One might use it in case of theft or having lost a device. Things that would be

Question

One might use it in case of theft or having lost a device.

Things that would be desirable would be

Being able to erase everything on the device (possibly doing a factory reset remotely) and doing this as quickly as possible to keep someone who has a hold of it from getting a hold of your sensitive information.
Being able to call or text the device if it's a phone
Being able to have a message display on the device for anyone who has a hold of it
Being able to see the current location of the device via GPS for yourself and law enforcement authorities

Explanation / Answer

I have been using Prey (next to Android Device Manager) on my phone and desktop. A free account lets you manage 3 devices. You can have messages pop-up, sound an alarm, block the device, and gather information about its status (incl webcam). You cannot wipe it.

Prey is pretty well hidden, I remember some time ago seeing a 'suspicious' startup program on my desktop machine, only to realize after investigation that thas was Prey ;-)

You can password-protect its (de-)installation.

The only downside I have experienced is that it responds slowly. When I set the device status to missing it took almost 15 minutes to activate the warnings on the device (and vice versa). In a real world situation that is only an issue for the siren sound, which you would want to start immediately.

Here is the FAQ

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