How to track a user's location on a smartphone (on Android)

Good time everyone!

Sometimes it happens that we need to find out the current (or last) location of the user (this can be either out of simple curiosity or because of fears for a person). Many, in a similar way, control the movement of children (as they say:"forewarned is forearmed!").

In general, finding out where a person is and where he is thanks to modern gadgets is not so difficult (even for those who are poorly versed in all this technique). Actually, below I will give several simple and working methods (available to almost everyone).

👉 Important: we will determine the location only with the consent of the user himself (i.e. please note: everything is clean and legal).

To business ...

How to find out and track the location by smartphone

👉 Method 1

Google has a chronology service by default (all places visited by the user are saved).

How it works: the service automatically receives information via GPS and Wi-Fi, analyzes it and "detects" all your locations. On the map, they are marked with red circles (you can find out when you were there, exact coordinates, etc.). Of course, this works if you have a Google account.

Red dots on the map indicate your location ... / Screen from Google maps

Please note that it is possible to sort the "circles" by a specific year or month. By clicking on such a circle, Google will automatically tell you what is there: for example, "VTB Bank" ...

If you do not want to be tracked by the timeline service, you can turn it off using the menu below. See screenshot below.

Location History - Disable?

👉 Method 2

For the second method, we need a special. Find My Device app. You need to install it on the smartphone that we will be looking for (important: for installation, it is not at all necessary that the smartphone itself be at hand - everything is done right in the browser, the main thing is to know the password for your Google account).

After installing the application, you need to go to the website: //www.google.com/android/find

Further, in the menu on the left, you will need to select a device and on the map you will see its last location (in my case, the closest point: 41 minutes ago). Of course, the scale of the map can be changed, up to the city street ...

Device found! / Find My Device

Please note that with the help of this service you can not only find out the location of the device, but also call it, block the device, or erase all data from it (it can be very useful if you have lost your phone or forgotten in a distant country ☝).

👉 Method 3

Nowadays, specialized direction finder applications have become quite popular. For example, one of the most popular Life360 (link to the Play Market). By installing the application on all smartphones of family members (and friends?), You can:

see the coordinates of all participants (almost online);
receive notifications when one of the participants gets to the desired place (for example, when a child reaches school or home);
chatting with any of the participants;
keep track of a lost phone, and much more.

Screenshots from the Life360 application

By the way, this application also has an analogue: "Where are my children." In terms of functionality, they are very similar. Agree, this is almost * what you need? ..

* Note: the application requires a modern version of Android (7.0+) to work. It is not always possible to entrust a child with a new phone if the old one was broken in just a couple of months? .. ☝

👉 Method 4

All mobile operators have specials. services for tracking the location of users by phone number. For example, for Megafon, these are the Radar and Locator services. For a small fee per day (5 ÷ 7 rubles), you can receive data on the location of the desired subscriber with an accuracy of up to 100 meters (in large cities).

How to start using: go to the site //radar.megafon.ru/, add the phone number of the desired subscriber. Then he will receive a request - if he agrees, you begin to see his coordinates on the map.