Can we locate a user via user s phone number in Android

Question

Is it possible to locate a user via user s phone number in Android  If an SMS can be sent to the user then we can also retrieve or get to know the location of the user who we sending the SMS   I mean is it possible to program the following functionality    App sends SMS to user s phone App recieves SMS at user s phone from the SMS sender App gets location coordinates of the user s phone App sends location coordinates to the SMS sender via SMS   Also is it possible to retrieve the required location of the user via user s phone number via any other means apart from SMS  EMAIL or CALL    How come Viber and VChat apps are locating user locations via their phone numbers    Here are some apps on the app store    Cell Tracker Mobile Number  amp  Phone Location Mobile Number Locator   Seeking for a reliable answer

User · Answer

Quick answer  No  at least not with native SMS service   Long answer  Sure  but the receiver s phone should have the correct setup first  An app that detects incoming sms  and if a keyword matches  reports its current location to your server  which then pushes that info to the sender

User · Answer

I checked play google com store apps details id and p2l amp hl en They are not locating the user s current location at all  So based on the number itself they are judging the location of the user  Like if the number starts from 240   in US  they they are saying location is Maryland but the person can be in California  So i don t think they are getting the user s location through LocationListner of Java at all

User · Answer

Yess  possible with conditions    If you have your app installed in the user phone and a server app communicating with this app  and there at last one of location service providers activated in the user phone  and some horrible android permissions    In most of android phones there 3 location providers that can give exact location  GPS PROVIDER 1m  or estimated  NETWORK PROVIDER around 2-20m  and PASSIVE PROVIDER  more in LocationManager official documentation            1  App sends SMS to user s phone      Yess  can be server app or you create an android app if you want something automated  so you can do it manually by sending SMS from your default SMS app  I use Kannel  Open Source WAP and SMS Gateway and here  lot of APIs to send SMS            2  App receives SMS at user s phone from the SMS sender      Yess  you can get all received SMS  and you can filter them by sender phone number  and do some actions when your specified sms received  basic tuto here  i do some actions according to the content of my SMS           3  App gets location coordinates of the user s phone      Yess  you can get actual user coordinates easily if one of location providers is activated  so you can get last known location when the user have activated one of location providers  if those disabled or the phone don t have GPS hardware you can use Open Cell Id api to get the nearest cell coordinates 10m-10Km  or Loc8 api but those not available in all around the world  and some apps use IP location apis to get the country  city and province  here the simplest way to get current user location           4  App sends location coordinates to the SMS sender via SMS      Yess  you can get sender phone number and send user location  immediately when SMS received or at specified times in the day    Those 4 yesses for you       Viber and other apps that access to users locations  identify there users by there phone numbers by obligating them to send SMS to the server app to create an account and activate the free service  Ex VOIP    and lunch a service that can    Listen for location changes  GPS  Network or Cell Id  Send user location periodically Ex  each 2 hours  or when user position changed  Stock user locations in file and create a map based on daily locations Receive SMS and update user location Receive server app commend and update user location Send events when user go inside or outside of a defined circle  Listen for what user say and record it or open live voip call  s Maybe anything you think or u want to do         And your application users must accept all of that when installing it  of corse i don t gonna install apps like this because i read permissions before installing    and permissions maybe something like that    lt uses-permission android name  android permission RECEIVE SMS  gt  lt  uses-permission gt   lt uses-permission android name  android permission READ SMS    gt   lt uses-permission android name  android permission SEND SMS  gt  lt  uses-permission gt    lt uses-permission android name  android permission ACCESS FINE LOCATION    gt       lt uses-permission android name  android permission INTERNET    gt   lt -- and more if you wanna more -- gt    The final user will accept for something like that  those permissions of an android app u asked about    This app has access to these permissions   Your accounts -create accounts and set passwords -find accounts on the device -add or remove accounts -use accounts on the device -read Google service configuration  Your location -approximate location  network-based  -precise location  GPS and network-based   Your messages -receive text messages  SMS  -send SMS messages -edit your text messages  SMS or MMS  -read your text messages  SMS or MMS   Network communication -receive data from Internet -full network access -view Wi-Fi connections -view network connections -change network connectivity  Phone calls -read phone status and identity -directly call phone numbers  Storage -modify or delete the contents of your USB storage  Your applications information -retrieve running apps -close other apps -run at startup  Bluetooth -pair with Bluetooth devices -access Bluetooth settings  Camera -take pictures and videos  Other Application UI -draw over other apps  Microphone -record audio  Lock screen -disable your screen lock  Your social information -read your contacts -modify your contacts -read call log -write call log -read your social stream -write to your social stream  Development tools -read sensitive log data  System tools -modify system settings -send sticky broadcast -test access to protected storage  Affects battery -control vibration -prevent device from sleeping  Audio settings -change your audio settings  Sync Settings -read sync settings -toggle sync on and off -read sync statistics  Wallpaper -set wallpaper

User · Answer

The answer is  you can t only through sms  i have tried that approach before   You could fetch the base station IDs  but this won t help you a lot without the location of the base station itself and this informations are really hard to retrieve from the providers   I have looked through the 3 apps you have listed in your question    The App uses WiFi and GPRS location service  quite the same approach as Google uses on the phone  phonesavvy maybe has a base station location database or uses a database retrieved e g  from OpenStreetMap or some similar crowd-based project  The app analyzes just the number for country code and city code  No location there  Dito

[android] Can we locate a user via user's phone number in Android?

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