How to Track a Mobile Phone in India: 6 Free and Cheap Tools

To track a mobile phone in India, there are various options, from free apps by brands to location trackers by mobile number, location-sharing, family trackers, and reverse lookup services.

Knowing how to track a cell phone in India helps navigate busy cities and rural areas with poor networks. You can use a tracker during large festivals or events where crowds are enormous, like the Kumbh Mela.

Phone tracking is also helpful for family safety, as you can find your child’s location in an emergency.

While the Indian mobile tracking market is well-developed, it doesn’t mean all are effective. We’ll discuss six tested tracking methods for different occasions.

If you’re in a hurry and need to find a phone immediately, you’ll be happy to know that we have tried many services, and these three work 85% of the time. They include Scannero, Detectico, and GEOfinder. These platforms offer cheap trials of less than INR 83.

Find Lost Mobile Phone with Free Mobile Brand Locators

India’s most popular mobile brands are Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, RealMe, and Oppo. These brands have location-tracking apps preinstalled on their mobile phones.

The main advantage of using such an in-built locator app is tracking a lost or stolen phone for free.

Thus, we recommend using a mobile phone tracker for all Indian residents, especially those living in high-crime areas such as Delhi, which has a 68% crime index, according to Numbeo, while Mumbai has a crime index of 47.64%.

How to Use Xiaomi Find My Device

It’s best to ensure Find Device is on so you can use it if your phone gets lost or stolen. You can do this by going to Settings > Privacy > Find Device > and toggle the button to the On position.

If your phone is missing and it’s on:

1. Go to https://i.mi.com.
   
2. Go to Find Device and turn on Lost Mode. This step ensures no one else can access your device. If they flash it, you can still reactivate the phone when you find it. If Xiaomi Mi Cloud can find it, you will see its GPS location on a map.
   
3. Xiaomi Mi Cloud also has other features, such as beeping your device, locking your device, and erasing data from your Mi device.
   
   

Pros & Cons

Tracking mobile phones with brand locators has its pros and cons.

Track Friends for Free via Messengers

The popular messengers in India are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and Signal. These messengers come with a location-sharing feature.

How to Use the Location Sharing Feature on Messengers

1. Open a new chat.
2. Tap the + button.
3. Choose location.
4. Tap the send button.

We recommend using messengers, since they give you the real-time location of your friends for free. Thus, you can coordinate meetups effectively. It also gives your friends a sense of safety because you can find them in unfamiliar places or during an emergency.

Pros & Cons

Tracking friends via messengers has its pros and cons.

Trace Mobile Number with Trackers in India

A mobile number tracker is an application that can track a phone’s location using its phone number. Most of them allow you to track not only Indian phone numbers but any mobile phone number worldwide.

Before using a paid option to track someone’s location with a phone number in India, try out HeyLocate’s “Free Track Phone Number India”, a free mobile phone locator.

Price: Approx INR83 on trial; approx. INR 4,000 per month.

We recommend mobile phone locators that use a cell phone number, since you don’t need to install an app on the target phone.

Besides, you can track the phone anonymously, since these services don’t send your information to the tracked phone.

Here’s how tracking works on Scannero service:

Try Scannero.io

Best Mobile Number Tracker with Google Maps in India

We tested several popular mobile number trackers with Google Maps in India to find out the effective one.

Mobile Number Tracker

Mobile Number Tracker allows you to input a phone number and trace the mobile number in India for free. This platform gives you the city, state, and service provider.

Mobile.in

The Bmobile.in number tracker in India can show you a phone’s approximate location on a map. It also includes details about the phone’s operator and the service area for free.

Scannero

Scannero is an online service that can find location by phone number. It can pinpoint a phone’s exact position using its IP address. Scannero costs INR 74.20 for a 24-hour trial, while a monthly subscription costs INR 4152.07.

GEOfinder.mobi

GEOfinder can locate someone with their mobile number. It works on all networks and phone models. GEOfinder has a one-day trial for INR 82.53. If you need to track a phone’s location frequently, a monthly subscription costs INR 3333.63.

Pros & Cons

Mobile number trackers have their pros and cons.

Try Mobile Trackers for Families

A mobile tracker is an app that can monitor the features of a target phone. You install the app, like mSpy or uMobix, which syncs the phone’s data to an online platform. It is best for knowing a child’s whereabouts and online activities.

Try mSpy

Price: Approx INR 4,083 per month.

In fact, mobile trackers help safeguard kids. Why? In 2023, 8,9M out of 36,2M child sexual abuse material reported to CyberTipline were uploaded by perpetrators based in India. This is often connected with financial sextortion of children.

With a mobile tracker, you can always know your child’s location and safeguard them from online dangers by recognizing potentially dangerous interactions on your child’s phone.

Pros & Cons

Mobile phone trackers have their pros and cons.

Try uMobix

Phone Directories and Reverse Phone Lookup

A phone directory is a service that shows information about owners of telephone numbers in a specific location.

Indian Yellow Pages can help you find information about a business. You can also search businesses by phone number on Justdial and Sulekha.

If you want to find information about an individual using their phone number, it’s best to use reverse phone lookup tools.

Truecaller offers reverse phone lookups for Indian phone numbers. You can use it to learn the owner of an unknown phone number and determine if they are a scammer.

Pros & Cons

Phone directories and reverse phone lookup tools have their pros and cons.

How to Trace a Phone Number in India Online for Free and Anonymously

You can trace a mobile number in India for free and anonymously by sending the person a link with an IP address tracking code.

Follow these steps to track a phone for free:

1. Find something interesting to share, like a photo, video, or article.
   
2. Copy the media’s link to a website that shortens URLs and adds a tracking code like IPlogger or Grabify.
3. Create a short link on the website.
   
4. Copy the generated link and send it to your target.
   
5. After they click on it, the platform will display their location and the device they used to click on the link.
   

Is it Possible to Track IMEI Number in India?

Unfortunately, the average person cannot track a phone’s location using its IMEI number. The Indian police can trace a phone’s location using its IMEI, but it can take months to recover the phone.

 You will need to give the police the phone’s IMEI to enable tracking. You can identify your phone’s IMEI by dialing *#06# before losing the phone.

Submit your IMEI number to the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) by going to CEIR.gov.in. Then, request that your phone be blocked.

You will be asked to submit your phone’s IMEI, name, address, ID, and the location where you lost your phone. The CEIR will block your phone, and the police will also trace it.

Turn to Your Indian Phone Carrier

Indian phone carriers, including Reliance Jio, Airtel (Bharti Airtel), Vodafone Idea (Vi), BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), and MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) may not help in locating your phone. Still, they can help with blocking your SIM card.

If you lose your Jio phone, you can suspend services on your phone number by going to https://www.jio.com/selfcare/lost-sim/ and entering your phone number.

Call 198 or 121 using an Airtel number to contact Airtel customer care to block your lost Airtel SIM card.

Block a Vodafone Idea (Vi) SIM card online by visiting https://www.myvi.in/block-your-sim. On the other hand, you need to contact the customer care center at 9415024365 with a copy of your FIR after reporting it stolen to the police.

Lastly, MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) can block a lost SIM card when you call them at 1500 or 222221500.

Comparison of the Tools for Cell Phone Tracking

To choose the most appropriate tool for mobile phone tracking in India, compare them in the table below.

Is It Legal to Track a Phone Number Location in India?

It is legal to track a phone number location in India, since location tracking is not covered under compliance requirements in the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019.

Conclusion

Knowing how to track a cell phone in India is helpful for various reasons. First, you can recover a lost or stolen phone using a free brand locator app.

Second, location services by messengers can help you navigate a new location or find a friend at a festival.

If you only have a person’s phone number, a mobile number tracker will find their phone, while a family tracker can keep kids safe in today’s fast-paced digital world. There’s a good reason you’ll need a phone tracker and one of these methods will help you immensely.