Lost your Android phone? No worry, now it can call you

Google Android Device Manager was updated with some bug fixes, performance improvements and one important feature: the ability to set a call back button on the lock screen of lost or stolen phones. Similar to Apple's Find My iPhone, Google has its own system to find a lost Android phone called the Android Device Manager users should know about. It has been available for quite a while, and last year it was finally updated to offer enough features worth talking about.

If you lose your phone, just head over to Google's browser-based Android Device Manager. Tap the lock button, toss in a “Recovery Message” (that's entirely up to you — you might want to entreat the phone's finder to return it safely to you or offer up some kind of reward) and an unlock password, and add a phone number where you can be reached.

The set phone number is not visible on the screen but the Android device shows “Call Owner” option, which when tapped will call the set-number. Whoever finds the phone now has a way to instantly reach you with the press of a button — but since the rest of the phone is locked down behind a password of your choosing, that's the only thing they can use your phone for. Once they call you, you can then politely thank them for finding your phone, and set up a way for them to return it to you.

Google hasn't officially announced the update yet, but you can see the new feature on the Android Device Manager app listing (which you only need to download if you want to remotely wipe or lock your device from another Android device — the web portal offers all the same functions from your computer).

The feature is similar to programming your phone for an 'in case of emergency' situation, and is a rather important tool in recovering your device.

source:

 Gizmorati.com