A tracker the size of a full stop. Press one onto anything you own and your phone can always find it.
Your phone tells you before the door has closed. You are still on the pavement, so you turn round.
Further away, any passing phone reports where it is. Only you can read the answer.
Sunglasses · Reading glasses · School coats · Jumpers · Lunchboxes · Earrings · Necklaces · Watches · Keys · Wallets · Passports · Cameras · Lenses · Headphones · Earbud cases · Remotes · Umbrellas · Sneakers · Luggage · Laptops · Bicycles · Instruments · Hearing aid cases · Retainer cases · The toy they cannot sleep without
If you can touch it, a Speck can hold on to it. There are three ways, and every set comes with all of them.
For anything hard or smooth. A bond pad the size of the Speck grips in five seconds and twists off clean.
Metal, acetate, glass, ceramic, plastic, wood, leatherFor anything woven. The Speck goes through the cloth like a stud earring and locks onto a flat back.
Coats, jumpers, bags, shoe tongues, soft toysFor anything that hangs. A ring the width of a chain link turns the Speck into the smallest charm you own.
Necklaces, bracelets, laces, zips, straps
Children lose things. And once in a while, for one long minute in a busy shop, you lose them.
Pin a Speck inside a coat collar and your phone knows which aisle. Put one on the school jumper, the lunchbox, the shoes and the teddy, and the lost property box stops being a weekly visit.
A pinned Speck locks shut and small hands cannot pull it off. It is not for children under three.
The width of a Speck. The tracker most people hang on their keys is 31.9 mm, more than ten times wider. Of everything on this page, only the full stops are smaller.
Other trackers ask your things to carry them. A Speck becomes part of the thing.
| Measure | Speck | AirTag | Sticker trackers | Glasses trackers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 3 mm dot | 31.9 mm disc, 8 mm thick | About 27 mm disc | A bar along the arm |
| Weight | Under 0.05 g | 11.8 g | About 5 g | A few grams |
| Goes on | Any surface, any fabric | Bags and keys, in a holder | Flat, larger objects | Glasses only |
| Jewellery | Yes | No | No | No |
| Phones | iPhone and Android | iPhone | Its own app and network | iPhone |
| Power | 3 to 6 months, swap the cell | About a year, swap the cell | Sealed, about 3 years | Recharge about monthly |
| Visible | Four finishes that vanish | White and steel | Black plastic | Black plastic |
| Sold | Five to a set | One, or four | One or two | One |
Three things had to shrink: the antenna, the chip and the cell. Two of them are solved. The third is where our work goes.
The aerial is printed onto the inside of the sapphire, so the part you see is the part that talks to your phone.
A complete Bluetooth chip, already in production, that runs on a few millionths of an amp.
A micro cell stacked directly under the chip, with no wires between them. Getting months from it is the hard part, and we say so.
Steel, a quarter turn to open. It takes the bond pad, the pin or the loop, and seals the cell away from water and from children.
Every part is chosen so that nothing is wasted on a case, a speaker hole or a keyring loop. What is left is the tracker and nothing else.
A set arrives on a card, like earrings. There is nothing to charge and nothing to configure.
Speck is in development. These are the figures we are engineering to.
| Size | 3.0 mm across, 1.2 mm high | Domed, with no edge to catch on fabric or hair |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | Under 0.05 g | Less than a butterfly earring back |
| Finishes | Onyx, Gold, Steel, Clear | One finish per set, or one of each plus a spare Onyx |
| Attachment | Press, pin or loop | Bond pad for hard surfaces, locking pin for fabric, ring for chains and laces |
| Surfaces | Metal, acetate, glass, ceramic, plastic, wood, leather, fabric | Twists off without a mark |
| Left-behind alert | Within about a minute | Quiet zones for home and work, so it only speaks when it matters |
| Nearby finding | Ring, and a warmer and colder meter | Works within a room or two |
| Far finding | Apple Find My and Google Find Hub | Any passing phone on either network reports the location, encrypted |
| Radio | Bluetooth Low Energy, 2.4 GHz | Up to 30 m in the open |
| Power | Replaceable cell, 3 to 6 months | Warning at 15%. Five spare cells in the box |
| Water and dust | IP67 | Rain, sweat, handwashing, a dropped glass of water |
| Temperature | -10 to 45 °C | A dashboard in summer, a ski jacket in winter |
| Privacy | Rotating encrypted identifiers | Only your account can read a location. We cannot |
| Anti-stalking | Unwanted tracker alerts on iPhone and Android | A Speck travelling with a stranger announces itself and can be rung |
| App | iPhone and Android | No subscription. Any number of Specks. Share an item with family |
| In the box | 5 Specks, 5 spare cells, 10 bond pads | And a placement tool for the fiddly ones |
Competitor figures come from published specifications and reviews. The sticker tracker size is approximate.
Speck began after its founder lost four pairs of good sunglasses. One set costs less than any of them did.
The Bluetooth chip inside is about two millimetres across. The hard part is the cell and the antenna, and that is where our engineering goes. Speck is in development, and the figures on this page are the ones we are building to.
No. The bond pad holds through heat, rain and pockets, and releases with a firm twist. It leaves nothing behind on acetate, metal or leather, and each set comes with ten fresh pads.
Yes. One Speck works with iPhone and Android, and joins both Apple's and Google's finding networks, so the phones around a lost item can report it whichever kind they are.
The app warns you at 15%, weeks ahead. Twist the Speck open, drop in one of the spare cells from the box, twist it shut. It takes about half a minute and the Speck keeps its name.
Speck supports the unwanted tracker alerts built into iPhone and Android. If a Speck that is not yours travels with you, your phone tells you, and you can make it ring to find it.
A pinned Speck locks onto its back and does not pull off. The cell is sealed inside the steel base. Like any small object it is not for children under three, and we are building the base to the safety rules for button cells.
Rain, sweat and a hand wash, yes. We are testing it in the washing machine and will say so plainly when it passes. Until then, unpin it first.
An AirTag is 31.9 mm wide and needs a holder, so it suits bags and keys. A Speck is 3 mm and sticks to the object itself, so it also suits glasses, earrings, watches and anything else too small to carry a tag.
