Apple Brings Sharing with Third Parties to Find My

Apple announced today that it is extending its Find My service to include sharing with third parties. Among them are several airlines with millions of users.

“Find My is an essential tool for users around the world to keep track of and find their belongings,” Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue says. “The Find My network and AirTag have proven to be a powerful combination for users while traveling, providing invaluable location information when bags have been misplaced or mishandled. With Share Item Location, we’re excited to give users a new way to easily share this information directly with third parties like airlines, all while protecting their privacy.”

Share Item Location will debut in iOS 18.2, which is expected in early December. This new feature will help users locate and recover misplaced items by securely sharing the location of an AirTag or Find My network accessory with airlines and other third parties. Apple notes that the shared location will be disabled as soon as a user is reunited with their item. And that sharing can be canceled by the owner at any time, and will automatically expire after seven days.

Today, users can keep track of Apple devices like AirTag, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and AirPods, and some third party devices using Find My. Starting with iOS 18.2, they will be able to generate a Share Item Location link for any of these devices in the Find My app on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and then give it to recipients, who can view the device’s location in real time on a map on an interactive website.

Over 15 airlines–Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic, and Vueling–will accept Find My item locations to help customers find lost or delayed luggage, and more airlines will be added over time. Apple worked with these airlines to put systems in place that will let them access Share Item Location data securely and privately. Among the protections, access to each link will be limited to a small number of people, and recipients have to authenticate to view the link through their Apple account or partner email address.

“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,” United chief customer officer David Kinzelman says. “We plan to accept Find My item locations in select airports initially, with the goal of introducing the service systemwide in early 2025.”