The Best Ways to Track a Cell Phone for Free

Track a Cell Phone

Is it possible in this day and age to track a cell phone for free? It is possible. In our current digital world there are a plethora of free websites, apps, and tracking tools that you can use if you want to track someone’s cell phone. Tracking a cell phone is always a good idea if you want to keep tabs on your children, teenagers, or even a spouse that you might suspect of cheating. Knowing a child’s location via GPS can be instrumental in finding someone who has gone missing or who has been kidnapped. In addition, it is also helpful in protecting our children’s safety and privacy by knowing what the kids are up to on their phones. A 2018 study from the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley revealed that more than half of all Android apps are not adequately protecting our children’s safety and privacy. This fact should give us all an incentive to monitor the smart phones that we pay for.

Tracking apps are widely available and mostly used for recovering lost cell phones, keeping track of a child or teenager’s location, and even recovering stolen cell phones if necessary. But what apps are available for free? And are they any good? One of the most popular location tracking apps is Life360, a free GPS-tracking program that many parents recommend. Once you install the app on the parent’s phone and the kid’s phone, you are able to see their GPS location in real time. The basic app is free, but if you want more detailed information (especially for new drivers) there is a paid version that can generate driving reports, roadside assistance, and even crash detection for you. Life360 allows you to keep track of the phone’s location, and to see when and where kids start moving away from designated “most frequented places”. It even notifies you when the phone’s battery is getting low. Most parents rave about Life 360 when it comes to tracking their children’s phones so the reviews on it are very positive.

Find My Phone is another free app that has the advantage of actually finding your (or someone else’s) phone if you have lost or misplaced it. It also uses GPS tracking technology to detect the phone’s location at all times. The best thing about this is that if your phone has been lost or stolen, you can still locate it by signing into the app via another device. It works on both Android and iPhone, and can be used even if the phone itself has been switched off. It also has a location function so that you can “find your friends” – a great feature if you or your teen feels uncomfortable while out at night. It allows you to locate a friendly face so that you can have safety in numbers when walking somewhere. It also gets good reviews from parents and many others for keeping track of the kiddos’ cell phones.

Another good option is Phone Tracker from Spy Phone Labs, also available for both Android and iPhone. Phone Tracker is another family tracking tool that is free to use. It not only tracks GPS locations, it also tracks phone calls, text messages, and any web activity on the child’s phone. Like the others, it allows you to log into the website on any device to keep up with the tracked cell phone’s information. 

One thing to keep in mind is that none of these are hidden apps – you have to be the owner of all the phones in order to install them. By law the users have to know their location, Internet, and phone activities are being recorded and archived, but this is only true for any adults you are trying to track; it does not apply to minors -your phone, your rules! 

If you are wondering how to track a cell phone location without the phone user knowing, then you have a few options. One option is to buy a cell phone tracking app such as mSpy or FlexiSpy. These apps are not free, but they can be more stealthy and robust than any of the free offerings – useful if you suspect infidelity or something of that nature. Another option is to hire a professional private investigator if the need arises. This is not as drastic as it may sound – professional surveillance can often quickly resolve a mystery. Depending on the situation, a private investigator may be the best move you can make.

Will you get great results from any of these free – or paid – apps? Perhaps. Having a GPS location is better than nothing if you have a good kid who stays out of trouble, but if you are truly concerned about someone’s welfare or need to find someone who is missing, nothing beats hiring a professional when it comes to tracking someone. And if time is of the essence, hiring a private investigator would definitely be the best option. Veteran New York private investigator Darrin Giglio says: “Tracking GPS location is a great start, but boots on the ground is what finds people in real time. Professional investigators will always know more about tracking people than any app or software ever will.”