Want To Find Your Android Phone? Just Google It

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Am I the only person that didn't know you could do this?

Type “find my phone” into Google, and provided you’re logged into your browser with the same Google account as your phone, you’ll instantly get a map of its location, along with the option to ring it.
 
I'm pretty sure that iOS and Windows can do this as well. Maybe not be from google's homepage but I can log into my microsoft account and ring, lock or wipe my windows phone..
 
Worked perfectly - even ringing the phone. Could be kind of useful I guess.
 
This has been around for at least a year now :p. Doesn't do much good for me though since I usually have my GPS turned completely off.
 
Heh, it works, especially the part where it says when you ring the phone, it will ring it at FULL VOLUME. I just scared the crap out of a bunch of people in our programming department. :D
 
My GPS is turned off too. It turns it on so it can locate it.

Just tested it - not if you have location completely turned off like I usually do. If I switch it to "Battery Saving" or higher then it works - but completely off doesn't turn it on (at least for me it didn't).
 
Remote ring will be the best thing to happen to my wife's phone. I still don't get how she randomly leaves it around the house. Who leaves a phone in the pantry?!
 
This has been around for at least a year now :p. Doesn't do much good for me though since I usually have my GPS turned completely off.

If GPS is off, it probably falls back on Wifi location tracking. If Wifi is turned off, it probably falls back on cell tower triangulation.

If cell tower connections are off, well, then it can't contact the phone anyway, so the issue is moot.
 
Remote ring will be the best thing to happen to my wife's phone. I still don't get how she randomly leaves it around the house. Who leaves a phone in the pantry?!

I don't know your wife's fashion preferences, but one thing I ahve noticed over the years is that women's clothing tends to be much lighter in the "pockets" department than what we men get, and when they do have pockets, they are often tight, and difficult to squeeze a phone into and get it out.

I would imagine that without a convenient and large pocket always available, the chance of misplacing ones phone increases :p
 
I tried it and it found all three android phones and My Samsung tablet. I rang my tablet even though it's WiFi only. Interesting.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041550880 said:
If GPS is off, it probably falls back on Wifi location tracking. If Wifi is turned off, it probably falls back on cell tower triangulation.

If cell tower connections are off, well, then it can't contact the phone anyway, so the issue is moot.
I have the GPS turned off on all my devices until needed. That makes the accuracy about 30 meters.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041550884 said:
I don't know your wife's fashion preferences, but one thing I ahve noticed over the years is that women's clothing tends to be much lighter in the "pockets" department than what we men get, and when they do have pockets, they are often tight, and difficult to squeeze a phone into and get it out.

I would imagine that without a convenient and large pocket always available, the chance of misplacing ones phone increases :p

Indeed. Which brings me to a second rant due to her leaving her phone off at work and leaves it at home when we go out for reasons you describe. "You are the only person who calls me" makes me think a flip phone might be money better spent. I digress.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041550880 said:
If GPS is off, it probably falls back on Wifi location tracking. If Wifi is turned off, it probably falls back on cell tower triangulation.

If cell tower connections are off, well, then it can't contact the phone anyway, so the issue is moot.

You can set the mode of GPS in Android.

High Accuracy: GPS/Wifi/Mobile positioning
Battery Saving: Wifi/Mobile positioning
Device Only: GPS only
Off: Location is completely off and not reported, while data/wifi/cell can still be on and working

If the Location is set to "Off" then ADM can't contact it at all because the location isn't being reported back.
 
I use Google's Android Device Manager for tracking the device. It's pretty cool.
 
doesn't work for me. It just posts results from the articles.
 
I normally got location turned off, but it's a cool feature.
 
Would like to be able to add my son's phone... That way I can track it and ring it LOUD when he doesn't answer! :)
 
I didn't realize my phone was in the middle of the street behind my house instead of sitting on my desk next to me. :(
 
Would like to be able to add my son's phone... That way I can track it and ring it LOUD when he doesn't answer! :)

Cerberus. Lock the phone remotely if he doesn't pick up when you call.
 
Had this for a few years on my blackberry, even has options to display a message on the lock screen.
 
Definitely comes in handy. I've used it a couple times in the past since my kids are always misplacing their tablets. Log in with the account they are tied to, pick the device and tell it to ring.. only to find the tablet lying under the couch or in a pile of dirty clothes for some reason :(
 
So, will this work with any mobile device signed into a google account, or does it have to be Android?
 
Zarathustra[H];1041551677 said:
So, will this work with any mobile device signed into a google account, or does it have to be Android?

To clarify, I'm on my Droid Turbo and it works great, but the losers of devices in my household are on "other" platforms.
 
I've used this. Been a feature for awhile. And yes, it allowed me to recover my lost phone.
 
Just tried it, it went to googles step 2 verification (a text to my phone) guess id be out of luck if I really needed it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041551677 said:
So, will this work with any mobile device signed into a google account, or does it have to be Android?

Has to be Android AFAIK because it accesses the Android Device Manager service that runs in the background on the phone.

You can enable/disable it under: Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators -> Check/uncheck Android Device Manager
 
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