Track your lost or stolen Android or iOS devices online (Windows Phone and PC/MAC/Linux too!)

Find My iPhone for iOS devices

With one in five people in the world currently owning a smartphone, it has become a goldmine in recent year for thieves to make quick cash by stealing and reselling those android and iphones.  At this time of year with the hustle of the holiday shopping spree, it's very easy to fall prey to an opportunistic pickpocket or even to simply forget your device somewhere due to the many simultaneous thoughts juggling to your mind.  Luckily, both Apple and Google have both provided native solutions for the average user so that they can fight back against these scenarios.

Android Device Manager for Android devices

Both "Find my iPhone" and "Android device Manager" can be located in the App store and the Google Play store for free.   Both apps provide a way to locate your device on a map, lock your device, Ring your device even if the sound is off, and/or wipe your device from either running the app on another device, or through your favorite web browser.

Here are the web browser links:

• Find my iPhone
• Android Device Manager

With the Apple app being slightly more mature, it does offer slightly more in the way of options such as password protecting the app and the option to send a message to the lock screen of your missing device.  On Android there is no option at this time to send a message to the device screen but you can change the lock screen password after locking it from the cloud. 

Multiple devices can be tracked on Find my iPhone

Multiple devices can be tracked on Android device manager

Set up is quick and easy with both apps walking you through the process.  Most people will be up and running within minutes of installing the app on their device.  For those of you wondering, it is not just limited to smartphones as these apps also work on Google and Apple tablets such as the Nexus 7 and iPad mini.  

Sadly, what neither of these apps do is provide a way to take a picture of the perpetrator that has stolen your phone.  There are third party solutions such as Prey that will do that for you and add more features for a price.

Windows Phone users, don't feel left out!  You have a Find my phone option as well through your web browser.

For those that don't mind  jailbreaking your iPhone/iPad, you can install igotya from Cydia which allows you to take pics from the camera of your lost phone.  Android users have a wealth of options such as Lookout which has a lock screen camera option as a free service.  Other notable third party options are avast, androidlost, Cerberus, and the previously mentioned Prey.

One great thing about Prey is that it's not just for iOS and Android devices,  but also for PC, Mac, and Linux systems (Ubuntu included) so that you can have one central place to track most of your devices.  There are plenty of choices out there with this article highlighting just a few of these options.  Remember that no app is perfect and there may be ways around it but luckily many would be thieves are not that intelligent to begin with. 

With the power to track down your devices, also remember that you should never confront the thief directly.  If possible, have a police officer retrieve your property for safety.