How to locate your Android phone with Google's Find My Device

Phones are such a part of our daily lives that it can be immediately traumatic not to find your phone — whether you left it in a cab, accidentally dropped it from your pocket or you lost it under your bed. If you have an Android phone, you can use Find My Device to (hopefully) locate your phone.

Find My Device depends on two things being enabled:the feature itself (of course) and Google's location services. In addition, the phone must also be turned on and logged into a Google account.

Find My Device is part of the standard operating system on Pixels and many other Android phones, and is usually enabled by default. Be aware that some Android models may offer a different app; for example, Samsung phones have their own Find My Mobile app.

If you want to use Google's Find My Device, you can check if it's part of your phone's Android version.

• Go to Settings> Security and search for Find my device.
• If the app is listed, but it's disabled, tap it and use the toggle to enable it.

If you don't have the Google app, but want to use it instead of the app installed by your manufacturer – or if you want to use an Android tablet instead of a computer to find your phone or watch – you can go to the Play Store and install the Find My Device app from Google as well.

Then you can check if localization is enabled:

• Go to your phone settings and find Location. It will say just under the header if it is on or off.
• If disabled, tap Location and enable.
• You can also check which apps have access to your location and which have used it recently. If you want to take this opportunity to fine-tune this setting, tap "App Permission" to change location permission settings.

Find your phone

Now you are ready. If you can't find your phone, just go to Google's search page and type "Find my device". If you've never used it before, you may need to allow Google to use location data to locate your device. You can also immediately ring your phone from the Google search page to try to find it.

If not, click the link and you'll be taken to the Find My Device page, which will name your phone, the last time it was pinged (and the name of the Wi-Fi network it was he was using) and current battery power. A Google map will show you where your phone was last seen.

Once you have located your device, three options are listed on the left side of the screen. What you choose depends on whether you think the device is in a safe place or not. You can:

• Ask the device to play a sound (usually the ringtone) for five minutes so you can locate it.
• Lock the device and sign out of your Google account, so that your data is safe while you go to retrieve it (recommended if, for example, you left it in a taxi or a restaurant).
• Erase the device. This is for times when you are reasonably sure it has been stolen and is not recoverable; you won't be able to locate your device after that, but your content won't be there.