Sometimes you lose your phone. You freak out. You start interrogating your friends in dark rooms and cutting the bottoms out of wicker chairs, but things don’t need to be that way. If only there was a way to find your smart phone once it became lost. Oh wait, there is. Some of these methods can also be used to track people, but please don’t do that unless they’re your kids. Seriously. We have enough tracking going on by companies and governments. In any case though, here are the best ways to track an Android phone or tablet.
Android Device Manager (Free)
Features:
- Track your phone through GPS
- Wipe phone’s memory remotely with computer
- Make phone ring loudly, remotely
- Lock someone out of using your phone, remotely
Android Device Manager is built into all Android phones and allows you to do almost anything you want, assuming your GPS is activated (this program won’t work if GPS is off at the time that you try to track the phone). First, go to the Web interface. If your phone is linked to your Gmail account and you’re already logged in, then it should automatically track your phone. Depending on what you’ve set up ahead of time, you can remotely lock it, wipe it, or set off an alarm (your phone rings at full volume for five minutes, even when muted). We put scared everyone in the DT offices when we tried this feature because Google labels it “ring your device,” which sounds innocent enough. (It’s not.)
When we tested out the tracker the location was off by about 60 feet off. Considering that we’re located on the 10th floor of a skyscraper, we considered this pretty good. Just don’t go knocking down the doors of innocents as you pursue your phone. Locking your device works well, and if you don’t want to wipe its memory completely, you can set a new password from your computer, effectively locking out anyone from accessing the phone.
Be aware that if you leave your Gmail account open on a computer, someone could potentially use it to track the location of your phone, or you could nefariously do the same to others (you weirdo). Most importantly, be sure to set up all your options before you lose the phone, so you can use any of the features the Device Manager offers when you need them.
