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Top 3 Ways to Track Your Phone Using Google

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With the advancement of mobile technology, almost all smart phone nowadays comes equipped with GPS. The smart phones ability to automatically connect to the internet wherever it is based also provides many ways and methods in tracking your devices. There are also many applications that have been developed to utilize this technology. Read our previous articles to know more on GPS in your phone and also how you can turn off your smart phone’s GPS.

Google has also developed several services that utilizes the GPS installed in our smart phones so that you are able to track your location as well as your friend’s location in real time. Google can also track your devices location based on Wi-Fi and nearest cell towers connected. This services will also come in handy if you lost your phone and want to track it.

Here in this article, we will list down the top 3 ways to track your lost phone using Google.

1. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING ANDROID DEVICE MANAGER

In order for you to be able to track your phone using the Android Device Manager, your android based phone must be activated first. Follow this steps to enable your phone.

Step 1
Open your administrative settings of your phone. Enable the Android Device Manager. This will enable you to track, lock and also erase your phone from anywhere in case you lost your phone.

Step 2
You will also need to enable your Location Reporting in your setting. This will allow your phone GPS to send and receive signals from Google.

So, in the case that you misplaced or lost your phone, you can use Android Device Manager to track your phone but with the condition that
1. The phone is turn on
2. The phone must be connected to the internet via a mobile data or Wi-Fi connection

track phone using android device manager

Now, here are the steps that needs to be followed if you want to use the Android Device Manager:-

Step 1
You need to sign in to your Google Account. You can visit this site
Android Device Manager

Step 2
Once you logged in, the Android Device Manager will show your devices exact location in a Google Map. If you have more than one devices connected, click on the arrow next to the device name.

Step 3
You will then have the option to ring it so that you can know where it is if it is nearby, lock it if you are afraid someone have stolen it and also erase all the data inside your phone so that the person who stole your phone will not get the sensitive and confidential information inside your phone.

2. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING YOUR TIMELINE IN GOOGLE MAPS

Google Timeline

This feature has been long in the Google services but not many are aware of it. It was once known as Google Location History but have been revamped to now known as ‘Your Timeline’. ‘Your Timeline’ was designed by Google to help you track back the places and routes you have travelled. It is set at private and therefore only you can see your timeline.

The interesting thing with this service is that it does not rely on GPS but to the internet connection in which your devices is connected. Therefore, this device that it can help to track can be your laptop, tablet and also your smart phone.

However, the pre-requisite for you to start using this services is that you must:-
1. Have your device log in to your Google account.
2. Location Reporting must be activated in your device
3. Your device is connected to the internet.

Here are the simple steps required if you lost your phone and want to use this feature to track your phone.

Step 1
Visit ‘Your timeline’ page here
Google ‘Your Timeline’
Log into your Google account.

Step 2
Once you log in to your Google account, it will show whether you have a connected devices or not.Choose the time and date in the left bar. The timeline will then show your devices previous location and the time it was connected to the internet.

3. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT

track phone using google account

Another way you can track your phone or devices using Google is by accessing your Google account. It works similar as tracking in ‘Your Timeline’. However, instead of giving you the devices footprint over time, the google account will only show you when was the last time your devices was connected to the internet.

As long as your devices are log in into your Google account, it will record the last time you log in whenever there is an internet connection. It will show you the location, date and also time information. Similar as using ‘Your Timeline’, it uses Wi-Fi and cell tower information in tracking your devices. Read our previous article on how cell towers can track your phone.

These information would prove useful at least to know an estimate location of your lost devices. Follow the steps here to track your phone using your Google Account.

Step 1
Open a browser and log into your Google Account

track phone using google account 2

Step 2
Once you are in your account, choose ‘Device Activity & Notifications’

Step 3
In the ‘Device Activity & Notifications’, you will see a list of devices connected to your Google account in ‘Recently used devices’. Tap on ‘Review devices’

Step 4
In the ‘Review devices’, choose the device that you want to locate. It will then show you the device’s last location, time and date recorded.

So, there you have it. The top 3 ways to track your phone using Google. Please leave a comment or visit our Youtube channel to subscribe to our community.


How to Track a Phone – Explaining the Methods

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How to Track a Phone – Explaining the Methods

As most of the mobile community are using smartphones nowadays, there is now many ways and method to track a phone using existing technology and infrastructure. Below are the three most common ways of tracking a phone.


1. TRACK PHONE USING GPS
With almost all smartphones are embedded with GPS, this method is now the most common method in locating and tracking a smartphone with GPS. However you can also actually turn off your smartphone GPS. The GPS stands for Global Positioning System.

The GPS is a “constellation” of 24 well-spaced satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground receivers to pinpoint their geographic location. The location accuracy is anywhere from 100 to 10 meters for most equipment. Accuracy can be pinpointed to within one (1) meter with special military-approved equipment. GPS equipment has now become sufficiently low-cost that now almost all smartphones has GPS receiver already embedded in the hardware.

2. TRACK PHONE USING CELL TOWER TRIANGULATION
Another common way is tracking your phone using IMEI. IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. You cannot simply use the IMEI to track your phone using any app in the market but this proves useful for the cell phone network operator. This is because the IMEI stands as unique identifier for your phone.

Therefore, the cell phone network operator can pinpoint your cell phone by identifying which of its cell tower manage to detect your phone or your IMEI in their cell tower network. By using triangulation tower method, it will know which nearest tower your mobile is communicating through its signal strength and therefore can pinpoint the location.

The triangulation method is basically a method of determining the cell phones location by measuring the angles to it from identified known points or a fixed baseline. By referencing the speed of radio signals, the distance and location from the unknown point can be estimated by identifying three to four known points. The known points can be where the antennas for the cell phone operator is mounted.

The first known point identifies the distance to the cell phone. The second known point then narrows down the location to two points. The third known point is then used to identify the exact location of the cell phone. Basically the concept is narrowing the exact location of the cell phone by eliminating the large area of a certain location to pinpoint location by using three filters or three known points. Two direction lines define a point area and the third line defines the exact location.

3. TRACK PHONE USING THE INTERNET
Gadgets and devices are now heavily interconnected with the internet than ever before. The need for this gadget to be readily connected to the internet has also allow some of this apps to have an auto-refresh function. Some of the apps that use auto-refresh function is the Gmail apps.

If you have installed the Gmail app in your phone, this app will normally auto-refresh for several minutes as to check any incoming email. Therefore, if you linked your smartphones with the Gmail app, it is possible for you to track down your phone if it got stolen or lost.

This is because when the smartphones are being accessed through the internet, you can track your phone using the internet through readily available apps such as Gmail app. The Gmail app will automatically detect the IP address and therefore you can use that information and roughly estimate where your devices are located.


Top 3 Ways on How to Locate your Lost Phone

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If you have that bad experience of losing your mobile phone, you would be regretting that you have not taken certain precaution and pre-emptive action to make sure you can track your lost phone once it is stolen or gone. However, with the advance mobile tracking technology that we have right now, the possibility to track and recover back your lost phone is now possible.

Here in this article we list out the top 3 ways that you can use to track your lost phone.

Track phone using Google location history

1. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING IMEI NUMBER
IMEI is an acronym that stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. It is used as a unique identifier to identify mobile phones in particular. IMEI is only unique to the phone device and not to the subscriber of the phone. Similar to a car that have a unique chassis number, each mobile phone in the world will have a unique IMEI number put by the manufacturer of the mobile phone.

GSM network provider used this IMEI number to identify the devices that is connecting to their network. Because of this, the network operator can be contacted and they can assist to either stop your stolen phone from accessing the network as well as tracking your phone. You can read more on how to track phone by using IMEI here.

You can immediately check you phone’s IMEI number by typing *#06# at your keypad and it will show a string of unique 15 numbers. These number represents your IMEI mobile phone number. You can report your lost stolen phone and submit the IMEI number to the network operator for them to either block the phone or track it.

2. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING GOOGLE SERVICES
If you are using a Samsung or any other Android based operating system mobile devices, you can apparently use some of Google services to track your lost phone. One of the simplest way is to track your mobile phone using Android Device Manager. If you have a Gmail account you will already have an access to the Android Device Manager. Make sure to pair your account with your Android based mobile devices.

You can visit the Android Device Manager site here to pair your devices. Another option is the Google Location History. You need to enable your location history and it will track any mobile devices that you have and only you can see it. It can even show you the timeline of your mobile devices and you can track the footprint of the mobile devices wherever it goes.

3. TRACK YOUR PHONE USING SMARTPHONE APPS
One of the fastest way to track your lost phone is by using an app. This app need to be pre-installed in your mobile devices and can be immediately be activated from another mobile or laptop to track your lost phone. It can also remotely lock your phone or erase the phone immediately once you realised your phone is gone or stolen.

Read more on this here on how to track your phone using apps. The iPhone or iPad normally will already have a pre-installed ‘Find iPhone’ app that can track your phone or lock it remotely. You can also read more here on how to track a phone without an app.

So, there you have it. The top 3 ways on how to locate your lost phone. We also provided a short animation video above that briefly explain on these 3 methods for your viewing pleasure.