Is There An App To Find My Car?

Top 7 Apps to Find Your Parked Car

Have you ever wandered around a crowded parking lot, desperately trying to recall where you left your car? We have all been there, and honestly, few things sour a good afternoon faster. Fortunately there are apps for everything, including finding your own vehicle. Google Maps and Apple Maps both handle this now, and third-party apps go further with more specialized tools.

Below are seven options for anyone who has ever asked, "Is there an app to find my car?" Each entry covers what the app actually does, what it runs on, and where readers have run into trouble with it. Let's dive in.

The problem every app on this list is trying to solve.

Start With What Is Already on Your Phone

Before downloading anything, check the maps app you already use. Google Maps saves a parking location in a few taps: open the app, tap the blue dot showing your current position, and choose "Save your parking." From that same screen you can add a note, take a photo, or set a meter reminder. Apple Maps does something similar on iPhone, and it can save the spot automatically when your car disconnects from CarPlay or Bluetooth.

1. Find My Car

One of the better known options, Find My Car records your position by GPS each time you park, so a single tap navigates you back. The app also gives walking directions from wherever you are standing to the car, which earns its keep when you are shopping or exploring an unfamiliar city.

Reviewers are broadly positive about whether the app works, and consistently unhappy about the advertising. A recurring App Store complaint describes ads carrying a "START" button designed to look like part of the app itself, with users asking for a paid option to remove them.

Read PCMag on using a phone to find your car

Find My Car ratings and reviews as shown on the App Store.

2. Anchor Pointer

Anchor Pointer takes the simplest possible approach. You drop an anchor where you park, and when you come back the app shows a compass arrow and a distance, rather than a map you have to interpret. Because the position is held by GPS on the phone itself, the arrow keeps working without an internet connection, which is why hikers and boaters use it as much as drivers.

Users describe it as simple and accurate, with the compass proving useful well beyond parking lots. The most common request is a better Apple Watch version showing the same arrow and distance the iPhone gives. One caveat comes from the developer rather than reviewers: the parked-car feature is documented as working only in open-air lots, because of the same GPS limitation covered above.

Read the Engadget review

Anchor Pointer uses a compass arrow rather than a map.

3. AR Car Locator

With AR Car Locator, getting back to the car means following an arrow drawn over your camera view. Leave the app running in the background, and when you park you can activate the augmented reality view by holding your phone up ahead of you. Prefer a map? Switch to the Google Maps overlay to see the car pinned instead. You can also snap a photo of the spot and mark it with the parking button, then check parking time from the notification bar.

The app pings you every 30 minutes so the meter does not catch you out. Those frequent reminders are a lot for some people, and running in the background costs battery, so this one asks more of your phone than the simpler options do.

View AR Car Locator on Google Play

4. Parkify

If you forget where you parked often enough to want the phone handling it for you, Parkify is built for exactly that. The app pairs with your car's Bluetooth, and once paired it logs the GPS coordinates every time the ignition goes off, with no tap required. What sets it apart from most of this list is multi-vehicle support, so you can add several cars and switch between them.

Reviewers make one practical point worth repeating: the automatic detection is far more reliable when the app is already running, so a quick glance at your phone before you lock up improves the hit rate. Note also that several unrelated apps use the Parkify name, including a parking rewards app and a subscription management tool, so check the developer before installing.

View Parkify on Google Play

The Parkify listing on Google Play.

5. Parked Car Locator

For Android users, Parked Car Locator is a popular and deliberately plain option. The app uses GPS to pin the spot and then guides you back to it. Nothing needs pairing with your car's Bluetooth. Launch the app before you walk away, and the location is logged and saved for later.

That simplicity is also the complaint. Reviewers who share vehicles report the two limitations that matter most here: no support for tracking more than one car, no shared account between two people, and no automatic saving if you forget to open the app. If those are your circumstances, one of the Bluetooth-based options above will suit you better.

View Parked Car Locator on Google Play

The Parked Car Locator listing on Google Play.

6. Parking Pin

Parking Pin removes the step everybody forgets. Rather than marking the spot yourself, the app saves it quietly in the background using the iPhone's motion coprocessor and Location Services while you get on with your day.

Meter time is covered too. A built-in reminder tracks how long you have left and tells you when to top up. Walking back, you get a compass, directions, and a full-screen map, along with the street name, how long you have been parked, and the distance in feet or meters.

Two things to keep in mind. Continuous GPS tracking costs battery, and accuracy slips indoors or anywhere coverage is weak, so leave Location Services switched on for the best results. On an older iPhone you may still need to drop the pin manually.

Reviewers single out the interface, describing it as unusually well designed for this category, and praise the developer's responsiveness to feature requests.

View Parking Pin on the App Store

The Parking Pin listing.

7. Honk

Honk bundles a parked-car finder with a parking meter alarm. Quit the app after parking and it marks the spot on the map, then a tap brings up step-by-step walking directions back. Its signature trick is the icon badge, which counts down the minutes left on your meter without you opening anything. You can also attach a handwritten memo, a photo, or a voice note to the spot.

Reviews split sharply. Drivers who park at meters daily rate it highly for the ticket savings. Others find the interface genuinely confusing, with corner buttons whose icons give little clue what they do, and the app trying to cover too many jobs at once. Worth knowing before you search: two other companies use the Honk name, a roadside assistance service at honkforhelp.com and a parking payment app called HonkMobile. Neither is this app.

View Honk on the App Store

Where Parking Apps Fall Short

Every app on this list solves the same narrow problem well, and shares the same two blind spots. Knowing where the line sits saves you from expecting the wrong thing on the day it matters.

When You Need the Car Tracked, Not the Space Remembered

If your worry is a crowded mall lot on a Saturday, an app is genuinely enough. If your worry is a car that could be borrowed, towed, or stolen, you need something attached to the vehicle rather than something running on your phone.

An OBD2 GPS tracker pushes into the diagnostic port under the dash, usually in under a minute and with no tools. From that point the car reports its own position. Nothing to tap, nothing to charge, and nothing that stops working because your phone died in a parking garage. Konnect updates every 3 seconds, sends speed and geofence alerts, and keeps up to a year of trip history, so the question changes from "where did I park" to "where is my car right now."

Worth understanding how a tracker differs from the phone-based tools above, our guide to personal GPS trackers covers the hardware side in more depth.

• Nothing to remember The location logs itself every time the car stops, whether or not your phone is in your hand.
• Runs on vehicle power No charging cycle and no dead battery at the worst possible moment.
• Follows the car If the vehicle moves after you walk away, the position moves with it.
• A year of trip history Every stop is on record, which beats trying to recall last Tuesday from memory.
• Lifetime warranty Every Konnect device carries a lifetime manufacturer's warranty.

Conclusion: Pick the Tool That Matches the Problem

Losing track of your car happens to everyone, and the fix is usually free. Start with Google Maps or Apple Maps, because both are already on your phone and both do the job in a few taps. If you want the spot logged without thinking about it, a Bluetooth app such as Parkify earns its place. If you want an arrow rather than a map, Anchor Pointer or AR Car Locator will suit you better.

Just be clear about what these tools do. They remember a parking space. When you need to know where the vehicle itself is, at any moment and after it has moved, that is a hardware job rather than an app job.