Tracking others on your phone

When you go out to meet your friends at a unfamiliar place, you would like to find out exactly where is your friend. When you go out with your friend on a trip, you may find yourself separated from your friend and wish to find out exactly where is your friend. You may be a parent trying to find out where is your child. Instead of calling the other person/child, wouldn't it be good to just send a SMS and get the location of the other person?

There were just this kind of app that could do just this. All you need is just a map and the other person install the app with the understanding that they could be tracked by you. Alternatively, you can use an app to send SMS of your location to your friend or parent. However, that is not interactive. You need to actively send the SMS or set a constant schedule to send it. Thus, the on-demand-automatic-reply way is still the best.

One example of such app is "Wheres my Droid" by Alienman Tech. This app can also be used as a Android finder.

The app have the ability to intercept SMS to your Messaging. When your friend/parent send a code word, it can read the SMS and respond by automatic reply with a GPS location location. The recipient can then use a map app to display the location. This is best used when the tracked does not have a data plan or is in a place without mobile data.

The tracked person can actually set who can get the automatic respond. A list of phone numbers can be set so that only the keyword from this list of phones can get the reply.

Obviously, parents might want to lock the program with a passkey so that the child is not able to change the settings. I usually suggest to get the child's consent instead of enforcing it against their wish. This feature is also good when your phone is in stranger's possession (lost).

The app has other features that could prove useful. However, that is beyond the scope of this post.