Imagine getting home one day and reaching for your phone to put a call across to your friends to inform them you’ve arrived, only to find out your iPhone is missing.
That indeed is scary and could be traumatizing but actually, its not as disastrous as you think because this article is going to uncover quick ways of locating your missing iPhone.
The iPhone has some really helpful features in the form of applications and websites that were designed to help track missing iPhones that they manufactured.
Features And Applications In iPhones Which Can Track Missing iPhones
Technology has made things easier and finding a missing iPhone is now easy and quick through tracking apps. Some noteworthy trackers include:
- Find My: Built-in app by Apple for locating lost or stolen devices.
- Life360: Family locator and GPS tracker app.
- Find My Friends: Another built-in app by Apple that allows you to share your location with friends and family.
- Glympse: Real-time location-sharing app.
- Prey Anti-Theft: Security and tracking app for lost or stolen devices.
- GPS Tracker: A simple GPS tracking app for tracking movement and locations.
As with everything with varieties, users have developed preferences for the trackers they perceive as more effective. However, surveys show that 3 tracking apps happen to be the most used: “Find My”, “Life360,”‘and Prey Anti-theft. These three have amazing features that make them popular among iPhone users. We’d consider each of these tracking applications one after the other.
1. “Find My” iPhone
The “Find My iPhone” app, now integrated into the “Find My” app on iOS devices, includes several features:
- Locate Device: Allows you to pinpoint the location of your iPhone on a map, helping you track it down if it’s lost or stolen.
- Play Sound: Sends a loud sound to your device, even if it’s in silent mode, to help you locate it nearby.
- Lost Mode: Locks your device remotely with a passcode and displays a custom message on the lock screen, aiding in its recovery.
- Erase iPhone: Allows you to remotely wipe all data from your device to protect your personal information if it’s unrecoverable.
- Activation Lock: Prevents anyone else from activating your device without your Apple ID and password, deterring theft.
- Family Sharing: Allows family members to locate each other’s devices, making it easier to keep track of loved ones.
- Offline Tracking: Utilizes other Apple devices nearby to anonymously transmit the location of your lost device, even if it’s offline.
2. Apple’s Find My app
This is a feature in iPhones that allows users to locate a misplaced or stolen iPhone so that it can be retrieved.
iOS 15 brings with it the capability to locate features on Apple’s air tags on your iPhone.
How To Activate The “Find My” Application
If you’re new to iPhone or have never set up the Find My app before, here’s how to set up the “Find My” app on your iPhone:
- Go to your settings, tap on your name, and then tap on “Find My.”
- Tap on “Find My.”
Scroll through to find “Find My iPhone.”. If you have upgraded to iOS 15, you can also activate “ My Network”, which will enable you to find your phone even if it’s offline. Once you’ve clicked on “send last location”, the location of your iPhone will be sent to your Apple account.
This application still works even if the missing iPhone is switched off or has a low battery. That is actually an interesting thing about the “Find My” application.
The “Find My” app can be used on a Mac or on another iPhone. It can also be used on any browser that uses iCloud.com. All the user would need to do is sign in using an Apple ID.
For Web version users, you’ll notice a green dot that actually indicates your iPhone and all you’ll have to do is select the dot and then tap on the “I” which gives you the choice to have your phone play a sound, which erases it and puts it in a ”lost mode.”.
In “lost mode,” you can either enter a phone number with which you can be reached or send a message that can be used to reach you to retrieve the phone, or you can also lock the phone. Locking the phone makes it entirely useless to whoever has it, as the phone cannot be accessed without the user’s passcode being reentered.
3. Life360
Life360 is a comprehensive family location-sharing and anti-theft app with several features:
- Real-Time Location Sharing: Allows you to see the real-time location of the iPhone on a private map.
- Location History: Keeps a record of places the phone has been throughout the day.
Notifications: Sends alerts when the iPhone leaves specific locations, such as home, work, or school. This is effective for theft situations.
- Emergency Assistance: Includes a panic button for emergencies, which notifies family members and emergency services of your location. This can be manipulated into a tool for finding a misplaced iPhone.
- Geofencing: This has to do with geofencing some specific areas around you so that you receive alerts when the iPhone enters or leaves these areas.
- Driving Routes: Shows the routes taken by family members while driving and provides insights into their travel patterns or the routes by which any person in possession of the missing iPhone is traveling. This can be used to track the device’s movement.
How Life360 Works On iPhone
To be able to tap in from the goodness of Life360, one would have to first create an account with Life360. The Life360 application can easily be gotten from the Play Store or the Apple Store.
- Download the Life360 app on your smartphone.
- You would be required to enter your phone number and tap continue.
One special thing about Life360 is that, in the process of creating an account with them, there’s a requirement that entails that you’d have to fill in the numbers of your friends or relatives, and this is the very setting that you’d use if your iPhone got lost.
How To Use Life360 To Find A Missing iPhone
This is done my asking some of your friends in your circle who you had included in your circle when you were creating an account with Life360.
So what this friend in your circle can do is log into Life360’s application on their phone. Enter your phone number and track your iPhone; the lost iPhone’s location will be shown on the map.
However, it’s important to note that if the app (Life360) is not logged in on the missing iPhone or if the battery is low and thus the iPhone is turned off, the Life360 app cannot find the location of the missing iPhone. This is quite a sad thing to deal with when Life360 is your only resolution in a case like this.
4. Prey
Prey is a multi-platform anti-theft, tracking, and device management software. We would look at some of its key features.
- Device Tracking: Allows you to track the location of your iPhone in real-time using GPS, Wi-Fi, and IP address information.
- Geolocation History: Provides a history of your iPhone’s locations over time, helping you track its movements.
- Remote Lock: This feature enables you to remotely lock your iPhone to prevent unauthorized access in case it’s lost somehow.
- Remote Wipe: Here, you can remotely wipe your iPhone’s data to protect your personal information from falling into the wrong hands.
- Alarm: It enables you to trigger a loud alarm on your iPhone to help locate it if it’s nearby.
- Camouflage Mode: This hides the Prey app icon and makes it harder for thieves to uninstall the app.
How Prey Is Used On An iPhone
Prey could enable every location sensor on the phone—and this means GPS—to be super-duper-sensitive on location changes, but that would drain your full battery in, like, two hours. Not very practical, to be honest. That’s why Prey uses Apple’s Significant Change Location Service, which relies on cellular antennas instead of the built-in GPS receivers on the phone.
The Prey app can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Play Store. Prey is exceptional because it has a collaboration with Apple, so it’s more reliable. To buttress more on the use of icloud.com/find. to find a missing iPhone.
How To Use iCloud.com/find. To Find Missing iPhone
- Sign in to iCloud.com.find.
- Select your iPhone, the map will zoom in on your iPhone’s location.
- Select Mark as lost, then follow the onscreen instructions to leave a phone number and message.
- Select Activate to lock your iPhone with it’s existing passcode.
Technology has actually made things easier and we have seen that in a situation where your iPhone gets lost, there are some noteworthy apps that can help save the day.