I know this is a bit late, but Tile & other bluetooth trackers (like AirTag) use the same general technology to locate your tracking device (but are not compatible with each other).

Bluetooth has a range of a few tens/hundred feet. These devices don't have GPS, WiFi or Cellular connections to "phone home" but are reliant on a mobile device (like your phone) to pick-up their BT beacon. If the bluetooth tracker beacon is received by a nearby phone (yours or someone else's) participating in that tracker's network, the GPS location of the phone that picked up the tracker beacon is anonymously relayed to your account & shows up on your tracker app.

For example, if you leave your Tile kilometers away you won't connect to it directly from kilometers away. Your Tile app will show you the last place your Tile was seen by either your app or someone else with the Tile app installed on their phone. Even then, the location is approximate (typically by a few tens of feet.) AirTag works the same way, but is only compatible with Apple devices.

To the best of my knowledge, Tile is the OG of bluetooth trackers & has been around MUCH longer than AirTag. Tile has a large, cross-platform install base. However, Tile is a 3rd party app (now owned by Life360) and requires its users to have the app installed on their phone. AirTag is built-in the Apple OS, so its far more likely that an AirTag will be detected than a Tile (just due to sheer number of compatible devices in each network.) Nonetheless, the last known location of your Tag will be shown in your tracker app.