While Microsoft hasn’t provided Windows Phone users (yet?) with the full set of “MyPhone” features it previously provided to users of Windows Mobile 6.5, it does offer a free and excellent Find My Phone service that will help you recover a lost or stolen Windows Phone, but also ring, lock, and erase it if required. And unlike a similar service from, say, Apple, it’s absolutely free.
There’s just one problem: Find My Phone is not enabled by default. So you’ll have to navigate into Settings, Find My Phone, to enable this service. Note that doing so could reduce your battery life, so it’s worth experimenting a bit.
There are two options in the Find My Phone settings interface:
- Save my location periodically for better mapping.
- Get results faster (may use more battery).
For Find My Phone to work, at least the first option will need to be enabled.
Thanks to Jonathan Kimrey for the tip!
The Apple feature is free as of Monday. Please do some research before writing. Thanks!
Thanks. Thanks for saying it so nicely too.
Apple guys just seem to get bent out of shape when someone points out that Microsoft actually did something before Apple did it and, perhaps, even pushed Apple to do something they never had the intention of doing.
Hey, LighningRod, they made it free within the past week after four years of charging for it. Cut some slack.
It’s only free for the latest generation devices though. Which means that if you have an original iPhone, 3G or 3GS, it’s not free.
As of iOS 4.2.1 Find My Phone is also free for the iPhone. Great service that all phones should have.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/apple-begins-offering-free-find-my-phone-feature/?src=me
I do believe that the “Find my Iphone” feature has been made completely free, and is no longer dependent on having MobileMe.
Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/11/using-apples-now-free-find-my-iphone-service/67013/
Find my phone works for me even though I have both options disabled. I think these options are just there to speed up the process or make it more accurate.
I could be wrong, but I remember Apple making that free in the last week or two…
Other than that it is a great tip.
BTW, it’s free from Apple now too as of the 4.2 update that they released a few days ago. I guess they feel the pressure now that other companies are offering these features for free.
It takes the biggest smartphone rival to iPhone, Android, and now WP7 to offer a feature to finally get Apple to stop over charging their customers?
Wow gee, thanks Apple! This is one of the many reasons I switched from 3GS to WP7.
And yet the fanboys still claim that Apple isn’t afraid of Microsoft…
Although I’m still skeptical on how good of a product Windows Phone 7 will be in the long run (I was a Windows Mobile user a while back and love my recent upgrade to an iPhone 4), I must agree with you Paul and Leo that having another big player such as Microsoft back in the smartphone game as a viable contender to Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android devices will only benefit us customers in providing us with additional choices and forcing those companies to keep on improving and innovating rather than sitting back and enjoying the lead they’ve had (in the case of Apple).
Yes, it is now free from Apple. All of you can thank Microsoft for that. It would have NEVER EVER been free from Apple if Microsoft wasn’t doing it. See how competition works?
I wish I had this free service when my first iPhone 4 was stolen. They can steal away on the Samsung Focus. I have a lock screen and the GPS reporting turned on.
Paul,
Find my phone actually is enabled by default. You’re post is a bit incorrect. I’ve tested this and did a bit of research how it works. So by default, it works by sending a message to your phone. If your phone is on, it responds back to the service and maps out the location. Again, I have tested this.
The first option in the settings works a bit different so it sends data back to Windows Live every few hours. This allows the service to have location information in case your phone dies. The second option just does constant communication with the Windows Live service and therefore, can drain the battery quicker.
Elan
Sorry, it should read, “if you want it to be accurate.” The problem with Find My Phone is that the default settings could have an out of date location for the phone.
I just picked up my Samsung Focus on Monday, 1/17/2011. This feature was disabled by default.
Looks like it varies?
Anyone have any actual results on battery drain? To me, this is a big deal for our second line as there’s a tendency to misplace the phone or forget where it was put down. If the battery drains too quickly, I’ll gladly turn it off, but if it’s a relatively small thing overall, it’s staying on. This phone won’t get the heavy game/media use that a lot of us probably use, but it will see more mapping (in bursts, not all the time), researching, and e-mail usage when out and about.