How to Locate your Android Phone using Avast

In our earlier post, I told you about some very useful free Android antivirus application for your Android Smartphones and devices.

In that article, I have mentioned some very unique features of Avast antivirus and its ability to track and tell you the location of the phone, if it gets lost or stolen. This tutorial will guide you to track your stolen Android phone so that you can recover it.

 

Locate Android Device

 

Prerequisite for this tutorial

 

1. Avast Antivirus installed on your Android phone or tablet. (Get from Google Play)

2. Should have an active internet connection.

3. The anti-theft feature should be enabled.

Note: No rooting is required for this installation.

 

Recommended Article: Plugin to Save WordPress Blog from Virus

 

Steps to Track your Android Device using Avast

 

Now as mentioned above, you should fulfill the above two conditions to go with this tutorial. If you don’t have Avast, please first install it.

1. After installing Avast antivirus for your Android device, just go to its dashboard and click on Anti-Theft, to enable your anti-theft in your phone. Avast will now ask you to install its Avast anti-theft module from Google Play or through advanced installation mode as shown below.

Avast Anti-theft

For this tutorial, we have chosen to install the Avast update from the Google Play Store. Please do not install this directly on your Android phone or tablet.

Note: Avast will also ask you to create an account to give you control of the web interface.

 

2. Now after installation of Avast anti-theft module i.e. Avast update, Avast will set up your anti-theft feature, here you just have to give your name and alternate mobile number and also password.

 

Avast Anti-theft setup

 

So now you have installed Avast anti-virus and set up your anti-theft feature in it and now it’s time for testing. To test the remote control feature of this application, we tried controlling our Android phone from a remote location with the help of a web interface.

Now go to My Avast and go to devices, where your all active devices will be shown.

 

Avast Devices

 

Now in device detail, you will see lots of options and tabs. Here go to choose a command, and you will see lots of commands like the command to locate your device, lock, siren on-off, call, launch, messaging, etc. Let’s test with knowing the position of your lost or stolen phone.

 

Avast Device commands

 

Test 1: Locate

Select the command Locate and click on Send. Now Avast anti-virus will search for the best option to determine your Android phone location silently. In my case, it switched on my Wi-Fi automatically and then sent coordinates to the server in a very short time. To get up-to-date location, you can also instruct to get phone location every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour, etc.

Avast locate command

Now to see if your command has been successfully received by phone or not, just browse to the command tab and check the status, it should be a green checkmark as shown above.

To track your Android phone location, click on Locator Map after executing the locate command successfully and there you will see the current location of your Android phone or tablet.

Avast GPS Map

To see your GPS coordinates and source of tracking you can go to the GPS Coordinates tab.

 

Test 2: Set Siren

Now suppose your Android device is stolen and you want to run a siren so that thieves can get afraid for a while, then go to command and send SIREN ON command. As soon as you give this command, your phone will start ringing with the tone “Phone is lost or stolen, Phone is lost or stolen“.

I must tell you that this is a very effective command and once executed, it is very difficult to stop the siren even if you have disabled your GPRS, 3G, Wi-Fi, etc. Even if the stealer switches off the phone and again switches On, the siren will still ring.

 

Avast SMS Commands to Control your Android Phones

The method we discuss above uses a web interface and requires an internet connection, what if you are commuting in a bus, metro train or any other public transport, and someone steals your expensive Android phone. Then SMS commands come into action and immediately you can lock your phone, Wipe the data, locate, etc. etc. with the help of these handy SMS commands.

These commands work with your password, which you set up during anti-theft configuration above. The syntax of all the commands is very simple. Just type your password and command. Below are some of the very important commands you should know.

In the below SMS commands, let’s say your password is 1122.

 

I. LOCK Command: This will lock your mobile phone.
Example: 1122 LOCK

II. LOST Command: This marks the phone as LOST.
Example: 1122 LOST

III. SIREN ON: Switch On the Siren on the phone.
Example: 1122 SIREN ON

IV. LOCATE: Will locate your phone and send you the Co-ordinates.
Example: 1122 LOCATE
1122 LOCATE 5: Will locate the phone continuously.

V. CALL [phone number]: The phone will call the given number automatically
Example: 1122 CALL 9801234XXX

VI. WIPE: Will wipe all your data from the phone.
Example: 1122 WIPE

VII. REBOOT: Will reboot your phone.
Example: 1122 REBOOT

 

Above are some of the very important SMS commands, to get the whole list please see Avast website.


I hope this article will help you in saving your Android phone from losing and if lost, then it will help you in tracking it. In between check out this awesome Shadow Fight 3 mod app, you can use it on your Android phone. If you like this article please consider sharing it with your friends. You can also subscribe to Tech2Blog.com by Email to get such free tutorials in your Inbox.

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