yves béhar's discrete design of 'tile', the minimalist bluetooth tracker

tile has announced its newest and smallest bluetooth tracker to date: ’tile mate’, which joins the recently-released ’tile slim’. designed in partnership with fuseproject, led by yves béhar, ’tile mate’ boasts a minimal, clean design with a smooth, matte feel that allows it to work with a wide variety of items.

tile carefully considered every detail of both products to achieve new levels of style, functionality, and performance, all while making the products as compact as possible.  the company continues to provide people with internet of things solutions to help them locate the items that matter to them most.

’tile mate and tile slim were designed with the user in mind; by working closely with tile’s product team, we were able to make the products as compact as possible, while adding subtle exterior details and finishes to showcase the quality of these products,’ comments yves béhar, founder and principal designer at fuseproject. ‘the multitude of expanded use cases these two new products provide takes tile’s core proposition to a whole new level.’

he continues, ‘for these user scenarios, we worked together to design tile slim. it is just over 2 millimeters thick, about the size of two credit cards. the button in the center is embedded in the surface but remains tactile and its functionality is to wake up the smartphone it’s connected to: when pressed, it will ring the phone to help in finding it. while we wanted tile slim to look and feel simple in use, the complexity lies internally – the thin white square is packed with a full-volume speaker, bluetooth technology, and a battery that needs to last for 12 months. we also designed a metallic silk-printed pattern across the surface to give the technology inside a dynamic quality and a branded personal touch.’

smaller, lighter and more versatile than its predecessor, ’tile mate’ builds on everything consumers enjoy about tile. designed with a convenient hole for attachments, and 25% smaller than the original, ’tile mate’ fits seamlessly into peoples’ everyday lives. just as ’tile slim’ was purpose-built for wallets, ’tile mate’ is a go-with-anything companion to hook onto keys; purses; luggage; and more. consumers will now be able to purchase both products together in the ’tile mate + tile slim’ combo pack.

users can ring their things with one of ’tile mate’s’ four preset ringtones, or use it in reverse to find their phone—even if it’s on silent. they can also see the last place they had their item on a map, and if the item has been moved, they can enlist the power of the tile community to help them find it. in addition, tile recently announced the ’tile smart location’ platform, which makes it possible for other companies to give their own products the power of smart location.

 yves summarizes by further explaining tile’s internet of things potentiality, ‘the exciting technology of tile is that it is also a network – if your items are lost or stolen out of range, and someone else passes by with the tile app, it will pick up the signal and notify the original owner. stories of people finding their items all over the world abound, and we hope that tile slim and tile mate continue to grow the network and help people find their stuff.’