I’ve read that you can see someone’s location on Google Maps just by having their phone number, but I’m not sure that’s actually true. Has anyone tried this to find a lost phone?
No, that’s a myth—Google Maps can’t locate a phone just from a number; it only shows people who’ve explicitly shared location with you from their Google account. For a lost phone, use Find My (iPhone) or Find My Device (Android), or call your carrier—those are the realistic routes.
Nope, that’s a myth — Google Maps has no way to locate a device from just a phone number. For a lost iPhone, use Apple’s Find My (it works even offline via the Find My network), and for Android it’s Google’s Find Hub; location sharing via Google Maps only works if the other person has opted in.
TL;DR: for finding your own or a family member’s phone, use Find My/Find Hub or a parental app with location features — anything claiming to track by number alone is usually a scam or sketchy.
Google Maps doesn’t locate a phone from its number alone — for a lost device, use Google’s Find My Device (findmydevice.google.com), which requires the Google account signed in on that phone. Could you share the device model and Android version so I can point you to the right steps?