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You can drill a keyring hole in Apple's AirTags (but you probably shouldn't)

A teardown shows a compact item tracker with some breathing room.

Drilling a hole in Apple AirTags
iFixit
Jon Fingas
Jon Fingas|@jonfingas|May 2, 2021 1:24 PM

Do you wish Apple's AirTags had a hole so you could attach them to your keys without paying extra? You can make it happen... if you're willing to throw some caution to the wind. iFixit has conducted a preliminary teardown that shows you can drill a hole in an AirTag despite its densely-packed electronics. You'll need to remove the battery first, but the functionality remains intact.

You might not want to try this yourself, though. You can do "serious damage" to an AirTag if you drill in the wrong spot, and any hole unsurprisingly kills water resistance. This is more proof that Apple could have added a hole (albeit a small one) if it wanted.

iFixit teardown of Tile Mate, Samsung Galaxy SmartTag and Apple AirTag
iFixit

The initial teardown also shows just how efficient AirTags are compared to their rivals. Where a Tile Mate and Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag have conventional (if tiny) circuit boards with lots of unused space, Apple crams its tracker's computing power into a ring-shaped design that still has room for a replaceable battery. The AirTag may be your locator of choice if you want something relatively discreet, so long as you live in Apple's ecosystem.

You can drill a keyring hole in Apple's AirTags (but you probably shouldn't)