Comment by traceroute66

> Airtags (and the Google version) communicate with nearby Internet-connected devices, via Bluetooth and NFC I think

Yes, exactly (BLE, UWB, NFC).

First, Airtags only have a coin-cell battery. It is not remotely viable for them to be doing any sort of serious "communicating" because the battery would die in seconds.

Second, making the Airtag effectively a dumb device means you gain the various security and privacy benefits, and means everything needed to make the magic happen can be transmitted in a single BLE/UWB/NFC packet (bringing us back to the battery life aspect already mentioned).

30,000ft view of how it works: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/security/sece994d0126/...