Can a £3 Bluetooth tracking fob from Poundland really be a credible proposition? Perhaps, but only by swerving the official app.

The things I do for fun

I decided to buy a couple of Track-Me Smart Tracker Bluetooth tracking fobs from my local Poundland for £3 each. The device claims to be locatable within 25m of your phone by activation of an alarm from a paired app.

I wasn't expecting a great result, but £6 is good value for an afternoon of entertainment. Or might that be frustration?

Off to a bad start

The fobs feel cheap with a poor quality plastic finish. They are powered by a single CR2032 button cell, supplied inclusive of the price. However, one of the batteries was completely flat and required replacing before the unit could be powered-on.

I will probably secure the badly fitting battery compartment door with some Gorilla Tape given the risks associated with button cells.

There is a single button on the unit which when depressed powers the unit on and places it into pairing mode. The units paired with my Android phone without issue, appearing as 'iTAG' devices.

A scary experience in the Play Store

The enclosed user leaflet directs the user to download an app called iSearching in the Play Store. Here is where things went a little bit wrong...

Why? There was simply no way that I was prepared to install this app given it requires pretty much every permission to one's phone, including accessing the camera and microphone and reading the contents of the SD card.

To my mind, it appears the product is a loss leader to harvest personal data from your phone.

So what next, throw the fobs away and accept the £6 loss?

Alternative approach

I downloaded a free Bluetooth tool from Play Store called BLE Scanner and denied it all permissions other than Location, which is required to access Bluetooth. I also ensured location services were enabled on my phone.

In it's 'Near By' screen, BLE Scanner finds and identifies my 'iTAG' devices, along with providing a surprisingly accurate estimate of their radial distance from my phone (although obviously not direction).

Clicking the 'Connect' button for an iTAG presents a list of properties and methods for the device. In the 'Immediate Alert' method, one can press the round W icon to write a value. Selecting 'Mild Alert' or 'High Alert' causes the iTAG alarm to activate. Resetting to 'No Alert' silences the iTAG alarm.

Great, I've found alternative approach to using the iTAGs that does not depend upon the awful official app.

Future improvements

Given the above procedure has proven the iTAGs can be activated by generic means, I will probably seek an open-source or paid-for Bluetooth tool with similar capabilities to BLE Scanner that requires the very minimum permissions to work.

Conclusions

So, it turns out that £6 was was not a bad investment after all given I enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment, wrote a blog entry and got two working Bluetooth tracking tags into the bargain. I might never loose my keys again.