Tile trackers will warn when you've left your bag at the coffee shop

Tile's trackers already help you find lost items, but now they might help you before the wave of panic hits. The company is relaunching Smart Alerts in beta to automatically warn when you've left a tracked item behind if it's been there for at least five minutes. If you rush out of the coffee shop without your bag, you'll ideally get an alert before you've reached your car. You'll need a Premium subscription ($30 per year or $3 per month), but it might be a small price to pay if you can't bear the thought of leaving a valuable item alone for more than a few minutes. The beta will be available in December.

False alarms shouldn't be a problem, thankfully. You can define "safe zones" for items to determine whether or not you should get an alert. You may want your coat to send an alert when you leave it at the pub, but not when you leave it at home on a warm summer's day.

Not everyone needs these kind of immediate responsiveness, but there's certainly pressure for Tile to introduce features like this. With Apple seemingly working on trackers of its own, there's a real possibility Tile will have to compete against a tech giant that could tightly integrate tags with its other devices. The new Smart Alerts could give iPhone users a reason to choose Tile over Apple's "default" option.