If you’re on Android and you’ve misplaced your phone, just Google it

Nigel Gambanga Avatar

If you are using an Android device you’ll probably be pleased by the couple of developments that have come out of Google in the past 24 hours.

The first development concerns locating your device. If you can’t find your phone or tablet, but have access to a computer, log-in with your Google credentials and just Google it.

Simply enter Find My Phone or Find My Tablet in the search tab and you’ll get a map reference showing where the device is. I’m sure this ought to help out all those people who know the frustration of misplacing their device and hadn’t gotten around to downloading Android Device Manager.

This works like ADM, only that it’s now been extended to ordinary Google searches. Besides the map, you can also ring the device if it is close. Your phone will ring at full volume for 5 minutes if you do this and you will have to press the power button to cancel the ring.

Another thing to note, when the location of the device is shared, a notification pops up on the device. This might just give any shady character that has stolen your phone enough time to flee.

The other new development is the new Android App called Google Handwriting Input. This app allows you to handwrite text onto your phone, something that other third party apps in the Play Store had been letting users do for a while now.

According to Google (I haven’t tried the app myself yet) you don’t need a stylus to use it and since it uses language packs that you download when you select your language preferences, it can work offline. English comes preloaded though. I’m still trying to figure out how this trumps voice commands that we’ve gotten used to by saying the magical “OK Google” command. You can read more about it here.

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6 comments

  1. Castro

    FInd my phone works pretty well when you have enabled location. See this link http://i.imgur.com/IMTGYoj.png

  2. Tatenda Chuma

    Very useful article.

  3. taona

    WHAT NUMBER DO YOU INPUT WHEN THEY ASK FOR IT?

  4. skito

    thanks, it cool tested on my device its holla

  5. leo

    It looks like Google Handwriting Input is not supported in Zim. I tried downloading it or it is a problem with my phone

  6. Mangz

    This isnt really a new development its been there for a while now, it can also show where you’ve been in the past. But if your phone gets stolen you can’t locate it if someone wipes you phone, so it isn’t a counter measure for phone theft. You can only use it to probably track your child, spouse or girlfriend.

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