As part of the iOS 18.2 public beta, Apple announced a major upgrade to its “Find My” feature that allows users to share the location of air tags with others. This new feature, called “Share Item Location,” allows users to share the location of lost luggage with airlines.

That's great, but in order to take advantage of this feature, the Air Tags must be charged prior to travel.

Share Item Location, which Apple revealed in a press release, creates a link to the Find My app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. You can then share that link with someone else, and when they click on the link, they will see a map showing the location of their lost item. You can manually turn off sharing, or the link will “automatically expire after 7 days.”

According to Apple, if the item is moved, the map will be updated to show a timestamp from when the item was last detected as moved.

“Find My is an essential tool for users around the world to track and find their belongings,” said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services. “We're pleased to offer a new way to easily and directly share this information with third parties like airlines, while protecting user privacy by sharing the location of items.

According to Apple's announcement, Share Item Location is available “in most parts of the world” to those with iOS 18.2 beta access. However, if you are using an iPhone X or later, Apple says an update will be available “soon.”

In addition to introducing this feature, Apple has partnered with 15 airlines, including Delta, United, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, and British Airways. Apple claims that the airlines will “privately and securely” accept links from the airlines. Presumably, “access to each link will be limited to a small number of people, and recipients will need to authenticate using either their Apple account or the partner's email address to view the link.”

The ability to share with airlines is not immediately available, but Apple says it will launch in the “coming months.” Perhaps they want to release it in time for the peak of the holiday travel season, or perhaps Apple is waiting until after the vacations to test this feature with less strain on the feature.

It was also announced that baggage tracking company SITA is bringing Share Item Location to its baggage tracking system.