How to locate lost or stolen Android phone?
Android operating system doesn’t come with built-in tools with locate or lock features in case of losing your phone. Of course, we can manually install and configure the application, but what if we lost our phone without any protection installed?
Fortunately, Google Play store provides a great collection of apps that will do each of those tasks. Most of them are so called preventive measures, meaning you should already have them before it went missing. There are some cool apps to help you track it down, even if you never installed anything on your phone. One such lifesaver is Plan B.
It works well, though, has some limitations. We need Android 2.3 Gingerbread, added to it the fact that smartphone must be turned on and has to have an Internet connection and access to the same Google Account. The only plus is that Google Play Store application can be installed remotely on your smartphone, provided that you meet the aforementioned requirements. If everything goes well, the application installs and is able to locate your phone.
Even if you couldn't make use of Plan B, you might be able to track down your phone by installing Android Lost. To launch the program, you can send SMS from someone’s else phone. In case you lose your phone or tablet, an access to another device is required which will help us activate Android Lost function on your smartphone. The next step involves logging on to our Google account, and then Android Lost locates our Android phone from the website.
How to install and use Android Lost?
First of all, install the app from the Google Play site, and then send an SMS to your device in order to remotely run the program.
To do this, use another phone, which will send a text message that goes:
androidlost register
After sending this message Google Account used by the lost smartphone should be connected to Android Lost serivce as long as it is turned on and has access to the network. Then we go to Android Lost website, click on the link "Sign In" and log in on the same account that is assigned to the lost device.
Next we go to "Controls". From this point, we can track and remotely control our missing phone. Unfortunately, we will have to wait for a while for registration to complete. Apart from this, Android Lost has a slew of other useful functions. These include the ability to run an alarm, which will start flashing the screen if you cannot find it in the dark or when we lost our device somewhere in the house or garden.
If you want to locate your phone using GPS, select "Auto switch on GPS if deactivated" option and then click on the "Send Location". If the phone sends a response message, the website opens a new window with a specified phone location. Of course it is not perfectly accurate, but it gives a general idea of where we should look for. If after several attempts the phone doesn’t give feedback, it may indicate that it is off, there is no coverage or even worse, destroyed or stolen.
Better be safe than sorry
Even if we couldn’t bothered ourselves to install any application for tracking our device in case we lost it, Android Lost is probably the last hope. While the application is running smoothly, it is recommended to install any dedicated software for this tasks as a precaution, that will allow you to erase data, lock and with other useful features beyond just locating your phone. Especially if you are going to unknown place, where there is a risk of losing your phone or tablet.