Samsung’s SmartTags 2 is a nifty and affordable tracking device but for it to work, a user needs to own a compatible Samsung device. This is a non-starter for many and frankly, a waste of an opportunity for Samsung to give non-Samsung users a taste of its ecosystem.
Not to be outdone by Samsung’s walled garden approach, app developer Keiron Quinn, took the matter in his own hands to develop a third-party app called uTag. It’s an open-source app that works in conjunction with Samsung’s SmartThings app. But since this is designed to work on non-Samsung phones, uTag will install the patched SmartThings app and the companion app. More importantly, this does not need the device to be rooted.
We have not tested the app, but in theory, uTag looks very promising compared to Samsung’s official app. The dev has not only replicated things that SmartThings can do but also added features for UWB via AndroidX Core UWB, contributing locations of nearby tags to Samsung’s network and a periodic unknown tag scan, which surprisingly, is missing from Samsung’s SmartThings app. The dev also plans to add new features in the future.
Downloading a third-party app always carries a risk, which is why, the developer has released the source code of the app for everyone to verify. Head over to the GitHub page below to install uTag.
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