The long-awaited AirTag was released earlier this year, and to some, it was a surprise that you could swap the battery on your own. I mean yes, it is the logical thing to do considering the advertised year-long battery life and all, but this is Apple we are talking about here.
The AirTag uses a tiny battery in the form of a coin called CR2032. The Cupertino-based company has warned AirTag owners to steer away from using batteries with the bitter coating when swapping with a new one.
If you are not a parent, you might be wondering at this point what the heck a bitter-coated battery is and why it exists. Well, as I mentioned, these things are small, and therefore they are easy to swallow, especially if you are a baby or toddler.
Duracell is one of the most popular battery manufacturers, and it has stated that each year the number of swallowed lithium batteries by children is in the hundreds. They can cause a chemical reaction that is extremely harmful, so the company has started producing bitter-coated ones to prevent this from happening.
However, when it comes to the AirTag, the coating might get in the way of the battery contacts. The Loop pointed out the following section in the Apple AirTag battery replacement support document:
CR2032 batteries with bitterant coatings might not work with AirTag or other battery-powered products, depending on the alignment of the coating in relation to the battery contacts.
Apple has also faced some heat from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which considers the AirTag a potential safety hazard for children for how easy it is to access the battery.
So the takeaway here would be to keep your AirTags as inaccessible for your kids as possible and if you want the tracking device to work properly, avoid using any coated batteries when replacing them.
