Elevation Lab killed off the one accessory in its lineup built to make an AirTag go silent, and admitted the safety tradeoff wasn't worth it.
Elevation Lab had sold a device called the Silencer, a small pin kit meant to physically disable an AirTag's speaker. The instructions had owners pull the battery, seat the pin over the speaker, and tap it with a hammer to puncture the plastic cover and the speaker beneath. The company pitched it as bike theft protection: a silent tracker tucked onto an expensive bike won't tip off a thief listening for the chirp. Six Colors writer Glenn Fleishman called the product "appalling," and after Elevation Lab CEO Casey Hopkins publicly defended it, the company reversed course and emailed customers today that the Silencer is no longer for sale.
An AirTag's speaker is the one feature standing between a lost item tracker and an undetectable stalking device, which is why Apple also pushes unknown tracker alerts to iPhones as a backup for anyone without one nearby. Apple's own AirTag 2 quietly hardened against this exact failure mode, shipping a louder speaker and tougher adhesive specifically to make the speaker harder to remove. A third-party accessory that reverses that safety work with a pin and a hammer was always going to draw scrutiny.
Elevation Lab's own explanation, that it built the tool for its bikes and didn't consider who else might want a silent tracker, is a reminder that wanting something for yourself is a flimsy safety review for a product that doubles as a tracking device.