People will go to a lot of lengths to protect their iPhones these days, and who can blame them? As costly as a new iPhone can be, people are often seen buying expensive cases, screen protectors (to keep dirt off their beautiful retina displays), locks, tethers, and even mobile phone insurance plans. But one of the most under utilized ways to protect your iPhone in case of loss or theft is a good quality tracking app. With a tracking app, as long as the phone is on, owners can log in to their computer or other electronic devices and receive a GPS signal from their iPhone which will tell them exactly where their iPhone is located. This can be extremely beneficial when one is searching for their lost or stolen phone. Here are some of my favorite tracking apps that I recommend to dedicated iPhone users.
iHound
This app is not free, however for a relatively low cost you get access to three months of tracking services for your phone. Given that this is one of the most reliable tracking apps I’ve seen, the price you pay seems relatively small to me for what you get.
GadgetTrak
This app doesn’t track your phone quite as accurately as iHound will, unfortunately, but it offers another nifty feature that iHound does not. It snaps a photo of who is currently holding your iPhone. You can imagine that when tracking your lost iPhone, seeing a picture of who might be holding it is extremely useful!
Device Locator
This app will let you send messages to or from your phone with sound, take a picture from the phone (to see surroundings or thief), and even activate an alarm on your phone which can be useful when you are near your phone for locating it. Tracking services are not 100% accurate but get you pretty close to the phone.
Find My iPhone
Apple’s built-in tracking app (for iOS 5 and higher at least), is pretty cool. It can allow you to delete data from your phone remotely (so hackers can’t get at it), forcing your phone to lock remotely (great if you have a password set up), and making your phone play sounds which can help you locate it. The actual tracking is pretty good with this one as well, but there is no photo taking feature unfortunately.
StealthGenie
This app is more designed to track how a phone is being used (useful for tracking a child or teen’s usage habits), but it also offers a tracking functionality that can help you locate a phone and will send you a message if the phone moves out of a certain area that you designate.
While we will certainly do everything we can to make sure we don’t lose our brand new, expensive iPhones, it does happen from time-to-time, even for the most vigilant of us. This is why I recommend using a good tracking app on your iPhone so that if it is lost or stolen, you can locate the phone as easily as possible. If the worst happens and you cannot recover your phone even with a good tracking app however, then having good mobile insurance such as that from Protectyourbubble.com UK is an amazing comfort, knowing your device is covered.