Theft and loss are the biggest threats to your Android device and all the precious data contained on it. But for as many sticky-fingered thieves as there are, there are almost as many apps to help keep your phone secure no matter who might be holding it. Prey (free) is one such app, and while its price is unbeatable, it lacks important features and is awkward to use.
The biggest selling point of Prey is that you can secure any device—your laptop, your iPhone, your Android tablet, whatever—with different security features for each platform. Prey offers free accounts limited to three devices with fewer features, but that should be enough to cover just about anything the average Android user requires. Pro accounts start at $5 per month for three devices, which doesn't seem like a great value. For $15 a month you get enhanced Pro features and support for up to 10 devices, and so on up to $399 a month for 500 devices.
Prey Project
You control the anti-theft features of Prey primarily through the Prey Project website, at which you can track your phone's location, capture its IP address, activate its camera, sound an alarm, message the device, and lock the device. Prey will not let you remotely wipe your Android, however, which means that your precious data is stuck in the hands of a thief.
While these are all standard features for anti-theft applications, Prey takes a very different approach to securing your device. Instead of having individual actions like locking your phone or tracking it, Prey lets you select from a menu of actions and then carries out those actions all at once.
Prey is controlled from a website, which shows two columns of options, one labeled "Information to gather" and "Actions to perform." Capturing an IP address is under Information, and remote lock is under Actions, for instance. You choose what you want to happen, and then press Save changes. A toggle at the top of the screen indicates whether your device is OK or MISSING. Once activated—either by SMS or clicking MISSING—it immediately performs whatever actions you have designated.
If this sounds confusing that's because it is. The approach is very different from that of other security apps, which generally have you activate features one at a time. One thing the website has going for it, however, are the great question mark buttons which provide clear explanations.
Prey's approach is advantageous, however, in that since you can do several things at once, making use of the precious time before a thief has a chance to switch out your SIM card or prevent you from communicating with your lost device. But it does mean that if you just want to sound the alarm to find a lost phone, you have to login, change your settings, switch to Missing, press Run Prey, and then change all your settings back once you find your phone.
In future versions, I'd like Prey to enable multiple profiles for different scenarios. One profile could just sound your phone's alarm for when you've lost it in a messy room, and another could activate all the features for when your phone's been stolen.
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