After the initial sinking feeling when you realize you’ve lost your phone, it’s important to react swiftly to see whether you can retrieve it or at least cover your bases in terms of changing all of your passwords and logins.
Last week, the Google has finally announced a service that does what most other companies are already doing. It would allow users to remotely manage, locate, block, or wipe their misplaced devices. This new service will be named as “Android Device Manager” which will be designed to plug physical security holes, and will be available later in August. Having an official service makes more sense and it would be great if Google integrates it directly in the operating system with the next Android version.
According to a blog post on official Android Blog, this tool will be able to:
Locate and ring your misplaced device. It allows you to quickly ring your phone at maximum volume, even it’s been silent. Also, in the event that your phone or tablet is out of earshot (say, at that restaurant you left it at last night), you can locate it on a map in real time.
Protect your personal information and data. The more stressful thing is not losing the device but it is about your personal data ending up in the wrong hands. With the help of ADM, you can now quickly and securely erase all of the data on your device. Personally, it’s enough for me. I’ve never used an anti-theft app for my Android devices, but if my phone were stolen, being able to quickly initiate a remote wipe would give me peace of mind. I’d generally have little / no hope of getting it back in such a scenario, anyway.
You’ll manage it through Google Play on the web, and there will be an Android app, too. ADM will be integrated with Google Play Services, and at this point, it’s not clear how robust the protection’s survivability will be in the event of theft.
We’re not sure why Google jumped the gun early and made the announcement, even though the service is still awaiting a launch. It could have announced it when the service was ready.
According to some users and reports ; like Reddit, XDA, and other forums, Android Device Manager has already begun to roll out to users, The functionality is part of Google Play Services, which means it will be automatically and silently added to all devices running Android 2.2 and higher.
To check if the new functionality hit your device, navigate to Settings > Security, where you should find a section called Device Administrators. There, you should see Android Device Manager.