"Find my iPhone" for Android

Question

There are a lot of "Find my phone" type apps out there for Android and I am finding it difficult to find one that has the features I want without being too bloated. My wife and I are primarily looking for a solution to let us know where the other one is when we are out.

The most important thing for us is to be able to view each others location from our phones (Android, though iOS and Android would be great) and via the web. We would also like to find a solution that is as close to real time as possible so we could link up when we are both out.

Though not critical, it would be nice to find a solution that also would be able to lock/ring/wipe the device in the case that it was stolen. This way I could run just one program instead of several. I know it's iOS but "Find my iPhone" is an example of everything I want in this type of app ...

1. Can track/view devices from other devices and the web
2. Close to real-time updates
3. Can lock/ring/wipe device remotely
4. All in one program

However, I prefer Android to iOS. If there was a solution that worked for both iOS and Android that would be even better. Thanks for any suggestions.

P.S. I am running a VZW Bionic while my wife uses the VZW Galaxy Nexus

Answer 1

If you simply want to find each other, I would use Google Latitude, included in Google Maps, which allows almost live updates (about every five minutes-ish, usually), and gives all the options of Google Maps, including just a few clicks to see a map or use the built in turn by turn Navigation to find each other.

See this similar question for some other options for the latter options, but I personally use Android Lost. This is their website, and they offer a long list of options for lost devices, including, but not limited to:

• Read SMS'es Read the latest SMS'es from your phone and send them to your email.
• Remote control alarm Have you ever misplaced your phone which was put on silent mode? Now you may sound the alarm on your phone from your PC!
• View on map Find the location of your phone on a map. With AndroidLost you can find your phone with GPS precision. Even if the phone is indoor you will get a nearby location by network accuracy.
• Send SMS'es from your PC You can send SMS'es directly from your phone by typing them on AndroidLost. All replies will still go to your phone.
• Lock the phone You can lock and unlock the phone from the web. If you forget your pincode you can simply overwrite it or remove it by entering an empty pincode on the web.
• Wipe the phone Don't want your personal messages in the hands of anyone else? With AndroidLost you may wipe the entire phone so all SMS'es, contact and google setup is removed.
• Pop up messages on the phone Send a message to the friendly guy who have found your phone so you may let him know where to give it back.
• Forward your calls You can send keys to the dialer of your phone. That way you can forward your calls from your mobile to a nearby phone.
• No battery use AndroidLost will not use any battery since it does not poll any server to find out if it is lost. It uses the latest technology from google to send messages to the phone.
• No pre installation required You didn't install AndroidLost on your phone? No problem! You can push the AndroidLost app to your phone from google market and initiate the connection to googles servers by sending an SMS with the message "androidlost register" to your phone.
• Read status Detect how much battery is left, display IMEI, SIM card ID and much more.
• SMS commands You can set up a phonenumber which can control you phone, i.e. start the alarm by sending an SMS to your phone.
• Erase SD card Click a button and your SD card will be erased! Very useful if you have some naughty pictures on your sd card.
• SIM card changed When the SIM card is changed an email will be sent to the owner of the phone.
• Hidden SMS When the phone receives an SMS it plays a sound and displays an icon in the notification bar. But if it starts with androidlost it will not play any sound and not display any notification.
• Call list A list of incomming and outgoing calls will be sent to your email.
• Camera AndroidLost can take pictures with the front facing camera in case the phone is stolen. Only for android 2.3.
• Tablets Honeycomb I think I have fixed it so AndroidLost works on tablets. The call functions will obviously fail if the tablet have no phone installed.
• Text to speech You can make your phone speak out load. Suppose you have lost it on a café then you can make the phone say: 'I am lost - please pick me up!'
• Multiple phones on the same account

NOTE: AndroidLost will do all of the things you ask in one application, but Latitude is simpler for your primary usage.

Answer 2

Well, you can try using avast! Anti Theft, but you must first install avast! Mobile Security because it comes bundled with it. Can be considered as bloat because you don't seem to need the anti-virus features. But avast! Anti Theft is integrated online, which means that you can control your phone using the avast! web site, apart from controlling the phone with another phone via SMS commands (which many others can too).

If you like simplicity, try aeGis because it works through SMS only, while a lot of similar apps are dependent of data/internet connection. I personally recommend this because it contains all the core features that an anti-theft app should have, yet small in size.

Answer 3

Look into Cerebrus and its volume license options. Does all of these things + scary stuff like remotely recording sound and video.

Answer 4

If you want to see where each of you are, and send messages in case you need help or to see if you're all OK, then Life360 Family Locator is the free way to go.

For security, like locking phone, taking pictures, an all-in-one, then download Android Lost.

If you want to password protect your apps (e.g. connecting 4 dots), then so far I've been using Smart App Protector.