Losing your phone or having it stolen is a common occurrence, and those who set up location services in advance have a much better chance of recovering their device or, at least, protecting the data stored on it. Below are the official tools and most commonly used apps to locate your own phone or share its location with family, always with the knowledge of the person using the device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Android phones, the Find My Device feature is already integrated with your Google account. It shows the device's last known location on a map, makes the phone ring even in silent mode, locks the screen with a message and a contact number, and, as a last resort, remotely erases data. To use it, simply check in your Android security settings if the option is enabled and if the device's location is active. Then, access can be done through the Find My Device app, available on Google Play, or through a browser, logging in with the same Google account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An important tip is to write down your Google account email and password somewhere safe, because if your phone goes missing, you'll need to log in from another device to locate or lock it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you're an Apple user, the Find My app (formerly Find My iPhone) is the native option. It locates iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and AirPods linked to the same Apple ID, allows you to play a sound, activate Lost Mode (which locks the device and displays a message on the screen), and remotely erase content. The setting is in Settings, under your name, in Find My. It's also worth enabling the option that sends your last location when the battery is running low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Lost Mode enabled, the device remains linked to your Apple ID, making it difficult to resell or use by third parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Life360 is a location-sharing app for families. Each person installs the app on their own phone and joins the family "circle," choosing to share their location with others. The app notifies users when someone arrives at or leaves registered locations, such as home or school, and has a free version with basic features and paid plans with extra functions. Because all participants agree to join the group, the location is transparently visible to those who are part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It's a practical alternative for families who want to know if everyone arrived safely, without having to constantly send messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google Maps Timeline (formerly called Google Timeline) records, when you activate the feature, the places your phone has been. It's not for locating another person, but it can help you remember where your device was last before being lost. On newer devices, this history is saved on the phone itself, and you can delete or disable it at any time in the Maps settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same app, the Share Location function allows you to send your real-time location to a contact for a defined period, which is useful when traveling or when you return home late at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most reliable tools for tracking a lost cell phone are those that come with the system: Find My Device on Android and Find My on iPhone. Set them up before you need them. To keep track of family, prefer apps where each person agrees to share their own location. Be wary of programs that promise to track or read someone's cell phone without their knowledge: in addition to violating privacy and potentially constituting a crime, they often ask for payment and the installation of files outside of official app stores.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Perder o celular ou ter o aparelho roubado \u00e9 uma situa\u00e7\u00e3o comum, e quem configura a localiza\u00e7\u00e3o com anteced\u00eancia tem muito mais chance de recuperar o aparelho ou, ao menos, proteger os dados guardados nele. Abaixo est\u00e3o as ferramentas oficiais e os aplicativos mais usados para localizar o seu pr\u00f3prio celular ou compartilhar a localiza\u00e7\u00e3o […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aplicativos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2407,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/2407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicastutorial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}