Complete the native location function that allows you to find your stolen smartphone, by installing a spy capable of taking a picture of your thief.
Whether it is Find my iPhone on iOS or Find my smartphone on Android, the solutions offered by Apple and Google to locate and find a lost or stolen device, very quickly find their limit.
To complete them, it is possible to install a spy which, executed silently in the background, will allow you to trigger a shrill siren, to record the geographical position of the device at regular intervals, but above all, to take a picture. your potential thief.
There is a plethora of such solutions, very often paired with reputable antivirus applications. However, for our handling, we opted for Prey Anti Theft (Prey Anti Theft), an open source application that allows, in its free version, to monitor up to three devices.
1. Create an account
Go to the website of Prey Anti Theft to create an account. Click on Don’t have an account? and fill in your name and email address then choose a password.
Accept the terms of use of the service and confirm your age (you must be over 16 to use the service). Click on Sign Up to validate the creation of your account.
2. Download Prey Antitheft
Then download Prey Antivol on your smartphone. This open source application offers several formulas for monitoring your devices.
In its free version, it allows you to track up to 3 terminals for free.
Download Prey Antitheft for Android (Free)
Download Prey Anti-Theft for iPhone (Free)
3. Connect to Prey from your smartphone
Open the app on your smartphone and tap already have an account? to display the login window and log in to your Prey account.
On iOS, once the connection is initiated, your device is automatically linked to your Prey account. To take full advantage of Prey, the app must be allowed to use your location and refresh in the background. In addition, in order to be able to use Prey, never force the app to close on your iPhone.
After logging in on Android, you will need to enable administrator permissions by pressing the Activate Protection button and then Activate this device’s admin application.
Once this setting is changed, Prey should display Protected
4. Locate and secure a device
Now go to the management interface of your Prey account from the dedicated website. Click on Devices in the left column to display the list of devices attached to your Prey account.
Then click on the device you want to locate. You should see its location displayed on a map.
5. Hide the app
To avoid arousing suspicion, Prey offers the possibility to hide its application on your device.
To do this, click on Toggle Camouflage in the right column and validate the camouflage by clicking on Confirm.
6. Ring your device remotely
As with the location function offered by Apple and Google, Prey offers to ring your device remotely.
Click on Sound Alarm, then on Confirm to validate. Your smartphone should emit an alarm at maximum volume for 30 seconds.
7. Send a message
It is also possible to send a message that will be displayed directly on the screen of the lost device. To do this, click on Send message, customize the message to display in the text field, and validate the sending of the message by clicking on Confirm.
8. Start device tracking
But the main advantage of using Prey in addition to the solution natively integrated into your device is undoubtedly the fact that you can record a follow-up at regular intervals from your device, with the possibility of silently triggering the main camera and the device. front photo of your smartphone.
Click on Set device to missing to declare your smartphone as lost. By default, in its free plan, Prey offers to generate a report every 10 minutes.
For iPhone users, check the box Ensure app is woken form the background by requesting user input. This will send a notification to the iPhone which, once opened by the potential thief, will wake up the app in the background.
Validate the activation of lost mode by clicking on Yes, my device is missing. After a few minutes, a first report should be saved in the Reports menu. Click on the report to view it
In addition to the GPS coordinates and the position on the map, Prey can take a picture of your robber, proof that can be useful to support your complaint and which may allow the police to find more easily the author of the theft.