Whistle: Smart Pet Tracker

The only reason I’m giving 3 stars is because when the device works (which it did well for 6 months and now only sporadically), it’s great. After about 6 months of use tracking and monitoring would drop out mid-way through a walk or simply not be available for days at a time. We contacted customer “service” repeatedly and they just kept blaming it on the cell network and cell variability. As we continued to contact them, they actually became condescending and snarky. I’ve read another review since and they had the same problems. Clearly we either had a defective device or Whistle has some system problems. In either case, customer service should have handled it much better. In the last 2 weeks the device or Whistle’s system seem to have started operating well again. We would have bought another device for our new puppy, but now we just don’t trust it to continue working and we don’t trust Whistle to provide appropriate service if there are problems. So disappointing because when it works, it’s great.

I wouldn’t buy this. I purchased one and can’t buy a subscription. It’s now a useless paper weight. Sent an email and they replied asking for a screen shot of the app saying there’s a problem with their payment system. 3 weeks ago. Never received a reply back after sending back the required info. Basically this is a scam.

We are supposed to have the waterproof version but it isn’t at all. We have had to replace it 3 times!! Why does it say it lasts 30 min in the water?

The whole thing has turned into a Health tracking app. We just want to track our three dogs when we’re off leash. It is now really awkward to do simple things like find out the battery percentage for each dogs tracker. We used to be able to see that at a glance now I have to click through and click on the battery icon for each dog to see the percentage. Same with the maps, they don’t come up right away when you click on that tracking video instead you have to scroll down and click again to open the ma. it’s just a refocusing of everything away from tracking and onto the Health aspect. This might be inline with their new health tracker but it sure doesn’t work for us with a Whistle Go Explore where we just use as an outdoor adventure tracker. Just downright annoying.

My first iOS review ever - this app is very well designed and works flawlessly with the tracker. So many bonus features like the health section. You can set up your home area and get notified when your pet leaves the gps defined area. Yes notifications work under Settings>scroll to the bottom>Whistle>Notifications to customize. Don’t believe the reviews of anyone who can’t use their phone lol.

J’apprécie vraiment la fiabilité de l’appareil de localisation. Pour l’améliorer, je crois qu’il serait simple d’ajouter une fonction de localisation sonore, un peu comme celle permettant de faire clignoter la lumière de l’appareil à distance. Ce serait vraiment pratique pour les propriétaires de chats qui répondent peu lorsqu’on les appelle. L’application quant à elle contient de petits bugs plutôt irritants. Elle me demande constamment de jumeler l’appareil à mon téléphone pour bénéficier de toutes les fonctionnalités alors qu’il est déjà jumelé. Il arrive également parfois que la position ne s’actualise pas en continu. Pour le suivi d’activité, il arrive que celle du jour apparaisse sous la date du jour précédent. Il est important de poursuivre le développement d’une application comme celle-ci sans quoi les clients n’opteront plus pour votre système. Surtout que l’appareil nécessite l’utilisation d’une app.

I absolutely love this device, it is an amazing tool to find your dog if they get lost. I would recommend this device to anyone! The only complaint I have is the lack of development put into their apps. Hence the reviews bad rating. I will change my review when the developers have fixed the issues stated below. I am on a current iPhone 8 running the most up to date OS. The app states for me to go into settings to enable push notifications. But when I go to settings there is absolutely no feature to enable said “notifications”. I have looked around everywhere for support on this and there is no answers. I have check the notifications tab in settings and the whistle app does not even show up. When you click on the main app settings page, there is no feature to enable notifications either. Please Please fix this, as I absolutely love, did I stress LOVE your device. It is an amazing and absolutely necessary tool for anyone which has a pet that likes to explore on their own sometimes. This review is meant to reflect the app only and not the device. If the developers reach out to support me on this issue then I will immediately change this review to 5 stars. Although there are other things they could fix too. I have also downloaded the whistle app on both of my iPad devices. And to my surprise, the app is not fully optimized to work on either iPad, which again, both are current devices running the latest OS. Please invest more time and money into improving these downfalls in your software.

Nothing is perfect, that's why I've been a paying whistle customer since the first generation. I get it. But when the device gives up the ghost due to terrible design (fragile charge port), I asked for help from support. Robot mode engaged and I was told simply the device is out of warranty. I asked if they'd offer an upgrade discount since their device died due to poor design. "Nope" was the short answer. I was not pleased and asked to cancel my service because I don't like their notion customer loyalty- I held up my end of the bargain for years, they simply said "tough luck". The hitch is canceling my subscription: I've paid for an annual subscription and they won't prorate the six months of unused service. Their device breaks, yet I can't use the service. It's one thing if I just decided to cancel because I chose to switch to a less expensive service. I seriously hope you consider the value of a repeat subscriber and know that Whistle does not. FWIW, another serious flaw: it doesn't successfully track my pet half the time while within a solid cell signal zone. It may take 10 minutes or worse to get a fix on my pet. Further, now I seem to be on some data mining campaign where I get spammed by whistle asking me "how is your pet is feeling today?" Ah, what? Now I probably could reach out to support and have them stop the nagging, but why was it not an opt in program? These guys are just another data mining company after your personal information. Not a fan of this company anymore. Seeking alternatives.

I have been using whistle for about 6 years or so. It has been always good. However, lately it won’t locate my dog anymore. I have an escape artist, and I was able to see his entire route. Now I can’t even locate him. The app only notifies me when he is home. We also lost a device on my other dog. The special clip that connects to the collar got loose and wouldn’t stay in. We couldn’t find it because it wouldn’t show the location. I will probably cancel and switch to a different company.

After purchasing a different GPS tracker that was a nightmare and had no customer support, I trashed it and decided to buy this based on the recommendation from Wirecutter. It’s awesome. Easy to set up, notifies us when she wanders outside the electronic fence, and tracks her accurately. The battery lasts a week. We are on 2 acres, it takes a while to locate her if she is on the property because the gps isn’t connected all the time.