Android owners will soon have a way to locate their lost devices. Later this month, anyone with a Google account will be able to locate their Android devices on a map in real time, activate their ringer, and even wipe their contents. The service will work as part of a new Android Device Manager website, which will seemingly be an upgraded version of a tool that's already available for business users.
The remote tools will work on all devices running Android 2.2 and up — which, at 98.7 percent of devices, is just about every one of them. Google will also be releasing an Android Device Manager app to ease the process of finding and wiping devices, but it won't need to be installed for the service to work.
For Google, the move is a long time coming. Android has quite notably been missing a tool to let users remotely manage their lost devices, while others like Apple and Microsoft have already implemented such features on their mobile operating systems. Some Android device manufacturers have even tried to fill the gap with services of their own, including HTC — with an effort that has since been shut down — and Sony, with the My Xperia program that it announced earlier this year. Fortunately, the struggles to find a reliable tracking service may soon come to an end — though Google hasn't named a specific date for when the Android Device Manager will roll out to everyone.
Comments
That took a long time.
By Britoid on 08.02.13 1:25pm
Yeah wish it had cerberus’s features though.
By theratchetnclank on 08.02.13 1:41pm
Maybe they don’t want to extinguish the business of apps like Cerberus or Android Lost. I think this is a good balance, the basic core feature is there. But if you want a more advanced tool, you can support one of the developers on Google Play.
By Razormike on 08.02.13 1:51pm
Maybe they just couldn’t be arsed.
By toomuchcoffee on 08.02.13 2:16pm
This is actually bad news. There are already third party apps that can do this. I use Cerberus which provides more features.
My worry is that when Google keeps flooding the market with free apps, they are driving other app developers out of business who won’t bother to develop for Android since Google proivdes the same service for free.
Also soon Google will have a quasi monopoly on the tracking app which means that the government will also have an easier time to get all that info from a single source instead of multiple sources.
By Emmanuel A. on 08.02.13 1:57pm
But as I said above, this service doesn’t even provide 10% of the features Cerberus does. It’s like saying Google (or any Android OEM) shouldn’t bundle a music player with their phone, because no one would buy DoubleTwist or PowerAmp from the Play Store. People do, because the third party apps are often better.
By Razormike on 08.02.13 2:03pm
Just the basics… phone tracking and ringing. Cerberus does soooooooooo much more. Like snapping a pic if someone (you) enter the wrong key. MJ CLUTCH.
By ddpacino on 08.02.13 3:35pm
So essentially they get blamed in either case?
By Optimus-Prime on 08.02.13 2:11pm
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t apparently. Seems like a great idea to me though, particularly since most users have never heard of Cerberus and could greatly benefit from the limited functionality that Google’s option enables.
By kidtronic on 08.02.13 2:22pm
It’s not that simple, no. The problem isn’t doing it or not doing it, it’s not doing it, leaving a market hole open for a LONG TIME for third party developers to grow into, and then closing it back up again with a copycat feature. Apple gets accused of the same thing from time to time with iOS features that come first to the jailbreak community.
By cmasontaylor on 08.02.13 2:36pm
Seems like a good idea. Give times to developers to wet their feet in a new area ( = good for developers) and then give the users a basic feature of this area ( = good for users). Then developers have a better app but users can also just use the basic app if they don’t miss anything.
By iYam on 08.02.13 4:59pm
Well, it isn’t always just that the developers have a better app. Sometimes (like Google with the gesture keyboard or Apple with WiFi syncing) they’ll just lift the feature wholesale. Personally I’m fine with this; I think it’s good to expose users to new innovations through changes to the stock configuration. If the developers come up with something truly innovative they have the patents system. If they aren’t the originator, then expecting the possibility of being disrupted or assimilated is just part of the game.
By cmasontaylor on 08.02.13 8:11pm
So if 3rd party tracking apps are more powerful and useful how’s this free one killing them? Competition is good, also you don’t have to install the service is that too hard to understand?
By zyofeng on 08.02.13 2:58pm
Goes back to 2.2 which is like Windows 95 of Android.
By Optimus-Prime on 08.02.13 2:24pm
It’s about time…
By Silver Arrow on 08.02.13 1:25pm
I’m a bit of a Google fanboy, but I agree they were behind the curve on this feature and shouldn’t get too much credit for a feature that has been available on other platforms and with apps for years.
I wonder if they were waiting to implement this feature until after they released the low-power location API that they unveiled at IO, which should make this feature more efficient and more accurate than if they had released it before. If they had put out a battery sucking unreliable tracking feature on every phone for the last year or two, it would have created a frustrating experience for everyone.
Still not a good excuse for missing an important feature for years, but there may have been a logical reason.
By you don't know me on 08.02.13 4:40pm
A possible excuse would be to create a hole for developers to base their apps in this area.
By iYam on 08.02.13 5:00pm
Except that they had this feature for Google Apps Business customers long ago. I’m not sure why it took as long as it did to expand support but I’m glad it’s coming.
By jm9843 on 08.02.13 5:54pm
Unfortunately Android isn’t exactly something you can’t just release a patch for. Hardware standardization for the platform is market-driven, and despite manufacturer collaboration drivers are to some extent(if not entirely) proprietary. With the number variables at work shit’s pretty much a numbers game. Some API or core function isn’t going to work properly because either the drivers have a bug or OEM’s modifications aren’t thoroughly tested. For instance, Moto’s previous generation borked a cursor’s life-cycle, and like the generation before it the GPS api returned inaccurate values. That all being said don’t take this as either a license to be careless nor a utility you can 100% rely on. Cause it could very well be the dot on the screen is just an approximation.
By BobKozik on 08.02.13 9:07pm
Finally?
By Chris V. on 08.02.13 1:26pm
Looking forward to Gruber posting this on DF
By thereddestdog on 08.03.13 1:01am
Pleased to see Ars put ‘finally’ at the end of their headline.
By toomuchcoffee on 08.03.13 2:06am
so… they opened up the tracking tool that paid google apps accounts have had for a couple years?
By russlar on 08.02.13 1:26pm
This is awesome! They’ve had it for Google Apps paid customers for years but I’m so glad they’re making it available to everyone :) :)
By dcarr622 on 08.02.13 1:27pm
great idea. not a paid google apps customer so this is new to me.
By plasticrabbit on 08.02.13 1:28pm