It’s amazing how even the most organised individuals, that is those who regularly back up documents and always plan ahead for future engagements, can occasionally find themselves up that notorious creek without a paddle. Take for instance when someone loses their phone. Not enough people have prepared themselves for this. The best applications to help you find or wipe your phone need to be installed in advance. There is at least one notable exception, which could well save your phone.
Plan B is the application to install when your phone is already missing. However, if you’re really going to get prepared for that lost phone scenario you might like to install a few other great applications too.
Plan B
Plan B is the perfect application to use when your phone is already missing and you realise you never installed any of the nifty apps which would have helped you find your phone. You can install it remotely by going to the Android market and it will use GPS or an SMS to find your phone’s location and email that to you. If you need a location after this, you can send an SMS to your phone from a friend’s phone saying “Locate” and the application will send another email with the new location.
On this note, if you were to install Plan B and set up some filters in Gmail to forward to your partner or parents (or if you are a parent, do this to your child’s phone and email), they could potentially use this to find you if you go missing. It’s a little paranoid, but could easily be effective.
Lookout
Lookout Labs are the makers of Plan B. Obviously they realised that not everyone gets around to planning ahead. However, if you’re thinking ahead they have an Android application which gives you the tools to remotely wipe your phone and offer some security against malicious code.
Android Lost
Android Lost lets you find or wipe your Android phone remotely. It allows access to your phone via a web interface, which can also let you trigger your alarm, read your SMS and offers many other useful features.
Phone Found – Owner Info
The Phone Found application lets you leave your email address and phone number visible even when your phone is locked. This way, if someone friendly finds your phone they can email you and let you know they’ve found it.
Where’s My Droid
Where’s My Droid lets you trigger an alarm when you send your phone an SMS with a special code. It can also send you a Google Maps location of where your phone is.
Mobile Defense
Mobile Defense is only available in the US, but it’s a pretty useful application. Once installed it hides from view and does not look as if it’s installed, meaning whoever’s stolen your phone won’t realise it’s running. Meanwhile, you can use the Mobile Defense website to control your phone and find out where it is.