· Parents can use them to monitor their children,
· Friends can use them to keep up with one another’s hangouts,
Mobile phone tracking or Cell phone tracking or simply, GPS tracking is the process through which a functioning cell phone is detected and localized on the globe
(even on the move!!).
From Wikipedia –
"To locate
the phone, it must emit at least the roaming signal to contact the next nearby
antenna tower, but the process does not require an active call. GSM
localisation is then done by multilateration based on the signal strength to
nearby antenna masts"
How Mobile Phone Tracking Works?
First, the Cell phone tracking system detects the closest cell phone tower
to the phone, estimates the distance between them, and after that it
interpolates signals between adjacent antenna towers to make a more exact
approximation.
Update: Over a period of time, several readers have
asked if they can track a mobile phone which is
switched off. Unfortunately, the answer is NO. The reasons are
clearly explained above. When the phone is switched off or the battery is dead,
there is no way it can emit signals. So it makes all sense to be safe now than
sorry later. If you own any smartphone, be it an android device or an iPhone or
a Windows phone or even a Blackberry, install one of the apps we are going to
discuss below to help you keep track of your mobile phone all the time.
(Related Read : Track
Your Lost or Stolen Mobile Phone Using Phone Guardian)
Smartphones
like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android bring cell phone GPS trackingand
applications directly to people’s pockets. And with the right software, one can
even have free GPS cell phone tracking.
Free cell phone tracking solution – Mologogo
Mologogo offers free cell phone tracking solution for the handset. Mologogo allows anyone with a GPS enabled phone
to be tracked as long as the phone is operational. Basically the user downloads
software to the phone which in turn sends updates to the Mologogo website which
tracks the cell phone and displays updates as to where the cell phone is.
It not only shows where your friends are but it can also send
alerts when your friends are close, find points of interest, and display
traffic and weather updates. Tracking your phone from web is now possible,
thanks to services like Mologogo.
Phones which
work with Mologogo – Full List here.
Another FREE cell phone tracking service –
LocateA.net
Not everyone
owns a smartphone. So, isn’t it possible to track a non-smartphone? Well, LocateA turns
your Java enabled mobile phone (or feature phone as they are commonly known
as), or your PDA Mobile Phone running Windows in to a personal real time tracking solution,
which allows you to track people, employees, lone field workers or children
etc, and the good news is it’s free. With it you can track people carrying a
specific mobile phone you have registered with the service.
Free GPS Cell Phone Tracking Software – Instamapper
Update: Instamapper shut down in Dec 2012.
Alternatively, you can checkAccuTracking, which is similar to Instamapper but not
free.
Instamapper is a free GPS tracker for mobile devices that allows you to
track any mobile phone with built-in GPS in real time. It allows you to track
any GPS-enabled phone in real-time online. The image on the right shows how the
phone gets tracked as a moving dot on a map, with the positions being updated
as frequently as 5 seconds. Very useful for a free service! But yeah, you’d
need to register for a free account in order to use the free mobile tracking.
iPhone Tracking
The iTunes
app store is rich with millions of apps and that really helps while tracking
phones too. I have written a detailed post on how to track iPhone using
various apps and services available, including the very useful ‘Find
my iPhone‘ feature from Apple. Do check it out. I’m
sure it will be of some help.
Important:
The Find My iPhone app should come pre-installed on any
iOS 5+ device. In any case you can borrow an iOS device from a friend and log
in using your Apple ID. Once you’re logged in, the app will display your lost
iPhone’s location on a map. You can even remotely trigger your lost iPhone to
make a loud noise for two minutes, which makes pinpointing it easy when it’s
nearby.
Android Phone Trackers
Like iPhone
owners, Android phone owners too can track their lost phones using some great
GPS based apps. WaveSecure is one such app which can track android phonesand
even lock down the phone remotely. Another such app is MobileDefense which is also free. I suggest you to
check out these Android security apps and install one of them for your own
good, before it is too late.
Update: Google has announced Android Device Manager which is very similar to ‘Find my
iPhone’ feature of iOS. This is available for all android devices running OS
version 2.2 and above. The tracking is enabled by default, but in order to
erase the phone remotely, one has to follow few steps as described here.
Important: In case you have already lost your Android smartphone and don’t have any of the above apps,
not everything is lost yet. You can log in to your Google account and remotely
install the app called Plan B on
your lost smartphone from any computer. Assuming your phone is somehow
connected to the internet, the app must be able to automatically install on
your phone and when the installation is complete, it should send the current
location info to your Gmail account.
Tracking BlackBerry & Windows Phone
There are
quite a few BlackBerry Tracker apps,
some of them are free, while others are paid. MoosTrax is one of the decent free tracking
apps. Another free Blackberry tracker is an aptly named app called Phone
Tracker – Anti Theft and tracking. A reliable third party app is Berry Locator which costs $7, but lets you track
phone from your PC.
Update: In BlackBerry
10, there’s the BlackBerry Protect service also has these same features
like ‘Find my iPhone’ and ‘Android Device Manager’, but you’ll need to turn
BlackBerry Protect and its tracking service on first. If you haven’t lost your
phone yet, make sure these settings are on. To find your missing phone, Log in
to the BlackBerry Protect website,
and click View Location. If the service can find your phone, its location will
appear on a map.
Windows Phone
users can make use of Microsoft’s My Phone service to track their phones. Again,
very similar to other tracking services and very useful.
Carrier Specific Mobile Phone Tracking
Some carriers offer free as well as paid plans to keep track of
mobile phones online, specially for parents who are apprehensive about kids and
other family members. Most of these have just free trials, so consider them
only if the above free phone tracking solutions didn’t work for some reason.
1. AT&T FamilyMap Phone tracker plan
AT&T’s
FamilyMap helps you
locate a family member from your wireless phone or PC and don’t necessarily
need GPS to keep a track. It’s really easy & accurate to track phones and
can even locate a lost or stolen phone,
assuming the phone is turned on. It’s free to try for a month &
subscription based from then on.
2. T-Mobile FamilyWhere
With T-Mobile FamilyWhere solution, you can find your family
members using their mobile phone’s location. If you’re using an Android phone,
it lets you send your location to any mobile phone on any network for free. A
more comprehensive solution doesn’t come free, but pretty useful.
3. Sprint Family Locator
Sprint Family Locator is something kids gonna hate for sure.
Not only it lets parents track the mobile phones of their kids, but it also
lets them lock the phone with a single mouse click! Free to try for first 15
days, and then $5 per month.
4. Verizon Family Locator
Much like
Sprint, Verizon too has a family
locator service which
lets users track the phones of their family members right from their PC. Sadly,
there isn’t any free trial. Consider paying only if the other free solutions
described above didn’t work.
Over to you!
How did you
like this post? Do you know any other FREE Mobile phone trackingsoftware
/ services? Let us know. We would love to include them in this post with due
credits.
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