Phone tracking is something that not everyone does openly but sometimes you may need to track someone’s phone. For instance, if you are a parent and your son/ daughter is not picking up their phone then it is natural to be in a tensed state. At this moment you phone tracking might come to your mind. But have you ever tried it? Do you know what apps, software or the extensions you might need in order to do this?
Our this article titled “how to track a cell phone location without installing software” is a step by step guide for readers on tracking a phone. This might come in handy to the parents who want to track the phone of their kids. There might also be a case that you’re getting a spam call and you want to track its location. This article is useful in many scenarios so not engaging you any further in the introduction, let’s move on to our topic.
Step by Step guide on How to Track a Cell Phone Location without Installing Software
There are numerous methods on tracking a phone without installing any external software on your device. We’ll discuss a few of them here in this article.
Use of Device Manager present in the Android
This is a service provided by Google. It is also called Google Device Manager. What it does is that it connects your phone with your Google account credentials. Now if you have the credentials of the Google account linked with the device you are searching for then you can definitely have the location of that device before you.
The question that arises now is; how to use the Android Device Manager?
Tracking a device with device manager is pretty simple, just follow the below mentioned steps;
- Go to the website of Android Device Manager.
- Login to the website with the Google credentials of the account that is linked with the device that you are searching for.
- A list of devices that are connected with the account that you logged in with will be displayed before you.
- From this list, select the device whose location you want to track.
- Click on the icon named ‘location’. It is present next to the name of the device.
After following these steps, location of the device that you have been searching for will be displayed on a map. Choose from the various options available to remotely lock or erase the data from your android device in case its stolen.
Using the Cell Phone tracking websites
The cell phone tracking websites are more advanced in terms of tracking than the device manager. They use the IMEI number assigned to the device for tracking it. IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. This is a 15-digit number which is unique to every device.
So in case you want to search for a device, all you have to do is to enter the IMEI number of that device on one of these websites and it’ll give you its location.
- The IMEI number is given to both Android and iPhones, thus this method can be implemented for both kind of devices.
- For implementing this method, you should know the IMEI number of the device you’re searching for beforehand.
- To get the IMEI number of a device, dial *#06# from the device and it’ll display you the IMEI number of that device.
- It is recommended that you save the IMEI numbers of the devices present in your home somewhere, so that they come handy in case you want to track any device.
Use of iCloud service by Apple
Apple provides a great service named iCloud. This provides you the convenience of syncing and backing up data from all your apple devices.
- If you are searching for an iPhone, then iCloud service by Apple is what you must be using.
- For using this service, log into iCloud with the credentials of the target device.
- Once you are logged in into the iCloud, click on the icon named “Find my iPhone”.
- This will display you a map with the current location of the iPhone.
- This method is only useful for the readers who are searching for an iPhone.
Using Google Maps
This is one of the most popular and accurate ways to locate a device. Google maps use the credentials of the Google account that were entered into the target device for tracking the device. They have in-built tracking feature.
For using this service, follow the simple steps that are mentioned below;
- Log in into a phone with the Google credentials of the account that is already logged in into the target device.
- Now open the Google Maps application.
- In the top left corner of the Google Maps app, tap on the ‘menu’ icon.
- This will display you a map with the current location of the phone and also the timeline of the phone, where it has been throughout the day.
- This method will only work if the target device is logged in with the Google account known to you.
- Using the Google search engine
Till now, we have talked about a lot of services provided by Google for how to track a cell phone location without installing software. But do you know that the search bar of the Google search engine can be used to locate your phone?
Yes, this is one of the simplest methods for tracking your phone.
- This method has the same requirements as the previous method, that your phone must be logged in with the Google account credentials known to you.
- Open the web browser and in the search bar type, “find my phone”.
- Click on the first link saying ‘Find Your Phone’.
- This will show your target device’s location on a map.
Use of third party websites
There are some websites present over the internet that help you in tracking a phone. This method is usually not recommended because many of these websites ask you to create an account with them for proceeding further.
Also, these websites ask for money to give some basic details about the target phone which you might get for free if you have read our article carefully.
If you find any website, that is not asking you to create an account or is not asking for any kind of money for providing you the basic details about the target website, then you must go for such websites.
Why to Track a Cellphone without installing Software?
If we throw a light upon the benefits associated with tracking a cellphone without installing software, then there are many.
- It gives you liberty to track a cellphone and the user of that will not have any knowledge about this. Kids don’t like the idea of being tracked or being watched upon but parents still are concerned about their safety.
The methods which we discussed provide you a way to secretly monitor the location of your kid’s cellphone.
- You can track an Android device without rooting it and an Apple device without jailbreaking it. Rooting is the process that gives you access of the target device. Surely, if you are tracking the device just with the intention of knowing its current location, the methods we discussed so far in the article are effective.
- The target device can be tracked from any device that is present with you. A phone, laptop or a tablet.
- Tracking methods such as use of Google Maps give you an option for the real time tracking of the device. This means that at any moment you’ll know where the device currently is.
- The methods that we discussed are completely free to use.
Knowing more about Smartphone/ Cellphone tracking
In our article, we have read about the methods on how to track a cell phone location without installing software. During this time, it must have occurred to you that how does this tracking of a cellphone or a smartphone works?
The smartphone tracking works by extracting the GPS information of the target device. This information is collected from the cell service provider. Sometimes, the internet is also used to track a device if the target device also has an active internet connection.
Conclusion
This article talks about how to track a cell phone location without installing software in a very detailed manner. There are several methods explained on tracking a cell phone and each method has a step by step guide in it to help the readers on how to use it.
As this article puts an emphasis on “without installing software”, the latter sections of the article discuss on the benefits behind tracking a cell phone without installing software. This article is intended towards providing valuable and useful information to our readers. For more such interesting and informative articles, keep following our blog page!