New galaxy s3 - whats the best "find my phone app"

joe123

Hey all, as the title suggests what do you recommend for this? My old iphone was stolen last week so this time I want to be more secure. Also any other important apps or things I should know? (Not interested in app games).

srsly78

One security app for android is Cerberus.

Note that these will likely not help if you phone gets stolen. The police will have no interest in your gps tracking info. Thieves can also get around these security programs pretty easily. Phone can be blacklisted, but the feckers just export them outside the EU where that doesn't apply.

BopNiblets

I have Prey installed but I haven't needed to use it yet.
Free and open source.

Patsy fyre

Where's my DROID seems like a decent app. Haven't had to use it much but it seems fairly accurate!

evolutionqy7

Why don't you just use the integrated one. Set up a Samsung account on the phone and go to www.samsungdive.com

joe123

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Why don't you just use the integrated one. Set up a Samsung account on the phone and go to www.samsungdive.com

Yeah I tried that but it doesn't work. Thanks for the suggestions.

joe123

I finally got the samsung dive one working. Seems decent. Out of curiosity, do any of these work if the phone is turned off/dead?

srsly78

No.

Dozen Wicked Words

Avast! does a few other bits and pieces, as well as find your phone, it can wipe the phone remotely, lock it remotely, forward your sms messages remotely.

Play Link

guil

srsly78 wrote: »

One security app for android is Cerberus.

Note that these will likely not help if you phone gets stolen. The police will have no interest in your gps tracking info. Thieves can also get around these security programs pretty easily. Phone can be blacklisted, but the feckers just export them outside the EU where that doesn't apply.

just as an FYI, blacklisted phones will work outside of ireland, prob even in northern ireland

Nolimits

Root your phone and then install Avast https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avast.android.mobilesecurity&hl=en


Once it goes onto a rooted device you get the option of installing it with root access and that is where it gets really good. You can force GPS to stay on and mobile data amongst other things. It is also a ball ache to get rid of, even for you, it will survive a factory reset and will carry on functioning normally. If any Sim other than yours is put into the phone, it will text two pre set numbers (your friends or family) with the phone number of the Sim and the name associated with it if the user has put their name in along with their gps coordinates in a google maps link.

You can then issue commands to the phone which can be found here http://www.avast.com/free-mobile-security#tab5


Best of all, all of the above is free. To be honest, that is the major reason I rooted my phone.

kenyard

Think I'll be doing that
I don't have data always on though so wondering does it not eat battery?

Nolimits

kenyard wrote: »

Think I'll be doing that
I don't have data always on though so wondering does it not eat battery?

It only forces data on and GPS on if you send a message to the phone telling the phone that it's lost/stolen (you have a pin and you include that in the message) or if an untrusted Sim is put in.

Edit, it also hides itself on the device, the anti theft portion (which is all that survives a factory reset) doesn't show up in the app drawer. So the thief should never even know it's there. The only way they would know is by going into the device Admins, and even then because its not called Avast Anti theft, they would just wonder why a file called Contactsexplorer.xpk (for instance, you can choose a name or it just randomly generates a name that looks like a part of Andriod my current one has a picture of the android robot and is called gigafibe) has administrator rights

srsly78

guil wrote: »

just as an FYI, blacklisted phones will work outside of ireland, prob even in northern ireland

European carriers are supposed to share a blacklist. If you have evidence otherwise you should report the carrier for facilitating theft. Probably a voluntary self-regulated thing tho -.-