Tech tutorials, howtos and walkthroughs

So you’ve been gifted a smartphone by your significant other.

A question then: how do you recover the smartphone if it becomes lost?

How to track any Google Android or Apple iPhone – Preinstalled Apps are your true friends

If it’s a Google Android, Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet, make sure before you’ve lost your smartphone you’ve installed at least one of the following free tracking Apps and you have a Data Service activated:

For the latest version of Android or iOS, most of these apps come pre-installed. You can then login using your Google account to use the Android Devices Manager Website to locate any Google Android devices that are associated with your Google Android account.

Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb or older smartphones – Remote Installation

For Google Android smartphones running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb or older, you’ll have to remotely install a tracking app.

You can remotely install any app simply by going to the Google Play website and logging in using your Google Android Account. The best app that you can remotely install is Android Lost, which you can remotely install on you lost or stolen Android smartphone.

Then you’ll have to send an SMS (Short Messaging Service) or text message to your Android smartphone with the words “Androidlost register” to register it remotely using your Google Account credentials.  Once that’s done you can track the location of your Google Android smartphone on the Android Lost website, whether or not the Data Service is activated!

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Google Maps and Timeline iCloud and Find My iPhone App – Data needs to be active

Finally, you can use Google Maps to locate you smartphone even if your smartphone isn’t connected to the Internet and you have NO Data service activated. Google Maps, which works with both Google Android and Apple iPhones, keeps a log of everywhere you’ve ever been.

It then makes this information available for you to review on Google Maps via a feature called Google Timeline as you may have misplaced your smartphone and it was not necessarily stolen. Logging into Google Timeline will allows you to track the location of the person who stole you smartphone, assuming he doesn’t disable the Data Service or Wi-Fi.

By default it’s already enabled but you can use the following procedure to check and even to disable it if you wish:

  1. Sign into your Google accounton a computer
  2. Go to the My Accountpage
  3. Click Personal info & privacy
  4. Scroll to Places you go
  5. If the slider is blue, Location Historyis on
  6. Click Manage Activity below the slider to view Your Timeline

Google Maps Timeline is useful after all and isn’t just for tracking you!!

Apple iPhones from version 5 and newer have Find My iPhone App already installed by default. So locating a lost or stolen Apple iPhones is as simple as logging into Apple iCloud for Desktop.

Once logged in, you can locate you lost or stolen Apple iPhone.

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Paid apps for Tracking your Smartphone – How much your smartphone is worth to you

If for some reason you like paying to locate your smartphone or any phone that has GPS for that matter, here are some great paid Apps for both Apple iPhone and Google Android that do the trick:

  1. Prey
  2. Lookout
  3. Avast
  4. AccuTracking

So with all this information, how can you friends track your location?

How your friend can track your location – TSV is the best Defense against your nosy friend

Your friend can gain physical access to your Smartphone or Tablet and install other tracking Apps on your smartphone without your knowledge. If they know you Google Account for your Android smartphone or your Apple iCloud account, they can remotely install tracking Apps on your smartphone.

This making it easy for them to track you and may have been the means by which persons unknown had installed a keylogger onto the Laptop, smartphone or Tablet belonging.

In both cases, it’s best to enable TSV (Two Step Verification) so as to prevent unauthorized aces both by friends as well as by smartphones thieves. Have fun tracking your smartphone or being tracked by someone else. Sharing is caring so share this with someone you love.

Here’s the link:

Find My iPhone from Apple iTunes Store

Android Device Manager from the Google Play Store

Samsung’s Find My Mobile  

Android Lost App

Android Lost website

Google Maps Timeline

 

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