The ultimate guide to Google's Find My Device features
Next time you misplace something important, don't panic! Let Google's Find My Device app and a Chipolo Point tracker be your trusty sidekicks.
We take our phones with us wherever we go. And because your phone moves around all the time, it gets misplaced all the time too.
Finding your mobile phone can quickly become a task, especially if you don’t have another phone nearby to ring it from, but with all the technology available, there are plenty of ways for you to quickly find your missing phone.
If the mobile phone you’re searching for is an Android or an iPhone, it probably already has the software you need to find it built-in. Both phone finders will use Wi-Fi or GPS to help locate your lost device, so having some data connection active on your phone is crucial.
Find your iPhone
To get your iOS device back, you can use Apple’s native Find My network. Apple’s native Find My app is already pre-installed on every iOS device or you can log into your iCloud account through a browser. The location of your phone will display on a map and you’ll be able to make it ring or mark it as lost.
In the Find My iPhone app you can:
- See the location of your lost phone on a map
- Play a sound on your lost phone, so you can hear it
- Turn on Lost Mode to lock your iPhone and start tracking it right away
- Display a message with a contact number on your phone’s Lock screen for the finder
- Erase your phone remotely to delete your personal data and restore it to factory settings (you can later set it back up using your iCloud backup)
Find your Android phone
Android uses Google’s own service to find your lost phone. Sign into the Chrome browser on any device using the same Google account you used on your phone and type in ‘Find my phone’. The map with the last known location will display as the first search result.
In the Chrome browser you can:
- See the location of your lost phone on a map
- Ring your lost phone, so you can hear it
- Use the Recover feature to lock your phone
- Use the Recover feature to display a note for the finder and set a contact phone number for them to call from the lost phone directly
- Erase your phone remotely to delete your personal data and restore it to factory settings (you can later set it back up using your Google account)
Find any phone with a key finder
Key finders work both ways, so you can use your tracker to make your phone ring too, even when it’s on silent. Most trackers also offer an online version of their mobile app where you can see the location of your phone on a map.
With the Chipolo phone tracker you can:
- Make your phone ring even when it’s on silent
- Virtually share your phone and make it ring or check its location on another device
Like the native Android and iOS features, the Chipolo web app will also let you:
- See the location of your lost phone on a map
- Ring your lost phone, so you can hear it
- Display a custom notification on the lock screen for the finder
Once the Chipolo app is installed on your iPhone or Android phone, keep it active in the background and you can always use the Chipolo connected to it to make your misplaced phone ring.
