Lost Your Android Phone? Google can help you find it

Losing your phone can happen easily. Unfortunately, finding it again can often be not so easy. Google has just made the search process a little easier for Android users, however. Now they need only type “find my phone” into Google Search using a desktop browser.

In order for the functionality to work, users must be logged into the same Google account on the browser as they are on their phone. They must also have the latest version of the Google app installed on their device. Assuming all that is the case, a “Find your phone” map will appear at the top of the Google Search results.

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Once Google has successfully pinpointed the phone in question (as long as it’s powered on, this should work), it displays the location of the device on a map and give you the option to call it.

Ringing it, of course, helps in those occasions that your phone has slipped behind a couch cushion or whatnot, while displaying it on map is useful if you’ve left it somewhere like a coffee shop or bar.

Previously, it was necessary to install the Android Device Manager app to locate a lost Android phone (assuming you hadn’t turned the service off, as it’s on by default). Plenty of users simply won’t have been aware of those possibilities – and this new approach, which is simply a web-based version of Android Device Manager, makes it easy for anyone to locate a lost device.

You’ll still need to use Device Manager to lock or erase the phone if someone has walked off with it, but this is a quick and convenient method when you’ve just forgotten where in your home you put it down.

I tried it out this evening and its really a cool feature. When i rang my phone via google, my phone started ringing and it didn’t show any number or text as to who might be calling me and it stopped when i pressed the home key on my Phone.