Remote control and track your lost smartphone with Android Lost

2. Remote control and track your smartphone with Android Lost

UPDATE: Due to Android API updates, Android Lost can’t be activated remotely on devices running Android 3.0 or higher.

Requirements:

• Your device is connected with your Google account.
• Your device has access to the internet.
• You’re not running Android 3.0 or higher.

This is a more complicated way to track your phone. Basically, you need to install the tracking app ‘Android Lost’ on your phone and activate it by sending it an SMS (this can be done from any phone). How do you install something when you don’t have your phone with you? That’s very easy. You can install any app on all your registered devices directly from your browser through the Google Play website. Simply navigate to the Android Lost app and click the install button.

The remote installation process of Android Lost is very straightforward and only requires that your phone is still connected with your Google account. However, in case of theft, you have to hope that the thief doesn’t disconnect from your account.

So here’s what to do:

Step 1: Install Android Lost remotely

Install the Android Lost app remotely via Google Play in your browser and it will be installed on your phone remotely. As already mentioned, your phone still needs to be connected to your Google account. Otherwise, this won’t work.

Step 2: Activate Android Lost (not working on Android 3.0+)

If you are still in the possession of your smartphone or tablet then all you need to do is starting the app. But this is, obviously, probably not the case if you lost your phone. So, to register your device remotely, send an SMS with the text “androidlost register” to your phone. This SMS can be sent from any phone. This will trigger Android Lost to register itself using your Google account credentials.

If you own a tablet, SMS might not be an option. In that case, install “AndroidLost Jumpstart” before you install the actual Android Lost app. It will jump start the registration process when Android Lost is being installed.

Step 3: Log in to the Android Lost website

Visit the Android Lost website and sign in using your Google account. After doing that, you should have access to all remote control features such as the following:

• Read the latest SMS on your phone
• Force your phone to play a loud alarm with a flashing screen. Perfect if you misplaced your device.
• Get the location of your device
• Lock and unlock your phone
• Wipe your entire phone so no private data falls into the wrong hands
• Erase the SD card
• Use the camera to make pictures (front or rear camera) to get a nice shot of the nice person who took your device.
• …here’s the complete feature list

Note that it can take a while for the registration process to complete.

Android Lost is a great tool to get your phone back

I have to say that having the possibility to install and register this tool remotely makes it very powerful in case you lose your device. Unfortunately, The only negative thing I experienced is that the notification of a new app called ‘Android Lost’ could tell a potential thief about what’s going on. Unfortunately, activating Android Lost is only possible on Android Versions older than 3.0.

Here is a success story of a dad chasing down the man who stole his daughter’s phone with the help of Android Lost.

3. Plan B is the Android Lost alternative for devices running Android 2.0 – 2.3

Requirements:

• Your device is connected with your Google account.
• Your device has access to the internet.

If Android Lost is not working out for you and you’re phone is still running an older version of Android (2.0 up to 2.3) you could give Plan B from Lockout a try. Install the app directly from the Play Store (Link) to your device and, if successful, Plan B will send your device’s location to your Gmail address. It will send you a mail every 10 minutes with the current location. You can also use any other phone to send an SMS with “locate” to your phone to get the location via mail.

As already mentioned, Plan B only works with devices on Android 2.0-2.3, so it won’t work with most devices. Also, the app hasn’t been updated in a while, so I cannot guarantee that it will work.

4. Use Google Maps Location History to track your lost Android phone (even if it’s turned off)

Requirements:

• Your device is connected with your Google account.
• Your device has access to the internet.
• Location Reporting and Location History need to be activated on your device (can be done in the Google Settings app on your device).

Unlike the Android Device Manager, the Location History feature of Google Maps doesn’t focus on tracking down a lost phone. You can use your location data to for many different reasons such as looking up past travel routes or last night’s pub crawl tour. However, it is also a good way to locate your phone.

Here’s what you need to do. Go to the Google Maps Location History and make sure the current day is selected in the calendar. Click on “Show timestamps” below the calendar to see all the times your device’s location was registered. Now scroll down and select the latest timestamp to see the last available location.

Other than Android Device Manager, which also uses GPS for tracking, Location History only uses cell tower IDs and Wi-Fi location detection to collect location data. This means that the accuracy can vary significantly.

So how can this tool help you if you’re phone’s battery is empty? Well, before your phone died, Google might have saved its current location. That means that you might be able to find it using the last reported position in your location history.

The advantage of Location History is the ability to track your phone’s location frequently over a period of time. If someone stole it, you could make out often visited places, which could be the thief’s home or workplace. That might help you and the authorities to catch the person.

I recommend trying out the Android Device Manager or Android Lost first, since they’re able to use your device’s GPS and offer other useful features.