Think an AirTag or tracker is following you? How to find it and what to do

Sources: Apple's what to do if you get an alert that an AirTag is with you and Google's unknown tracker alerts help page.

For iPhone alerts to work, Apple says you need Location Services, Significant Locations, Bluetooth and Tracking Notifications on and Airplane Mode off. On Android, Google says you have to physically move with a tracker over time before an alert appears, you get at most one alert per tracker per day, and alerts are deleted after 48 hours, so screenshot the map.

1. Play a sound. On iPhone, tap the alert, tap Continue, then Play Sound. On Android, tap the notification and choose Play sound; Google says this does not notify the owner. If the option is greyed out on iPhone, Apple says the item may no longer be with you or may be near its owner.
2. Use Precision Finding on an iPhone with Ultra Wideband (Find Nearby) to be guided to an AirTag.
3. Search the usual hiding places: coat and bag linings, the bottom of a handbag, a child's backpack, under car seats, the wheel arches, the glove box and the trunk.

A separated AirTag also chirps on its own when it is moved, according to Apple. A sound with no visible source is worth taking seriously.

Hold the top of your iPhone, or the back of an Android phone, to the white side of the AirTag. A page opens showing its serial number and, per Apple, the last four digits of the owner's phone number. Take a screenshot. If you go to the police, they can work with Apple to request the owner's information, and they will want the device itself and that serial number.

Also write down when and where the alerts appeared. Android's map of where the tracker was detected is evidence, and it disappears after 48 hours.

If you think someone you know planted it, especially a current or former partner, pause before disabling it. Once it goes dark, the person tracking you knows you found it. Apple's advice is that if you cannot find the device and feel unsafe, "go to a safe public location and contact law enforcement."

• In an emergency, call 911.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. Advocates can help you plan around a tracker.
• Apple's page also points to the National Network to End Domestic Violence's Safety Net Project and the National Center for Victims of Crime.

When it is safe, follow the on-screen Instructions to Disable. For an AirTag, that means twisting off the back cover and removing the coin battery. Apple notes that turning off Bluetooth, Location Services or the Find My network on your own phone does not stop the owner seeing the tracker's location; removing its battery does. Google says the same for Android: switching off Bluetooth, location or airplane mode does not stop a tracker sharing where it is.

Keep the tracker and battery if you might report it. For other people tracking you through your phone itself (shared location, a shared account), see how to tell if your phone is hacked. More in the devices hub.