Lookout's Locate Missing Device feature - unreliable outside of the U.S.

ambientdroid

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Mar 14, 2011
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I recently installed Lookout Security in an attempt to find my phone should it be lost, I was having problems getting the 'locate' function to work so I contacted their technical support. Here is the last email I was sent, I've highlighted the most important bit:

Hi XXXXXX,
Your Lookout account shows that some of the SMS messages we send are getting through to your phone and others are not being delivered. See below.
There are issues with SMS messages getting sent from the service we use to some international carriers. When this is the case, locates, screams, and restores won't work as they should. We are working to use another technology beyond SMS for this purpose.
If you run a locate or scream and then immediately run a backup from your phone, the locate/scream should work. That is not the intended usage but it should demonstrate the functionality.
Thanks for using Lookout!
Long story short: if you want to find your phone when lost, do not rely on lookout if you live outside of the U.S. At the very least, test it's functionality a number of times under different circumstances.


The reason I bring this up is that their support forum is flooded with international users saying the likes of "I've lost my phone and Lookout isn't working, HALP!!!!11!1!"

I find it a little troubling that they seem to know there is an issue with certain countries/carriers yet are still happy to let users in these countries install their app giving a false sense of security (assuming they neglect to test it properly). Whereas if they knew there was a problem they might have chosen an app that actually works.

Can anyone suggest a good alternative?
 

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