I am so happy to finally rid myself of all Tile devices after this announcement. Tile has been one of the worst companies I’ve ever dealt with when it comes to dark patterns. Their app is one of the few I’d describe as having UI that’s actively hostile toward the customer.
* Constant nudging to buy more with all the usual high-pressure sales patterns (creating urgency, doubt, etc)
* Implies tiles with non-replaceable batteries will stop working after a fixed time (they won't).
Other things:
* The tile network is not as complete as I'd want it to be. I once lost my keys at work, and someone turned them in to security. It took a week before I was able to figure out what happened--I guess neither the finder nor anyone working near the security office had the tile app.
* Fairly high subscription fees for the tiles with replaceable batteries.
* Tiles are fairly thick. Even the new Tile Slim is pretty thick to put in a wallet.
That's not the issue. If you buy a Tile with a non-replaceable battery, the actual battery life will vary greatly depending on various factors: how long it was sitting on the shelf before you bought it, the temperature of the environment it's located, how often you make it ring, etc.
11 months after activation, the Tile app constantly blasts you with warnings that you need to "Re-tile" and buy a replacement: via email, app notifications, repeated non-dismissable (only "snoozable") in-app alerts, and a lot of doom and gloom UI that presents a false sense of urgency.
The truth is, the battery can last 2 or even 3 years sometimes, and you don't need to be notified by the app when it's dead - you'll know it's dead when it shows up as "not reporting status" despite you knowing where the tile is. So you should be able to tell the Tile app "Yeah, I know it is near end of life, stop bothering me about it" one time, rather than the app acting insane and showing constant notifications/red warning labels/etc.
