Remotely switch on location

[Rgarner]

My friend lost his phone, but I was able to make it ring (I think) and lock it with a password, and message displayed. The problem is that location is not on and I don't know how to change that. Also, sometimes it says that it can't contact the device but other times it apparently can. Since the phone seems to be online, is there any way I can use the pc to switch on location remotely and then we can probably find it?

 

[Hadron]

Not unless he already has an app installed that has that capability. Some security apps can, but it may require root (my previous phones were rooted, and Cerberus' description in the Play Store implies that it might need that. But while you can remotely install an app from the Play Store you won't be able to run it or set it up remotely, so that won't help you. Hence you need to already have such an app installed.

Back in the Froyo days this was possible, and there used to be a phone locator app you could install and use remotely without ever having to touch the phone (Plan B). But Google correctly identified this as a security hole and blocked it (if you can do this so can someone else, and they could use the same technique to remotely install and run something nastier).

 

[Rgarner]

Is there anything else we can do? The phone's evidently still out there and on, slowly discharging. I can't tell if anyone else found it, Does Android lost work? It says that google can push it to the phone, but how would it be activated? Can I somehow use SMS commands to control it remotely, and how would I do that?