Their firmware can probably be updated in the same mysterious way AirPods firmware is updated.

Roughly, be in the presence of an iDevice for a certain amount of time under unknown conditions. The advice on the internet is usually something like "leave your AirPods charging and have your phone connected to them when you go to sleep, and they'll probably be updated in the morning".

AirPods have a consistent source of power, though. AirTags run off a coin cell.

They have functionality for reporting the version, it would be really surprising if they couldn’t be upgraded.

AirPods upgrade firmware automatically, chances are it works in the same way.

I’d be surprise if Apple fielded AirTags without any way to update their firmware. I doubt it would be automatic though, you’d have to push an update to them from an iDevice.

AirTags start beeping if they are removed from the associated device for more than a few days, so there is plenty of opportunity to update them.

It would have to be automatic for it to be used to kill off "fake AirTags". Unless Apple is willing to take the hit of all the complaining.

Why couldn't they update the firmware automatically? They already do that with AirPods, iirc.

Then you'd have the problem of new air tags not working until they'd been updated. It's something of a minor problem, but unless people actually misuse this enough to be a worse problem, I don't see why Apple would update to disable this.

It's a much cheaper device than Airpods, harder to manage battery life, and there's not yet evidence that they can update them automatically. As far as I can tell, competitor products (Tile, for example) don't update firmware automatically...it's a user-initiated thing.

When doesn’t Apple “take the hit” of complaints?