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However, both Tractive and Fi Mini rely on GPS for location tracking, just as a phone does. This means if the signal is weak—a common issue in rural areas, among others—you may not know the precise location of your cat. According to online reviewers on Reddit and Amazon, Tractive's location tracking is less accurate in areas with thick vegetation. One bonus for Fi users with an Apple Watch: You can add the Fi app to your watch to monitor your pet’s location, activity, and enter “Lost Mode” without needing a phone, which is especially helpful if your cat's escaped while you're not by your phone.
When setting up each app, you can designate specific mapped areas as safe or danger zones, and then it notifies you when the pet enters or exits these zones.
Unfortunately, with both trackers, my apartment was too small to create a virtual fence around the perimeter, forcing me to expand it to an area outside my apartment. That means if Basil got out but stayed generally nearby, I wouldn't get an alert.
The Fi's danger zone alerts were glitchy during my testing. On three occasions, I got notifications that Basil had left the safe zone (aka my home and surrounding area). Each time, after I rushed home or raced to check my pet camera, I found him sleeping soundly on the living room couch. Other users have reported similar false alerts and location inaccuracy with the Fi.
In the Tractive app, after you create a profile, you'll get personalized daily activity goals for your cat based on the stats of others of similar age and weight. The app assigned Basil 120 to 230 minutes of daily activity, and then later reported he was consistently more active than 70 percent of similar cats. I felt peace of mind knowing I'm keeping him on the move in my small apartment.
Tractive app via Molly Higgins
Through the Tractive app, you can see daily (by the hour) and historical activity data, compared to pets with similar stats. At the end of every day and week, the app serves you activity averages and average calories burned in a day, estimated using factors like pet type, weight, and size compared to activity output.
Tractive's sleep-tracking feature monitors sleep duration, breaking it down into categories of night sleep, day sleep, and calm. Because it tracks sleep length and cycle phases based on movement patterns and time of day, the data skews more general than precise. As with activity tracking, the app compared Basil's sleep stats to cats of a similar profile, providing context around the amount of sleep that is typical.
The Fi Mini offers similar measures, but only compares statistics with the pet itself (as opposed to with other pets, like the Tractive), noting whether stats are up or down from the day before. The Fi also doesn't create goals, which I found helpful for a gut-check of whether Basil was in the normal range, comparatively. I did like that the Fi allows you to add vet records, receipts, and insurance information, and you can add vets to share pet-related documents and get appointment reminders.