Best cel phone tracker ?

[Bryan Allen]

After a recent scare when my cel phone disappeared while out of the house, I think it might be a good idea for me to get one of those tracker thingamajigs for my phone. Trouble is--- which one is the best ? Every review by the manufactures thinks their product is the best in the whole wide world. ! So-- any advice ? TIA. ( the damn thing snuck out of my jacket pocket while getting out of the truck at Home Depot. It was lying on the pavement inside radius of the front wheel ! )

 

[N2013]

iPhone? Air tags seem popular.

 

[Bryan Allen]

Thanks N... but its an android Google phone. So a Apple app will not work I have been told.

 

[Foxsea]

Google has an app for this - 4.3 *
Phone Tracker is another app - 4.7 *

 

[Bryan Allen]

Thanks Foxsea . I will do a bit more digging. A couple of years ago, I got a TILE tracker. Useless POS.. But I know that if they can put a gps tracker on a car and follow it for miles, it cant be THAT hard to find my cel phone LOL

 

[Alex_c]

Thanks Foxsea . I will do a bit more digging. A couple of years ago, I got a TILE tracker. Useless POS.. But I know that if they can put a gps tracker on a car and follow it for miles, it cant be THAT hard to find my cel phone LOL

Tracking relies on cell coverage to send the position data unless you pay big bucks for satellite data. So the majority of consumer tracking devices rely on cell coverage to work correctly. Air Tags are unique in that they leverage nearby apple devices to track (using a “mesh network”), so a tracker that is out of cell range can still be recovered if it communicates with an Apple device that eventually does get back into range. You can use an Air Tag for a non-apple phone, but most phones have a “find my phone” feature. There maybe be other products that work similarly to the Air Tag, but I’m not 100% sure what’s on the market these days.

 

[Foxsea]

Tracking relies on cell coverage to send the position data unless you pay big bucks for satellite data. So the majority of consumer tracking devices rely on cell coverage to work correctly. Air Tags are unique in that they leverage nearby apple devices to track (using a “mesh network”), so a tracker that is out of cell range can still be recovered if it communicates with an Apple device that eventually does get back into range. You can use an Air Tag for a non-apple phone, but most phones have a “find my phone” feature. There maybe be other products that work similarly to the Air Tag, but I’m not 100% sure what’s on the market these days.

After a bit of reading it appears that any modern cellphone has tracking built-in. It's needed for 911 emergency functionality. Also, phones have a decent. GPS capability, even without cell coverage. You just need to download the maps first, when no cell network connection is available.

 

[Alex_c]

After a bit of reading it appears that any modern cellphone has tracking built-in. It's needed for 911 emergency functionality. Also, phones have a decent. GPS capability, even without cell coverage. You just need to download the maps first, when no cell network connection is available.

True, most phones have built in tracking (aka the “find my phone” feature I mentioned in my previous post) GPS alone won’t provide tracking though, unless the device is in cell range. Downloading maps will let a user use their device as a GPS when out of cell range, but it cannot broadcast location data to a remote server. You’d need a satellite data transceiver along with a subscription to a data service, and the data packets you can send are quite small (max 192 bytes)

 

[Bryan Allen]

True, most phones have built in tracking (aka the “find my phone” feature I mentioned in my previous post) GPS alone won’t provide tracking though, unless the device is in cell range. Downloading maps will let a user use their device as a GPS when out of cell range, but it cannot broadcast location data to a remote server. You’d need a satellite data transceiver along with a subscription to a data service, and the data packets you can send are quite small (max 192 bytes)

Well thats pretty sobering ......but I appreciate the advance warning on how they work, or not.....

 

[Alex_c]

Well thats pretty sobering ......but I appreciate the advance warning on how they work, or not.....

That’s sort of the advantage of Air Tags: if they come within range of another Apple device that eventually does get back into cell range, the location data of the missing device will be updated via the other in-range device.

Of course the disadvantage is that tracker hardware is only useful if it’s hidden and the thief doesn’t know about it - would be pretty hard to hide an Air Tag or any other hardware on a phone


Here’s a decently concise explanation of what I’m talking about:

GPS Asset Tracking Applications | Digital Matter

As the world leader in battery-powered tracking, we develop reliable, affordable and innovative GPS Tracking Applications, helping you track what matters.

www.digitalmatter.com