Smartphones are more than a tool to ease communication. They have become the central bank of information where our personal information, imagery, and even financial accounts stay stored. Losing your smartphone proves to be an unpleasant experience. Not only for the economic loss regarding no longer owning a physical product you purchased but for the psychological damages it brings.
Luckily, there are methods you can use to either retrieve a lost mobile phone or make your personal information inaccessible for a third party. In cases when the person who found your lost device or stole it, you can have it back by the help of local authorities and similar software to those listed below.
These apps will help locate any Android. It won’t matter if your device is a top-expensive unit or a budget phone, nor it will matter if it has a custom OS built over the Android by the manufacturer or if it is a phone that runs stock Android.
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Android Device Manager
Android Device Manager is the most reliable tool for finding a misplaced or lost Android phone or tablet. Your best option to Find My Android alternative. The app is supplied and supported by Google, it is offered entirely for free, and it functions even when you haven’t directly downloaded it from the Play Store. In case you use Find My Phone service via another device, it will locate and executed commands regardless of being or not being installed in the lost device. On the lost phone, a notification that includes “Android Device Manager located this device” will be displayed.
When you lose your phone you can open Android Device Manager app on another Android device, log in with the Google account associated with your lost device and make it ring (when you misplace your phone around your house), lock it with a passcode, and wipe out the entire data it contains for securing your sensitive information.
Other ways you can access the Android Device Manager include searching on Google “Find My Phone” visiting Android Device Manager website, and using your Android Wear smartwatch. Take a look at all available methods on how to find a lost Android phone.
Download Android Device ManagerWheres My Droid
The next best thing to Android Device Manager is the Wheres My Droid phone tracker app. This GPS tracker aims at always answering to your “Where is my phone” question at any given time.
Wheres My Droid app can be seen as a customizable version of Google’s Find My Phone service offered by Android Device Manager. Similar to Google’s locate my phone service, this app lets you make your lost device ring, lock it with a password, and erase its data. The difference here is that you can customize some of these features to remotely force your phone to attract as much attention as possible.
You can force your phone to ring a custom audible sound, vibrate, have a white noise siren, activate camera’s flash when lost or display a custom message box. As this app uses your phone’s GPS sensor, it will track its location via it. You can as well set a minimal battery threshold for the app to store its last location before switching off.
Also, you can remotely take photos with your phone’s both cameras (shoots a selfie when a failure to unlock the phone occurs, if your phone is stolen the thief will have his face photographed) and will send those images to your email address. You can select your phone number to be the only one that activates the app’s features and as well make it impossible for others to uninstall this app. Deleting data from your phone’s storage and as well on the microSD is also supported. Note that Wheres My Droid answers to your “Where’s my phone” request and is a free app, but some paid features as well.
Download Wheres My DroidFamily Locator by Life360
Life 360 dedicates its self to creating a family community where all members can communicate with ease and in one place. Life 360 Family Locator lets you create groups of family members and friends that are called Circles, and it uses the GPS sensor on mobile phones to allow members in Circles to know each another’s location.
Life 360 app lets you send private and group messages among your Circle members, view their location at a real time but remains to have limited functions when it comes to retrieving a lost phone. It will help you locate your lost phone but will not help you lock it or delete sensitive data your lost phone may contain. Still, it is a fantastic app for parents to keep an eye on their children or for just knowing where your beloved ones might be.
Download Family LocatorAvast Anti Theft
Besides being one of the most popular and widely used antiviruses, Avast has its own anti-theft app to track, locate, and secure data on lost or stolen Android phones. The Avast Anti-Theft phone finder app uses a mixture of combinations to locate a lost phone, secure its data by making the device unusable, or erase its entire data as a last resource.
The Anti-Theft app by Avast requires running the device where it installs as an administrator, and it lets you store your phone number and an Anti-Theft PIN code to start securing your device. This cell phone tracker allows you to locate your lost device on a map, remotely control your device with SMS or through Avast website where you can log in with your Avast account, take images of the intruder with both cameras and store the imagery on Google Drive, lock your device, or erase its data. You can as well make the app undeletable by passing it in Stealth Mode and access it using your PIN.
Download Avast Anti-TheftCerberus
The free GPS phone tracker Cerberus is one of the most advanced and customizable phone trackers, and best Find My Phone apps. Besides focusing on detecting the location of a lost phone, Cerberus app includes features that will prevent you from having your phone stolen.
With Cerberus, you can make your phone take photos or videos, send location, send an SMS, lock the phone when the charger is either removed or installed and send the complete information to your Google Drive. If you are charging your phone in a public place, it will be difficult for someone to pick it up and get away with it.
Additional built-in security features of Cerberus include the ability to ring your phone, lock it with a passcode, and erase its data. For the later one, you can have a backup of your Android phone stored straightly on your Google Drive. It not only secures your privacy but also moves your sensitive information in a safe place. Besides being a phone tracker, Cerberus Anti Theft app allows you to track and secure your wearable device.
Download CerberusPrey Anti Theft
One of the most recommended free phone tracker tools is distributed by Prey Project and it is one of those apps I would trust to locate my phone.
Prey’s features to locate a phone consist of asking you to link your phone with a phone number, email, and set up a configuration with a security PIN and enabling Disable Power Menu to make your device refuse to shut down once the screen is locked. Via this app, you can remotely control your misplaced phone with SMS commands, locate it on a map, make it ring, display a home screen message, lock it, and delete its data. Data migration to your Google Drive is as well supported.
Download Prey Anti-TheftLookout Security
Another antivirus that functions with a built-in track my phone feature is the Lookout Mobile Security app.
Besides dedicating its self at preventing malware and other viruses from accessing and spying your phone activity, Lookout has a built-in Find My Mobile additional feature. Similarly to other find Android phone apps, Lookout Theft Protection lets you locate your phone on a map, make it ring by using scream feature, lock it with a passcode or erase its whole information.
Lookout has some Theft Alerts that will activate the phone tracker app when multiple failed passcode attempts occur, SIM card is removed, Airplane Mode is enabled, someone attempts to turn the device off, or when someone attempts to uninstall Lookout app.
Download LookoutLost Android
Android Lost is one of the simplest ways to gain remote control over a misplaced Android smartphone. The only requirement for it to function is to install it on your phone and everything else is managed by AndroidLost.Com website.
This app is one of the best to deal with a lost Android phone. By installing the app on your device (before it goes missing) and visiting Android Lost website you can force your phone to do wonders. You can get its location provided by the smartphone GPS sensor at a real time, force your phone to send its last location via email when the battery is low, set a custom alarm, or make your phone activate an alarm.
You can as well lock your phone, display a custom message, prevent further use if the SIM card is changed, hide AndroidLost app from the application launcher and make its removal impossible, take photos with both cameras by clicking on respective sections or set rules that will automate taking this imagery. You can as well disable and enable WiFi and as well use SMS commands if your lost device is not connected to the Internet.
Download Lost AndroidxFi Locator
xFi Locator is a mobile GPS tracker app that supports Android and iOS devices. You can use it to track a misplaced Android device or to find a lost iPhone.
xFi Locator is an app that can only track and locate a lost smartphones. The maximum this application can do for you in case you lose your phone is to make it ring and display to you different types of maps telling its location at any given time. But unlike other apps listed above, it cannot lock or secure data on your lost phone. But this app can do something other apps can’t, provide directions to your lost device and even estimate traffic. xFi Locator is more like a fun app you want to have installed on your phone rather than a sophisticated software to secure your privacy.
Download xFi LocatorPlan B
Plan B lost phone locator is a different type of application for tracking a lost smartphone. This application can track a lost mobile phone without the need of having the app installed on the lost phone before it went missing. What this app does is that it uses IMEI number of the lost device to track and geolocate it on a map.
Plan B app is priced at $1.99 and can only locate and make your lost device play an audible sound. No locking or data securing is provided.
Download Plan B
