Google has unveiled a wonderfully handy new tool that should considerably improve the lives of the woefully forgetful.
If you are prone to losing your smartphone, Google’s new ‘Find Your Phone’ feature will help you put an end to your worries by using your device’s GPS location to determine where it is, before showing you its location using Google Maps. From Maps you can then choose to either ring your phone, lock it and change its passwords in order to prevent your data from being accessed, or perform a remote factory reset.
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The tool works great in practice, though in order for it to be used your device must have its location turned on. It’s also only available for Android phones, given that Google is the developer of the operating system.
Google released a statement regarding the new feature on Google Plus, writing:
“We’ve all been there — you’ve searched under your car seat, tossed around the sofa cushions and you still can’t find your phone. If you know where your computer is, you can now ask Google to find your Android phone from your desktop. If the pesky phone is hiding nearby, Google can ring it for you — or you can see it on the map if you, say, forgot it at the bar. Just make sure you’ve got the latest version of the Google app installed on your device!”
You can try out the new tool for yourself by simply typing ‘Find My Phone‘ into Google, though your device will need to be registered with Google via its two-step authentication process in order for it to work.
