Apple Will Finally Help You Find Your AirPods

Apple finally has a solution for locating your lost AirPods remotely. The company has added Find My AirPods, a tracker function for the $159 bluetooth headphones, to the Find My iPhone app, as reported by Mashable.

The finder function comes bundled with the iOS 10.3 beta that began rolling out on Tuesday, and it'll also be available on the desktop version of Find My iPhone. If your AirPods are set up with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch that already has Find My iPhone enabled, the new feature will automatically be available. A third party had beaten Apple to releasing an AirPods tracker, but the company booted it from the App Store on Jan. 9.

AirPods, which were announced alongside the iPhone 7 and shipped in December after an uncharacteristic delay, hit the market without a way to locate them if they disappeared. The small, cordless headphones connect to phones via Bluetooth, and a single replacement AirPod costs $69, so customers have expressed concerns over losing them since their announcement.

Because the headphones aren't connected to the internet, the tracker can only locate them in real-time if they are in range of one of your bluetooth-enabled devices that's also logged into your iCloud account. If they're not nearby, the app will display where they were last paired with one of your iOS devices. Similarly, if your AirPods are dead or inside the charging case, the app will display where they were last connected to one of your devices.

The Find My AirPods feature can also trigger a high-pitched sound on either one or both AirPods, and according to one developer, it gets quite loud. Though the sound does slowly ramp up in volume as a warning, be careful not to trigger the finder sound while wearing the headphones. Find My AirPods will warn users before beginning to beep.