Losing a phone can be a devastating experience, and it is more devastating when you have important documents stored on the lost device – although, now, it is best for you to always save and backup your documents using a cloud account. No one plans to lose their phone, but you most certainly can plan what would happen after you lose your phone. Planning does not make you fatalistic, it only makes you proactive. Instead of crying and becoming gloomy after your smartphone gets lost, you can actively locate the phone and retrieve it yourself, or from a good Samaritan, depending on how the situation plays out. Before proceeding, it will good for you to know the several methods that can be employed to find a lost phone. 

Firstly, you can find the location of a lost phone by tracking the SIM card. There are websites that allow you to know the actual location of your phone on a map using the SIM card. While this method sounds awesome and catchy, you should consider the downsides. What if the phone is turned off? Or, worse, what if the SIM card is removed from the (your) phone and dumped somewhere, or inserted into another phone? These shortcomings suggest that this method of tracking a lost device is not reliable. At best, it provides the owner of the phone with hope; telling you that your phone is out there. 

Secondly, there is a method that involves using the IMEI number of the phone to track its location, should it get lost by happenstance.  But, you should ask yourself: how many people know what IMEI stands for? Even if a person knows the full meaning of IMEI, it does not mean that the individual knows how to get the IMEI number. So, what happens when the owner of a lost phone does not know the IMEI number of his or her smartphone? Is all hope lost? Should the person in question just throw in the towel and forget all about his lost phone? 

Lastly, there is a more effective way for you to find the location of your lost phone, and it involves the use of spy apps. Spy apps are often termed as applications that permit privacy invasion, and this has conditioned people to think that nothing good can come from using a spy app. What do you do when your partner tells you that his or her phone is nowhere to be found? Do you organize a search party or report to the police? Well, if you installed a spy app on your partner’s phone, you will be able to know the real-time location of the phone. Location-tracking is one of the perks associated with using a phone spy app. It would interest you to know that there are certain spy apps that notify you when the SIM card in a phone has been removed or replaced.  Isn’t that awesome? Without further ado, it is safe to infer that spy apps are an effective means of tracking the location of lost phones. 

Now that you know that spy apps can be used to locate a lost device, how exactly do you do this? That is, how do you track the location of a phone that is, possibly, miles away from you? 

Steps on how to locate a Lost Device using Spy Apps

Step 1: Log in to your account 

Most, if not all, spy apps have a website that is accessible to users for phone monitoring. Some phone spy apps offer a mobile application to users for the same reason. Everything that regards phone monitoring can be done using the web platform. Think of the web platform as an app, only that, in this instance, you do not have to make a download. Better, right?

Step 2: Go to the dashboard

At the right-hand side of the web app, you will find a dashboard. The dashboard contains a list of features that the spy app offers. When people hear the name “spy app”, the first thing that comes to their mind is this: someone wants to read your messages and monitor your call logs. However, spy apps can be of great benefit when a mobile phone gets lost. One of the salient features of spy applications is location-tracking. Even though spy apps are not location-tracking apps, they can track the location of a target phone. On the dashboard, you will find the word “GPS” listed among many other things, click on it.

Step 3: View the map to know the location of the lost phone 

Immediately you click on “GPS”, an annotated map will be displayed. The map will tell you the real-time location of the device you are tracking. This is possible because the spy app works in the background of the target device. In other words, the spy apps operate non-stop on any device it is installed on. This assures you that you are getting the right information regarding the location of the lost device.

Step 4: Retrieve the lost phone using the information provided on the map

Usually, the spy app will provide you with a proximate location of a device; it is left for you to use that information to pinpoint the exact location of the lost device. 

Bear in mind that spy apps can only locate a device that has an in-built GPS. Actually, it is impossible to install a phone spy app on a device that lacks GPS, or a device with an old Android OS or iOS. You really do not have to worry about this requirement because most smartphones come with a GPS feature, so, location-tracking should not be a problem. 

Following the steps outlined above, you should be able to find the real-time location of a lost phone. Presumably, anyone whom you are able to find his or her phone using a spy app will be grateful, and, in turn, not view spy apps as bad apps, but as applications that can be used for good deeds.