Find My iPhone App: How It Works and What Else to Install
Apple's Find My is free and built in. It maps, rings, locks and erases a lost iPhone, and can still find one for up to 24 hours after it is switched off.
Find My only helps if it was switched on before the phone went missing, so check yours now: open Settings, tap your name, then Find My. If the iPhone is already lost, go to icloud.com/find on any phone or computer and sign in with your Apple Account. Apple says you do not need a verification code to sign in there.
We read Apple’s support pages for Find My, then went through the App Store listings of the apps from other makers. Those apps do different jobs. Some share your location with family or friends, and some ring a phone that is somewhere in the house. We left out anything sold for tracking a person without their knowledge: every app below is for your own phone, or for people who have agreed to share where they are.
What Find My does
Find My is Apple’s own app and part of iOS. The App Store lists it as free, with nothing to buy. Apple’s support pages describe four things it can do with a missing iPhone:
- Show it on a map. Open Find My on another Apple device, tap Devices and choose the iPhone. Directions opens the route in Maps.
- Play a sound. The sound starts after a short delay, grows louder and lasts about two minutes.
- Mark it as lost. Lost Mode locks the phone with its passcode and suspends the cards you use with Apple Pay. You can put a phone number and a message on the Lock Screen. The phone still takes calls.
- Erase it. This cannot be undone, and Apple tells you to try everything else first. Activation Lock stays on afterwards, so nobody can set the phone up again without your Apple Account password.
Apple repeats one warning: do not remove the phone from Find My, even after erasing it. Removing it turns off Activation Lock and makes the phone easier to resell.
If the phone was stolen, mark it as lost quickly and leave your contact details off the Lock Screen message. Do not go to the place on the map yourself. Report it to the police, who may ask for the serial number. Apple also says it will never contact you to say your iPhone has been found, so treat any message that says so as a scam. The full steps are on Apple’s lost iPhone page.
How to turn on Find My iPhone
- Open Settings and tap your name, then Find My.
- Tap Find My iPhone and switch it on.
- Switch on Find My network. This is what lets the phone be found when it is offline.
- Switch on Send Last Location. The phone then sends its position to Apple when the battery is critically low.
Location Services has to be on for Find My as well, or the phone cannot show on a map.
If Find My was off when the phone went missing, Apple is blunt about it. The phone will not appear in the app or at icloud.com/find, and you cannot mark it as lost or erase it. Change your Apple Account password and report the loss.
Finding an iPhone that is off or offline
The Find My network is how an iPhone can be found with no Wi-Fi or mobile data. Apple describes it as a crowdsourced network of over a billion Apple devices. They detect a nearby device over Bluetooth and report its approximate location to the owner, anonymously and encrypted.
With Find My network switched on, Apple says a supported iPhone can be located for up to 24 hours after it is turned off, or up to 5 hours in power reserve mode. After that you are looking at the last known location. The Find My app keeps it for up to seven days and then shows “No location found”. iCloud.com shows a location for up to 24 hours.
You can still act on a phone that is offline. Play a sound, turn on Lost Mode or start an erase, and Find My marks the request as pending and carries it out when the phone next connects. Turn on Notify When Found too.
Apple adds that Find My features vary by country or region, so offline finding is not promised everywhere.
Find My iPhone from another phone or a computer
Anything with a browser: go to icloud.com/find and sign in with your Apple Account. Apple points you here when you have no other Apple device to hand, which covers an Android phone or a Windows PC. If the page asks for a verification code, choose the Find Devices button. Select the phone under All Devices, then play a sound, mark it as lost or erase it.
A friend’s iPhone: Apple does not let you add a friend’s device to Find My. Use the browser on their phone and the address above, and sign out when you finish.
A family member’s iPhone: in a Family Sharing group with location sharing set up, your devices appear in the Find My app on your family’s phones, below their own.
Your own iPad or Mac: open Find My on it and choose Devices.
An Apple Watch: press the side button to open Control Center and tap the ping iPhone button. The iPhone plays a sound, and if you touch and hold the button it flashes too.
Find my phone apps compared
| App | Maker | On the App Store | What its listing says it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Find My | Apple | Free | Locates, rings, locks and erases your Apple devices. Shares your location with people you choose. |
| Life360 | Life360 | Free, in-app purchases | A shared family map with place alerts, location history and crash detection |
| Glympse | Glympse Inc. | Free, in-app purchases | A link to your live location that expires. The person receiving it needs no app and no account. |
| Google Maps | Free, in-app purchases | Location sharing sits inside the maps app, for as long as you choose | |
| iSharing | iSharingSoft | Free, in-app purchases | Family locator with place alerts, a panic alert and a phone’s last known location |
| Findmykids | LETEM LTD | Free, in-app purchases | Shows a child’s phone on a map, with an SOS button and a loud signal that overrides silent mode |
| Tile | Tile, Inc. | Free, in-app purchases. Needs a Tile tracker. | Double press the tracker’s button and the phone rings, even on silent |
| Chipolo | Chipolo d.o.o. | Free. Needs a Chipolo tag. | Double press the tag and the phone rings |
Apps for sharing your location
Find My already does this between Apple users. In the People tab you choose a friend and how long to share for, and Family Sharing can share locations across the family. The reason to look further is a group that is not all on iPhones.
Life360 puts the whole family on one map, and it is on Google Play as well. Its listing says the free app includes location sharing, location history, crash detection and place alerts. Paid memberships add longer history and roadside assistance, and the App Store lists in-app purchases from $7.99 to $24.99.
Glympse is for one journey at a time. You send a link, the other person watches you move on a map in their browser, and the sharing ends by itself. The listing says the paid features are aimed at businesses and events.
Google Maps has location sharing under your profile picture. Google’s help page says you choose who sees you and for how long, and that they also see your battery level. The other person needs a Google Account. If they have none, Maps makes a link that shows your location for up to 24 hours.
WhatsApp can do the same inside a chat. Its help centre describes live location as something you share for a length of time you pick and can stop whenever you like.
iSharing is a family locator in the Life360 mould. Its listing states that sharing needs the consent of everyone involved. Driving reports and unlimited place alerts are behind a premium subscription, which the App Store lists at $7.99 for a month and $69.99 for a year.
Findmykids is written for parents. The same app goes on the child’s phone and joins with an invitation code, and the listing says it cannot be installed secretly and should only be used with the child’s consent. Everything is free for 7 days. After that only the live location stays free. If the child’s phone is an Android, start with our guide to child safety apps for Android.
Apps that ring a phone lost in the house
Find My can ring your iPhone from icloud.com/find on a laptop, and an Apple Watch can ping it. If you have neither nearby, a Bluetooth tracker on your keys does the job in reverse. Tile and Chipolo both say a double press on the tracker makes the phone ring. Both apps are free to download and do nothing without the tracker.
The App Store also has many apps that ring the phone when you clap or whistle. We would skip them. The two we opened are subscriptions: Find my phone – Device Finder states $5.99 a month in its listing, and ClapFind lists a weekly plan at up to $6.99. That is a lot for a sound.
Be as careful with family locators that have “Find My Phone” in the name. Find my Phone – Family Locator and Find My Phone, Friends&Family both list weekly subscriptions, at $5.99 to $9.99 a week. Try Find My or the free version of Life360 first.
Which one to pick
- A lost or stolen iPhone: Find My, through icloud.com/find if you have no other Apple device. Nothing else in this article replaces it.
- A family that is all on iPhones: Find My with Family Sharing. There is nothing to install.
- A family split between iPhone and Android: Life360, starting on the free version.
- Showing someone where you are for an hour: Glympse or a Google Maps link, because the other person needs no app.
- A phone that hides down the sofa: an Apple Watch ping if you wear one, otherwise a Tile or Chipolo on your keys.
What happened to the old list
The 2019 version of this article named ten apps. Glympse, iSharing and Find My Kids, now spelled Findmykids, are still on the App Store and are covered above. Apple’s Find My iPhone became Find My.
Google’s finder was first on the old list, but it is for Android phones, and a search of the App Store turns up no such app from Google. FamiSafe is still listed. It is a parental-control app and not a phone finder, so it is not here.
The apps called Famy on the App Store today have nothing to do with family location. Family Locator GPS Tracker, GPS Phone Tracker and Family GPS Tracker are names now shared by many apps, and we could not tell which ones the old article meant.
One more name you may know is Prey. It is still on the App Store as Prey: Tracking & Security, but the listing now describes a tool for organisations managing a fleet of devices.
Quick answers
Can I find my iPhone if it is switched off or the battery is dead?
Often, yes. With Find My network on, Apple says a supported iPhone can be located for up to 24 hours after it is turned off. After that the Find My app shows the last known location for up to seven days.
Can I use Find My iPhone from an Android phone?
Yes. Open icloud.com/find in the browser and sign in with your Apple Account. You can see the phone on a map, play a sound, mark it as lost or erase it.
Is the Find My iPhone app free?
Yes. Find My is Apple’s own app, and its App Store page shows it as free with no in-app purchases.
Can I find my iPhone with the IMEI number?
Not through Apple. Find My works by signing in with your Apple Account, and the Apple pages we read offer no search by IMEI. Keep the serial number for the police report.
