There are many mobile tracking apps in the Google Play Store that help you locate your android devices in case it gets lost or left at a friend’s house. These apps use the phone’s GPS and WiFi to locate your lost android and even notify you via SMS in case the sim-card is changed. However, such apps are premium and you will need to pay few dollars for them.
Don’t worry, you can locate your phone for free with Google’s Android Device Manager. The first thing you will need is a Gmail account then you can proceed to the following steps to find your lost phone in android device manager:
[quote bcolor=”#25a0e8″ arrow=”yes” align=”right”]What is Android Device Manager ?[/quote]
- Open Android Device Manager in your browser
- Now log into your Google account with your Gmail username and password
- Now you should see your device’s name in the top left box of Android Device Manager dashboard.
- Press
to locate your phone and press 
to rename your android device - After pressing locate you should see the location information on the top left box and also in Google Maps
- You can even ring your phone by pressing Ring
- If you have sensitive information on your android, you can even erase your phone or tablet’s data from Android Device Manager. For this, you will need to have ” factory reset” enabled on your Android Phone. Do this before your phone gets lost.
To enable Android Device Manager settings on your Android phone or tablet follow these steps:
- Select
Google settings from your apps - Open Android Device Manager.
You can turn on the following options:
- Remotely locate this device: Locate the proximity of lost device in Google Maps. If you are running android 4.1 or higher enable location access from Settings>>Google Settings>> Location >>Access Location
- Allow remote factory reset. Activate this option to allow remote erasing of your android tablet or smarphone.
These free features of Android Device Manager are enough to find the area where your android is lost but there are other useful features that are missing such as SMS notification in case of sim change or receiving SMS location and phone number from the lost phone. If Google included those SMS features, Android device manager will become a better alternative to premium phone finding apps.
