Applications to track cell phones in real time

There are several ways to track a cell phone just using the device number. Learning how to track a cell phone in a simple way can be extremely useful in several situations. For example, if you've lost your phone, been the victim of theft, or need to locate a relative who's been away from home for a while.

It can also be useful for friends and family who want to stay connected and know where each other is in case of emergencies. It is important to remember that the use of such methods must always respect privacy and individual rights, and be used ethically and legally.

Learn how to locate a person by cell phone number

There are several ways to track a person's location using their cell phone number. GPS provides the real-time geographic position of the phone, while registration with the telephone operator only indicates the last place the person was.

On both Android and iOS devices, it is possible to track someone by cell phone number, however, some security settings must be enabled.

In the case of Android, to remotely locate the device, you can access the Google page “Find My Device” or use the application Google Family Link for family control.

If Find My Device is enabled to share your smartphone's latest location and is tracked by Google, it will be available to the first account activated on your device.

How to track Android cell phone using Find My Device

To locate your Android device, follow these simple steps:

1. Get the app "Find My Device” or visit this website.
2. Log in with your Google account.
3. Select the desired device.
4. The page will display the last recorded location and the cell phone's battery level.

“Find My Device” also offers additional features, such as viewing the cell phone’s IMEI and accessing three remote options:

• Play sound: emits an alarm through the device's speaker, useful for finding your cell phone at home, for example.
• Protect device: locks the device and disconnects the Google account, but still allows location. Recommended when there is hope of recovering the cell phone.
• Wipe Device: Erases all data and prevents tracking. Recommended when there is no longer any chance of recovering the phone.

How to track an iOS cell phone (iPhone)

To locate your iOS device, follow these simple steps:

1. On Apple devices, the process involves going to settings, signing in to your Apple ID, and selecting the active device in your account. Then, just click on “Find iPhone”.
2. To do this, access iCloud using the address icloud.com/find and sign in with your Apple ID. Then locate the lost cell phone on the map.
3. Then, click on the “Play sound” option to play a sound on the lost device.
4. Finally, you can activate “Lost Mode” to lock your device and view your phone's location history.

Google Family Link

Google Family Link offers a convenient way to monitor the location of mobile devices, allowing users to keep track of their family members in real time. With this application, you can create an account, select a family control plan, register the devices to be monitored and easily view their locations.

Using Google Family Link, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Google Family Link app and create an account.
2. Select the plan that best meets your family's control needs.
3. Register all the cell phones you want to monitor.
4. Now you are ready! You will be able to view the device's location in real time.

Applications to track a person by cell phone number

There are several options for locating a cell phone by number, many of them offering complete access to the device, from files to GPS location. Applications such as Eyezy, mSpy and others are examples of this type of service, although they generally involve a cost for monitoring.

O mSpy, for example, is a brand of mobile application and software available for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, which records user activities on the target cell phone.

EyeZy is an application focused on providing the real-time location of the cell phone, aiming at family safety, even in situations where members cannot answer a call.

Another option is the Localize.mobi, an online service that promises to track anyone by cell phone number. With a monthly or annual cost depending on the customer's preference, Localize.mobi is accessible through the browser and compatible with cell phones on all networks.

How cell phone tracking works

Cell phones constantly share data, even when they are not connected to the internet, through the use of Cell ID, or cell identification. This is a number assigned to each radio base station (ERB), which is the mobile network tower connected to the phone, serving as the origin point of the cellular signal. Thus, the network is always able to determine whether a phone is close to the ERB through Cell ID.

Regularly, the device transmits both the IMSI (international mobile subscriber identity), which is a unique number that identifies all users on a network, and the IMEI (device registration), in search of the antennas.

Using this data, telephone operators maintain a database that associates these numbers with users' registration information, allowing them to constantly know in which cell (or signal tower) a customer is located.