How to use your smartphone as a GPS tracker
It's easy, and requires no software download or installation:
- Test your phone's capabilities
- Before continuing, check that your phone supports the required features by visiting locat.co.za/mtest on your smartphone.
- Create a locat account
- That is, of course, if you haven't done so already.
- Add a smartphone to your account
- Log in and add a GPS Tracker to your account.
- Dial *#06# on your phone to obtain its IMEI. This is a 15/6 digit number, and is not the same as the phone's voice/SMS number.
- When specifying the "Tracker Type", click on the image most closely associated with your phone (Android, Apple, Blackberry or Windows Mobile), or just choose the generic 'smartphone' image.
- After adding the phone, a confirmation email will be sent which contains the registered IMEI as well as a 'Connection Code' that you will use later.
- Activate tracking
- Go to locat.co.za/m on your phone's browser.
- If it is the first time you have visited the site on your phone, the web site will ask you to type in the IMEI of your phone as well as the Connection Code specified in the confirmation email.
- If it is the first time you have visited the site, the phone's browser will ask once (or a number of times) if it's OK to use the phone's GPS. Naturally, you should allow the GPS to be used.
- In future, whenever your phone connects to locat.co.za/m, and for as long as the site remains open, it will transmit its location to locat's servers, and your phone's icon will be visible on the map. To activate the tracking on your phone, simply open the locat.co.za/m site. The rest will happen automatically.
- It is recommended that you create a bookmark (and if your phone supports it, a desktop shortcut) for easy access to the web site in future.
Please note that this will work on most modern smartphones and may also work in some cases on older phones, largely depending on the internet browser. For the service to work, the phone must be connected to the internet, the phone's browser must support the HTML5 Geolocation framework, the phone's GPS must be switched on and enabled, and Javascript and cookies must be enabled.
This free service is provided on an as-is basis as it is experimental and part of an ongoing effort to expand and improve our service offerings. Please report any problems you may experience, but also let us know it you find it working well and any suggestions, as always, are welcome.
