Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to track down a cell phone location for free? If you have, you’ll be happy to know that my website is full of interesting articles that show you how to do just that with both free apps and apps that you’ll have to pay to use.
Today on my free cell phone tracker website, I’ll be talking about a GPS phone tracking application by the name of “TrackMe GPS Tracker”. This app is advertised by the developer to be able to work on most Java phones. So, if your phone can run Java apps, this app “might” work on it. This means that it also “might” work on some prepaid phones. If it sounds like I’m being a bit sarcastic by making that last statement, read on and you see why.
I have to be honest, while attempting to test this app, I really struggled. Most of the apps I try are fairly user friendly and this one seemed like it would be easy to use as well. Maybe I’m just having an “off” day and not thinking real clearly but I don’t find this app to be easy to use at all. As a matter of fact, about half way through the testing process, I got frustrated and decided to give up on it. No app should be so difficult to use that it takes over an hour to figure out how it’s supposed to work. Maybe you’ll have better luck with this software and if you do, PLEASE send me an email and share your thoughts with me at justin@freecellphonetracker.net.
What is this app “supposed” to be able to do?
Regardless of the fact that I had problems with the app, let me tell you what it’s “supposed” to be able to do. There are two versions of this app. There is a free version that is identified as “TrackMe GPS Tracker (trial)” in the Android Market. This free trial is good for 30 days. There is also a premium version of the app that offers a few more features. The premium version of the app is called “TrackMe Personal GPS Tracker”. It will only set you back $3.22 so the premium version is almost free but not quite. Before you give buy the app, make sure you read the rest of this article and then try the free version to see if you can actually get it to work. If you can, that’s great. You’ll be the proud owner of an inexpensive tracking app with some interesting features.
Okay, let’s first talk what you you’re supposed to be able to do with the free version of the app. This app seems to be surprisingly similar to Google Latitude in the sense that it’s really more of a “location sharing” app and a tracking app.
Here’s how it works.
Step 1: Download the app. You can get it in the Android Market and you’re also supposed to be able to get it directly from the developer’s site. The instructions that they provide are to enter ota.trackme.com in your mobile browser and then “follow the instructions” to download the app. However, when I enter ota.trackme.com in either my mobile browser or my computers browser, I land on a page that is about a product called the SportsDo GPS Tracker.
After looking around for a while, I couldn’t actually find the link for the free download of the app. I tried to log in to the system to see if logging in took me to the TrackMe online user interface but I received a warning from Firefox that said, “This connection is untrusted. You have asked Firefox to connect securely to ota.trackme.com, but we can’t confirm that your connection is secure.” This was enough for me to decide not to proceed any further. I try to be ultra cautious when it comes to security things like this.
Step 2: Open a free TrackMe account. You can do this by clicking here if you would like.
Step 3: Open the app on your phone and choose the tracking options that you would like. You can adjust several settings here such as how often the app will update the location of your phone, whether the app should start when you turn your phone on, whether or not you want to be able to control the app by sending an SMS text message to the phone, and more.
Step 5: Collect some TrackMe friends. Here’s how you can supposedly track down a cell phone location for free using this app. You will need to have the people who you would like to be able to track install the app on their phone and open a free TrackMe account. Then, you are supposed to be able to add these friends to your account. Then they should, “theoretically”, be able to either view your location on the TrackMe website on their computer or on their smartphone.
What did I try?
I went through the process of setting up an account and installing the app on my phone. Then I placed my phone in a location where it could get a good GPS fix. I then configured the update intervals to be every five seconds so I could get some data points uploaded to the system. Then I logged into the TrackMe website and expected to see my location displayed on the map. What I actually saw was the location of several users who were currently in the UK displayed on the map. None of these users were in my friends list so I have no idea why they were displaying on the map. This seemed quite silly to me. I could care less what their locations are. I wanted to be able to see my phone’s location displayed so that I would know that the service was working properly.
Next I noticed a search box on this page so it seemed logical that I would be able to enter my username in the box and find myself that way but it doesn’t actually search by username. You can only enter a geographical location and it will bring up that portion of the map and display the users that are currently in that location. The next thing I did was type in the name of my city but I struck out here as well. I did see the location of one user who happened to be at a nearby state park but my location didn’t show up on the map.
This gave me the idea of creating another account and trying to add the first account’s information to the friends list for the second account. After fumbling around a bit, I found what appeared to be the method of inputting the user name of the first account. I thought would add it to my friends list. After doing this, I still couldn’t see the location of the first account’s phone displayed on the map.
Features that I could get to work.
You can manually share your location with people using the app. This is a feature that I was actually able to get function properly.
You can send a link in the form of an email or an SMS text message to anyone of your choosing from within the application. When the user clicks on the link, they will see the location of your phone at the time the message was sent out. You can also choose the option “Share URL” and then select from several services that you might want to use to share your tracking URL.
For example, you could choose the “Facebook” option and your tracking URL would be displayed as an update to your Facebook profile for all your friends to see. Then, when your friends log in to check their Facebook pages, they’ll see that you shared your tracking URL. If they click on the tracking URL link, they’ll see the location of your phone as it was at the time that you shared this information with Facebook.
What’s the bottom line?
For me, the big clue that I was going to have problems with this app was when I somehow found my way to the FAQ page. To find that page, I had to click on a little tiny link in the bottom right hand corner of the page that was labeled “Help”. This next part is quite amusing! When I clicked on the link to get help, a small window popped up that had a message in it telling me that they want me to get the most out of the SportsDo (there’s that word again) platform so they have created many ways for me to get my questions answered. Great! This was just what I was hoping to find and it sounds encouraging, but wait, there’s more.
Their idea of “many ways” turned out to be a Frequently Answered Questions page. The teaser for this page said that they had compiled a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions to help their customers as much as they can. Below that statement was a button labeled “FAQ”. After finding this button, I eagerly clicked on it and guess what I found? You’re not going to believe this but their “comprehensive list” amounted to two short sentences that informed me that the app is designed to work on most Java phones and that it’s not restricted to only work on one particular network.
Can you believe that? That is what their entire “help” system consisted of. It may be just me but I don’t consider that to qualify as a “comprehensive list”.
Is this app a complete loser?
I would have to say that it’s not a complete loser. Keep in mind that I was able to get some of the features to work. Their concept seems like a good one. After all it’s quite similar to the approach Google is taking with their Latitude phone tracker service.
I do have to say that of the tracking apps I’ve tested so far, I would have to rate it near the bottom of the list. Let me just say that the app MAY work just fine. The problem could simply be me. Maybe I’m not just not smart enough to figure it out. That being said, it’s my opinion that a well designed piece of software should be very easy to use and relatively intuitive for people to figure out.
Hopefully my review of this app saves you a bit of frustration and time. If you’re still interested in knowing how to track a cell phone for free you should read my article called How To Locate A Cell Phone Location For Free.
Author Information: Justin Kaseni makes his living testing and reviewing applications designed for smartphones. He is particularly interested in the development of apps that merge GPS tracking with social networking. Read more about the Justin by Clicking Here.
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