You can now signal your AirTags to beep from a Mac, finally adding a feature that's been missing from macOS for no good reason.
As discovered in the macOS Ventura 13.1 beta by MacRumors, the Mac Find My app now lets you activate the AirTag's chime to help you find it and whatever item it's in or attached to. While Macs have been able to provide directions to an AirTag in the past, if you wanted the chime you'd currently have to use either an iPhone or iPad.
We're glad Apple's added the option to start the chirp from a Mac as we can imagine it was a little inconvenient if you were trying to find your lost item and didn't want to or couldn't carry your Mac with you to keep following the instructions it gave. A chirp means you still have a chance of finding whatever it is without needing to have your Mac in line-of-sight.
There's no sign of whether this feature will work with other Apple products. For example, the AirPods Pro 2's case can produce a sound to help a user track it just like an AirTag.
While AirTags have gotten a lot of negative attention for their use as a stalking tool, they still function as effective key finders, especially for users already invested in the Apple ecosystem.
Also, Apple's made a lot of updates to make potential nefarious use easier to detect, such as by making the unwanted tracking alert louder. Users wanting extra guarantees of protection can do other things like activating Item Safety Alerts on their iPhone, or installing apps like Tracker Detect or AirGuard on Android devices.
macOS Ventura 13.1 should arrive later this month alongside iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2, bringing several updates to compatible Macs, iPhones and iPads. Notable among these is the new Freeform whiteboard app, updates for the Home smart home management app, and new lockscreen widgets for Sleep and Medications.
