According to a study by promotionalcodes.org.uk, the average Brit spends almost ten minutes a week looking for their mobile phones. Using the power of multiplication, we can see that adds up to eight hours a year and three weeks over the course of your life (assuming you are born and die with a mobile phone, and your time spent searching doesn’t change over your lifetime… and that mobile phones are still a thing decades in the future).
Regardless, it’s still an interesting statistic. The most common tactic to losing your phone is to call it from another, which 57% of respondents said that they would do immediately, while 35% would search at least five minutes before resorting to the tactic.
If you’re having trouble finding your mobile phone, it might be helpful to have a designated place to deposit it. For example, you might pick up an Avantree Powerhouse charging station, which can charge devices for the whole family and makes it much easier to remember where you left your phone.
Another option is to use a wearable which can make your phone sound an alarm, even if your phone is set to mute. For example, you can do this with an Android Wear smartwatch (like the Moto 360, G Watch R or ASUS Zenwatch) and the app Wear Aware. You can even configure the app to automatically alert you if you walk away from your phone, or if your phone walks away from you!
You can even get Nokia NFC / Bluetooth ‘Treasure Tags‘, which help you find even more commonly lost items (like your keys, or your luggage). Of course, the connection also works the other way around, so you can locate your phone by pressing a button on the tag itself. If you’re just looking for a find-your-phone solution, this is one of the cheapest.
The final way to locate your phone is cheaper than that though – it’s free. Using the Android Device Manager, Find my iPhone or Microsoft’s Find My Phone, you can see where your phone was last spotted on a map, send a text to the phone, or just get it to ring. This is a good option for finding your phone both in and outside your home.