I have had this app on every Android device I have ever owned and I highly recommend it. I actually was able to use it to find my phone once when it disappeared after a party last year.
The basic app features are very straight-forward. If you text a custom phrase to your phone that you create it will force the volume on your phone to full and make a bunch of noise so you can find a device that has simply made a grand disappearance in your couch cushion. You can also text another unique phrase to your phone and it will turn on the GPS and send back the best location that it can find based on GPS and cellular triangulation, whatever is available at the time (hopefully, at least one of them is). These are features which can be found in any of your "find my phone" apps. The developer, Alienman Tech, goes above and beyond after this to bring the best security features available.
Black/White-list:Some people trust everybody, some people trust nobody but either way you are accommodated by this app. I prefer to have my options open, if I were to lose my phone and be able to borrow anyone's phone to try to find mine. I have taken advantage of the black list feature a few times, though, when I told my friends about this app and then they threatened to text me when I am in class so I will make a bunch of noise. On the other side, you may only trust a few select people and put them on the white list so they are the only ones who can text you when you get into a pickle. You had better hope they are around when things get sour, though.
Stealth Mode:
It seems very simple but that's why it is so elegant. "Where's My Droid" will intercept the attention phrase when it comes in so that the would-be thief won't notice that you're on to them.
SIM card change alert:
A feature you probably never thought you wanted until you realized it was a thing. The Where's My Droid app will first take notice of the SIM ID that your phone has when the app is installed. If the SIM ID ever changes, it will automatically send an email, to an address that you designate, letting you know of the change. Not only does that tell you that your device has been stolen but it also might give the phone company an idea of who has stolen it and give you a chance of getting your phone back.
Password Protection:
To wrap up all of the free features which I have mentioned above, the app can be protected by PIN number which will prevent anyone who isn't authorized from changing your security settings on the app. That means they can't circumvent any of the security features which you have enabled without uninstalling the app. Unfortunately, without root permissions, you can't prevent the would-be thief from uninstalling the app. However, if your phone is rooted, I would suggest you consider using an app like Titanium backup to turn the Where's My Droid into a system app, making it more difficult for someone to uninstall it.
What Comes with Pro?
First you should note that upgrading is a $3.99 in-app purchase which is handled by the play store for security. But what you get for that $3.99 actually may be worth it and as long as you keep the same Google account, that $3.99 will protect all of your phones for the rest of your life.
No More Ads!
As you will have noticed when you download this app for the first time it is very ad-heavy. Since you won't need to open it frequently, they might not bother you that much but when you upgrade, they are gone for good and that's probably enough worth it for me just because of how annoying they are within the app.
It might not be immediately obvious how to activate this feature because it only pops up in the Ring menu when you have unlocked the Pro version. There is a button near the bottom that says "call feature" which will open up a white list for numbers which when they show up on the 'missed calls' list, it will set off the app's ring feature. It's occurred to me that I will need to find a phone number which only will be calling me when I need to activate this feature because there are a lot of times during the day that I won't answer my phone because I'm busy with work or class. For me, such a number exists in the form of my parent's work number but I realize this might not exist for most people making this feature a little less of an incentive to upgrade. However, for people who have an unused landline (anyone who still has a landline), this might be an appealing feature.
Camera Feature (Beta):
The camera feature which is only available in pro and is currently a beta feature for the app does pretty much exactly what it sounds like. By sending a message to your phone, which you can choose, you can make the camera take a picture and send it back. It will work from the front camera or from the rear camera and each of them has a unique message so you can choose which camera it takes a picture from. I tested this feature by having a friend send my phone the key phrase and it is clear that the Where's my Droid app intercepted the message because my phone never gave any indication that it had received a message from him but the downside is that it didn't ever send him a picture back. There's also no evidence that the device ever took a picture. That might be because it never took a picture or it might be because the app doesn't save the picture and in either case, I'm a little disappointed. If it isn't working, it might just be something that involves my phone, specifically (Nexus 4). On the other hand, if it saved a picture on the phone, it would make it easier for me as a user to find the person who took my phone, especially since I have all of my pictures automatically uploaded to my dropbox account.
Remote Wipe/Lock:
I've never had to use these features and I hope I never will but they are very handy to have in your back pocket as a last resort. These are both activated by a text message command that you can customize just like the ring/GPS features that I mentioned at the top. They also require you to give the app administrator permissions, which essentially means you are giving it permission to lock or wipe the device. Since the app has been in the play store for such a long time and I've been using it for such a long time, without problem. I would say it is completely safe to give the app these permissions and then cross your fingers that you never have to use them.
I realize there are other apps out there that do the same job and at the end of the day it is more about preference than anything else but it just bothered me that I've been using this app for years and had success in finding my phone in the past using it, confirming that it is, indeed, functional and I have never seen a review on it before but I've seen reviews for a few of the other apps that do the same job (and quite frankly, less). Follow the link below to find the app in the Google Play Store and try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below and the original post on Facebook or Google+
Wheres My Droid by Alienman Tech
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