How Can I Use Google To Find My Phone

Notice My Device (Prototype credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central)

Find My Device hands lets yous remotely track, lock, and erase the data on a lost or stolen telephone. You can also see the battery life remaining on your phone and the Wi-Fi network it is connected to. There are other ways to track a lost Android phone, but Find My Device is the easiest option, and it is enabled on all Android phones out of the box.

Discover My Device is a part of Google Play Protect and the broader Play Services, a suite of utilities designed to protect your telephone from malicious content. Google is leveraging its machine learning expertise to scan and verify the apps installed on your phone, and while the Verify Apps feature has existed for several years at present, Google is making the process much more visible to users.

Here's what yous need to know almost Discover My Device and how you can fix information technology up on your telephone.

Will my phone piece of work with Find My Device?

Before nosotros evidence you how to install and ready up Find My Device, information technology's of import to know whether your phone volition piece of work with information technology. If y'all accept a device running Android four.0 Water ice Cream Sandwich or later, you'll exist able to install Find My Device. That means roughly over 99% of active Android devices — over ii.five billion devices worldwide — are eligible to install Find My Device.

Find My Device should exist installed out of the box on most recent phones, just you can manually download it from the Play Store. We'll break it down for y'all:

Open Play Store from your home screen or app drawer.
Search for Detect My Device.
Tap the three dots next to the first search issue and select Install.

Find My Device install — Source: Android Primal (Epitome credit: Source: Android Central)

How to get started with Notice My Device

After installation, you'll need to sign in to Find My Device from your Google account. If y'all're signed in to more than than one account on your phone, you'll get a drop-down card from which you can select the account you want to associate with the telephone.

Open Notice Device from your habitation screen or app drawer.
Select the Google account you want to use the service with.
Hitting the Continue as button.

Find My Device sign in — Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

Enter your Google account password.
Tap Sign in.
Requite location access to the service.

Find My Device sign in password — Source: Android Central (Image credit: Source: Android Cardinal)

How to see if your phone is discoverable with Notice My Device

Once you lot're signed in to Find My Device, you'll see a map with your current location as well as the make and model of your phone and two options — Play Sound and Enable Lock & Erase. Striking the latter option will let you lot to beginning using the Lock and Erase functions.

If yous've signed into more than ane phone, you can select a detail device past browsing the list at the meridian of the screen.

Open up Find My Device from your home screen or app drawer.
Select your phone from the list of devices at the top of the screen.
See if your phone is discoverable.

Find My Device locate — Source: Android Central (Prototype credit: Source: Android Central)

If you're not able to notice your telephone or if information technology says that the device is unavailable, it is likely that the location services are disabled. Find My Device relies on GPS to track your phone, so now would be a good time to enable location services.

Open up Settings from your habitation screen or app drawer.
Tap Location.
Toggle Enable location services.

Find My Device location — Source: Android Central (Prototype credit: Source: Android Central)

How to locate your phone over the net

If you've lost your phone, yous can remotely locate it through the Find My Device website. Commencement, yous'll demand to sign in to the Google account that was used to set upward Discover My Device. It takes a few seconds, but the service should be able to rails your phone. Alternatively, you can as well do a Google search for "notice my phone" to locate your handset.

Head to the Find My Device website.
Sign in to your Google account.
Check if your device is visible.

How to band your phone with Detect My Device

The best part about Observe My Device is that it is easily attainable. If you need to locate your telephone, just caput to the website or log in to the service from another phone. Once you sign in to Find My Device and locate your device, you can use the Play Sound choice, which plays a loud tone on your phone continuously at total volume for five minutes even if you turned the ringer off. Once you observe your phone, you tin can hit the power button to stop the ringing.

Locate your phone on Find My Device.
Tap Play Sound.
Your device will kickoff ringing. You can hit the power push button to stop the audio.

Find My Device play sound — Source: Android Key (Image credit: Source: Android Fundamental)

How to lock your telephone with Find My Device

In that location's besides a Lock choice that lets y'all gear up a new password to unlock the phone. In addition, you can brandish a bulletin over the lock screen and add a push to call back your number and then that anyone that comes across your phone can easily get in touch with you.

Locate your phone on Find My Device.
Tap Lock.
Enter a message and telephone number to display on the lock screen and tap Lock.

Find My Device lock — Source: Android Cardinal (Paradigm credit: Source: Android Fundamental)

How to erase your lost phone'south data remotely

If you lot're sure that yous're not going to see your phone once again, at that place is the nuclear option of erasing the data remotely. Selecting Erase deletes all the data on your phone. The service likewise deletes information from a connected SD carte du jour, but there is a chance that it may not be able to, based on the manufacturer and Android version. Fifty-fifty if your phone is switched off when you send the Erase command, the reset procedure will be initiated equally before long as it goes online.

Locate your phone on Discover My Device.
Tap Erase.
Confirm deletion of data past striking the Erase button.

Find My Device erase — Source: Android Primal (Image credit: Source: Android Central)

Find My Device is the only tool you'll need to track your missing telephone. The all-time office is that it comes installed out of the box, and once you gear up it up, you lot don't need to do much with it. Having a service similar this is handy, but y'all should also brand it a point to jot downward your phone'southward IMEI and series numbers. You can never exist too careful, and in a scenario where you lose your phone, or it gets stolen, an IMEI number lets you de-register the phone from cellular networks.

Harish Jonnalagadda is the Asia Editor at Android Central. A reformed hardware modder, he now spends his time roofing the Chinese and Indian handset markets. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.