Have you ever been in a situation where you either left you phone somewhere and can’t find it? Or worse…the Android phone you spent $200 for and got locked into a 20 month or so contract has been stolen. What do you do? While iOS devices have the “Find My iPhone” MobileMe features, there are an assortment of free Android apps that offer methods to find the location of your phone, remotely wipe and lock your device and much more. The list below contains five of the best free Android security apps that provide these such features.
Quick list of the Top Anti-theft Apps, located on AppBrain.com
This security app provides protection against your lost or stolen phone. Features include the ability to send work directly from the device with a series of SMS messages. With a simple SMS, you can retrieve location information, initiate (and end) an alarm siren, wipe the device deleting all your contacts, call logs, SMS, MMS and files form your memory card and even intercept record phone calls for up to three minutes and send them to your email. You can also lock the device remotely with the tap of the “lock” tab and get .
NetQin is primarily an antivirus, but offers anti-theft features to help you find your missing device. It’s a very ideal security application that scans newly installed apps against the cloud security database to rid your device of malicious apps. The anti-theft options include locating your phone without GPS (reducing battery consumption), remote delete, lock your phone, sound an alarm and report when the SIM has been changed.
Prey Phone Tracker lets you find your device using your phone’s GPS and WiFi location. Other features provide a loud alarm sound, options to lock your phone, uninstall protection and more. You’ll get a notification when the SIM has changed.
Ripcord Alarm is a bit different from the other apps listed. It helps protect your device while it’s being charged in a public place. You simply plug it into a charger, launch the app and click the “activate” button. If someone grabs your phone and unplugs it from the power source, an alarm will sound. If the user reboots your phone it will also sound the alarm.
ViRobot Mobile is another all-in-one security app, providing more than just anti-theft functionality. With this app, you’ll get a security scanner to detect malware and vulnerabilities, anti-spam (calls and message blocking) and network monitoring. The anti-theft options consist of remote wipe, remote lock, remotely acquire the phone’s current location, screen lock and more.
Have you used any of the applications listed above? Has your device ever been stolen?