[Closed] PSA - Essential Android device security apps

1. Go to Play Store. Go to settings on top right. Go to device management. From here you can set up remote tracking, lock and wipe of any of your devices. Very useful if lost or stolen.

No "device management" on my HTC One or Nexus 7. Is that a manufacturer-specific feature, perhaps?

2. Get Prey

I saw this when it first came out. Looks like they've come a long way since I last looked at it. Cheers for the nudge.

I was using WaveSecure, as I'd got a free lifetime account for being an early beta subscriber. Sadly a combination of being bought by McAfee and me changing phones seems to have knackered that.

1. Should have been clearer - go to Play Store on a browser, rather than the "app" itself on the device. You should find the device management under settings as above.

2. No problem.

I think the OP is talking about the official app "Android Device Manager".

Ah, Google's "Device Manager" is a separate app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.adm

Probably worth reading the reviews before installing though...

I'm not talking about the app - I don't think there was an associated app, just a couple of confirmation settings from the in-browser options.

Edit - and looking at the reviews of the app, it sounds worth avoiding! The in-browser feature I'm talking about is the one to go for.

[url= https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager ]Here[/url], in fact.

theflatboy - Member
2. Get Prey. Register your device(s) and set it all up. Lots of very useful post-loss / -theft features, including the option to have an alert sent if a new SIM is put in your device, texting your nominee the new SIM's number. Swish. Also very useful and well worth an install as it's free.

If bank online with Barclays you can Kaspersky for your mobile free, has similar features - email/text alerts, remote wipe/lock, location, take photo, prevent SIM swap etc.

Here, in fact.

ZOMGeleventyone, that's a bit scary. I guess the app is an extension of the website; I can see why they're all complaining, I logged straight into the device management website using cached credentials.

Graeme, that sounds ideal as well. I don't know if Kaspersky does this too, but Prey allows you to remotely activate it and also password lock it for settings and removal, which makes it a pretty robust addition to the device, by the sounds of things.

Why does Prey need read and edit access to your SMS and MMS messages though?

You can activate/deactivate it remotely using a keyword in an SMS, plus it will send an SMS to your nominee if the SIM card is changed or in other defined situations. So presumably for those reasons.

Prey reads SMS messages to trigger security features remotely.
I had problems getting the remote controls and reporting working when I tried Prey.

theflatboy - Member
Graeme, that sounds ideal as well. I don't know if Kaspersky does this too, but Prey allows you to remotely activate it and also password lock it for settings and removal, which makes it a pretty robust addition to the device, by the sounds of things.

Yep kaspersky installs itself as a device admin or some such thing and you set a passcode to be able to open/edit or remove the app I believe.

If you are worried about some of these apps then you can do similar things using tasker.

[url= http://tasker.wikidot.com/stolenphonerecovery ]tasker wiki page[/url]

I'm still using the free version of WheresMyDroid. Is that still decent or is Prey/Google Device Manager significantly better?