to an hour and even then it's at big intervals. My bike adventures are 2-3 hours.Affecting the Tack GPS design is that the unit is small which is a great feature. While small doesn't seem to diminish GPS tracking it does mean "small battery". So there's a big tradeoff. Small size while trying to be able to track for a week or two weeks or a month requires energy and a small battery has limits.There's also the cost of monitoring. More frequent updates increases data charges and data is not free. The Tack GPS uses multiple wireless technologies to communicate but the expensive one is accessing the cellular network which provides communication regardless of location or access to things like wi-fi.I gave the Tack GPS 5 stars because it does work. It's reliable. The customer and tech support was great. They even customized my unit to report position data at 5 minute intervals instead of 10 minute.Compared to what's available for the summer of 2023 I don't think there's a better choice.

During a camp last summer, we had an AirTag in our kiddo’s backpack, but location updates were very inconsistent, so we wanted a better option this summer. There are tons of trackers on Amazon, we picked this one because the manufacturer buys some of the parts from my employer and I saw the CEO during one of our company events, so I knew they weren’t a fly-by-night operation.It definitely works better than an AirTag. It shows the location history and route if you like, so you can figure out where the camp has visited by just checking at the end of the day. You don’t have to repeatedly check throughout the day.The cellular connection (NB-IoT/Cat M1, whatever that means) is weak, so tracker fails to update its location from some indoor locations and sometimes outdoors, too. I guess it cannot reliably decode GPS signals from inside a backpack left in a van with tall trees around without cellular coverage.Battery life is pretty good. We charged it on a Sunday and battery fell into “orange region” only after the fifth day of the camp. (Lasted longer the following week when if it spent less time in weak cellular coverage areas.)App is a bit clunky, but works well enough and fairly user friendly. However, I didn’t see an option to ask our location history to be deleted from their servers after a while. Clearly, they’ve got some ways to go in the privacy and data security aspects.First 30 days are free and then you can subscribe for $12 for every 3 months. (12 and 24 months options are cheaper per month.) You can pay by Apple Pay, but not through an App Store subscription, so I don’t know how easy it would be to cancel the subscription later if needed. App also says they promise to provide service until Jan 2025. I cannot tell whether they stick to this deadline or extend it periodically as it approaches.

Changing my review to 1 star. I bought 2 trackers and 2 1-year subscriptions, less than 6 months in, neither tracker is reliable. Customer service won't respond.Device stopped responding after a few months. It just randomly goes offline and the app says "check device" even when fully charged. Sometimes service comes back, now my newer tracker has been offline for a week. I cannot get a response from customer service after MULTIPLE emails, except for the AI bot that just says to charge it which doesn't work.-original review below-Bought to keep track of my kid on the school bus/ afterschool activities. GPS isn't perfect but it's pretty close and seems to have gotten better now that we've used it more. I have used it on active mode everyday with 2 hrs per day of "emergency mode" tracking every two minutes. It went 2 weeks before giving a low battery reading, which seems pretty reasonable to me.Only issue is that when you put it in battery saving mode it has to be put back in active mode and will not go straight into emergency mode even if you push the button. I won't be using battery saving mode again because of this but it isn't a big deal now that I know. I also wish I could keep it in emergency mode longer.That said, having is substantially better than an airtag and the monthly fee is reasonable. Like that I can cancel and restart the service without having to get a new device, unlike others.