Name: Google Family Link
Rating: 4.5 (19978 reviews)

Updating

Google Family Link

Google LLC

Released: 2018-02-26

Free 0%

Version 2.0.23540

Free 0%

Version 2.0.23540

Released: 2018-02-26

-13

#80 in Top Free Apps > Utilities

iPhone Screenshots

Description

Google Family Link is a parental controls app that helps you keep your family safer online. We know that every family's relationship with technology is unique, so we've designed tools like Family Link that give you the flexibility to choose the right balance for your family and help them create healthy digital habits. Family Link's easy-to-use tools allow you to understand how your child is spending time on their device, see their device location, manage privacy settings and more.

With Family Link, you can:

Establish digital ground rules

• Set screen-time limits – Family Link lets you set downtime for your child's device and time limits for apps, so that you can help them find a healthy balance.

• Guide them to age-appropriate content – approve or block apps that your child wants to download. Family Link also allows you to choose the right YouTube experience for your child: a supervised experience on YouTube or YouTube Kids.

Manage and secure your child's account

• Protect their privacy – permissions management in Family Link allows you to make meaningful choices about your child's data. View and manage permissions for websites and extensions accessed through Chrome, as well as apps downloaded on your child's device.

• Secure their account – Family Link gives you access to manage your child's account and data settings. As a parent, you can help change or reset your child's password if they forget it, edit their personal information or even delete their account if you feel that it's necessary.

Stay connected on the go

• See where they are – it's helpful to be able to find your family when they're on the go. With Family Link, you can locate your children on one map, as long as they're carrying their device.

• Get notifications and alerts – Family Link delivers critical notifications, including when your child arrives at or leaves a certain location. You can also ring devices and view the device's remaining battery life.

Important information

• Family Link's tools vary depending on your child's device. See a list of compatible devices at https://families.google/familylink/device-compatibility/

• While Family Link helps you manage your child's purchases and downloads from Google Play, they won't need approval to install app updates (including updates that expand permissions), apps that you have previously approved or apps that have been shared in Family Library. In addition, purchase approvals will only apply when your child makes a purchase through Google Play's billing system, and will not apply to purchases made through alternative billing systems. Parents should regularly review their child's installed apps and app permissions in Family Link.

• You should carefully review the apps on your child's supervised device, and disable those that you don't want them to use. Note that you may not be able to disable some pre-installed apps such as Play, Google, etc.

• To see the location of your child or teen's device, the device must be turned on, recently active and connected to the Internet through data or Wi-Fi.

• Family Link parental controls are only available for supervised Google Accounts. With supervised Google Accounts, children get access to Google products like Search, Chrome and Gmail, and parents can set up basic digital ground rules to supervise them.

• While Family Link provides tools to manage your child's online experience and keep them safer online, it does not make the Internet safe. Family Link cannot determine the content on the Internet, but it can give parents the opportunity to make decisions about how their child spends time on their device and determine what path to online safety looks best for your family.

What's New in Version 2.0.23540

Family Link has been redesigned to have a more streamlined look with three tabs (Highlights, Controls and Location) and new features like 'Today only' screen-time limits and location notifications, so that you know when your child arrives or leaves a place. This release also includes some bug fixes and general UX improvements.

Seller

Name

Google LLC

URL

http://families.google.com/familylink

Information

Developer

Google LLC

Version

2.0.23540

Size

193.1 MB

Game Center

VPP Device Licensing

Yes

Rating

Rated: 4+

Compatibility

iOS 13.0 or later

Devices

iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone SE (2nd generation), iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone SE (3rd generation), iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (6th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro, iPad Pro (Cellular), iPad Pro (9.7-inch), iPad Pro (9.7-inch) (Cellular), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (10.5-inch), iPad Pro (10.5-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro (11-inch), iPad Pro (11-inch) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air, iPad Air (Cellular), iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 (Cellular), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Air (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini Retina, iPad mini Retina (Cellular), iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 (Cellular), iPad mini 4, iPad mini 4 (Cellular), iPad mini (5th Generation), iPad mini (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (7th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi), iPad Air (4th Generation) (Wi-Fi + Cellular), iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi, iPad (8th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad (9th Generation), iPad (9th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini (6th Generation), iPad mini (6th Generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air (5th generation) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Pro11FourthGen, iPad Pro11FourthGenCellular, iPad ProSixthGen, iPad ProSixthGenCellular, iPad TenthGen, iPad TenthGenCellular, iPod touch (6th Generation), iPod touch (7th generation)

Languages

English, Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Basque, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Zulu

App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

4.5 of 5 (19,978 Ratings)

App Store: Customer Reviews

2022-12-12

Latest update has crashed my app !

What an f’ing joke this app is now after the latest update … all I get is “something unexpected happened please retry” … and so the circle begins … going nowhere fast. Fix the bloody thing or revive the previous working & user friendly version !!

2022-12-08

Issues

This app has been a waste of my time I tried to put my son in but I tried everything but it didn’t work

2022-12-08

Worst App

You have to constantly go in and save the setting’s everyday.

Set limits and the next day no limits are set.

It’s useless.

2022-11-19

Useless After the Last Update

My daughter can spend limitless amount of time on her phone after the last update. The app is useless now. Well done Google!

2022-11-15

Awful upgrade downgrade

Been using the app for over a year and found it relatively intuitive to use, the latest upgrade is a leap backwards, were nothing is easy to find. I'm a developer by trade and this smacks of the developer having no understanding of the actual needs of the user and being more focused on acheiving a particular cosmetic appearance regardless of the impact to the usability or the end user. terrible.

2022-11-13

Bring previous UI

It’s a mess at the moment. Nothing at your fingertips. Seriously bad “downgrade”

2022-11-13

Bring back the last version of the app

The new version (as at Nov 22) is really tricky to use and keeps crashing!! Bring back the version prior to this one please while you sort the bugs.

2022-11-11

Terrible update

The most recent version is a good example on how to put incompetent designer and ux and pm together to produce a version overly complicated

If you have thought for once that this app is for parents (i.e. not young tech savies) then you would never ever create such crap that looks beautiful but super super complicated

WHAT A STUPID UPDATE THAT IS!!

2022-11-10

Where’s the refresh??

Trying to track my daughter when she’s on school bus as we collect her from bus stop - your updated app no longer has a refresh option!

2022-11-10

Horrible update

The recent is a huge change in single update. It is made over complicated and not very user friendly.. people with children and busy life will be left struggling at times to figure out simple task which were done easily.

Responsible app makers should gradually change the app features and not overnight. Really unhappy and frustrated after the upgrade.

I hope this is not repeated in the future.

2022-11-06

Update not great

This app has been a god send with being able to approve apps and change bed timings depending on behaviour. Was a 5 star app previously. New update has given a new lay out and I’m struggling to find the ‘lock now’ button. Also bonus time doesn’t work/connect with the kids phones. Shouldn’t have fixed what wasn’t broken!!

2022-11-05

this is a stupid idea

im sorry but if you get your child a phone and want to constantly control what they're doing on it; what's the point in buying them a phone in the first place? you're basically just teaching your kids that you cant respect their privacy.

your kids should be able to use their phones freely, without having to worry about an adult watching what they do the whole time whilst they're on it.

2022-11-04

Annoyed at them changing the layout today

I have found this app very useful in keeping an eye on what my children are up to, and limiting access to certain apps and controlling how long they spend on their devices, and when the devices can be locked time for bed at a recent change to the layout of this app. No longer shows what time the device will lock when you grant bonus time. Slightly annoying they’ve made it so that you have to press more buttons to get to the options you want. it seems typical of Google to take something that works and make it more complicated. and less convenient.

2022-10-28

Over complicated

Wasted hours trying to set this up to no avail. Have now deleted.

2022-10-19

Very good application

Very good application I advice parents to spent time understanding it’s functionalities

2022-10-14

Wspólne ustawienia

Aplikacja sama w sobie nie jest zła lecz posiada bardzo poważny mankament. Ustawienia limitów jak i pory snu odnoszą się do wszystkich urządzeń które posiada dziecko. Przykładowo jeśli posiada telefon do komunikacji alarmowej i tablet do rozrywki to gdy ustawimy No porę snu na 17-ta to telefon służący do połączeń alarmowych także zostanie zablokowany.

2022-10-08

Need access pin for parental app

This app is really great providing great control over my sons phone. BUT We need an access code for the parental app as he can go onto my phone and change the settings to remove locks and bedtime schedules. Please can we have a simple pin for accessing the parental app?

2022-10-08

Don’t waste your time

Absolutely terrible app!! Set up okay on my kids tablet! All parental controls set up! Yet according to this ridiculous app for my phone I haven’t set up any parental controls on my kids tablet…. Utterly useless help system and no possible way of linking!! Wasted hours trying to set up what should be god damn done in 10 minutes!! I’ll be looking elsewhere for my parental control apps thanks!

2022-09-18

Intermittently stops working

Works nicely, when it works. Intermittently stops working when it doesn’t feel like it.

2022-08-30

Supervised YouTube: kids still can’t cast TV

Overall very happy with this app however the supervised YouTube app is still in a state where my son is unable to cast his own videos to his room TV this is getting very annoying I’m having to cast a queue of videos for him on my phone and my account. Considering Chromecast is a product of Google I’m baffled as to why it’s not compatible with its own equipment and don’t understand why if the child is able to watch a video on his tablet what’s the difference allowing it to be casted to TV? . Please fix Google.

2022-08-21

Won’t let me change to adult account

My sister is now 15, and I shouldn’t be able to monitor her account anymore, nor do I need to- however it won’t give me the option to change her account to adult, nor let me delete the family link as it ‘has a child under 13’ linked. There are so many unnecessary restrictions that it won’t let me turn off, frustrating both her and I. Just keep an eye on your kids instead, this is a headache when they grow up.

2022-08-06

Great for keeping track

I love this App my son has a data only sim and you control the full phone from this app it’s brilliant

2022-07-26

iPhone app won’t recognise child’s chromebook

I have a gmail account. I have set up my child’s gmail account. We set restrictions when setting up the chromebook. Maybe this was the wrong order of doing things, because I am now trying to connect it to the iPhone app and I cannot get past the first page. The instructions say go to “people” then parental controls in settings. There is no “people”- there is “manage other people” but that’s not it. The “parental controls” on the chromebook brings up a kids version of the app and states that I am the family manager. Why won’t the iPhone app connect? Yes I have iOS 11 or above.

2022-07-12

There has been something wrong

Hello. I’d like to make a complaint, I’m sorry but I don’t have the app but somehow my phone has been messed with, my next door neighbour has this app and for somehow she’s controlling my phone even though I don’t have the app. Thanks to that I cannot go on google. I am truly sorry but I felt as though I should tell you this

2022-07-08

Problems

Removed account from my app on iPad. But now the app won’t delete from phone. Stuck. Tried downloading on my iPad then reconnect but wont allow it. Child’s app now stuck on phone. Can not delete google account, or factory reset

2022-07-04

Fine when it works shocking when it doesn’t

When it was first set up it was perfect. But then the niggles started. Close to uninstalling because we are having so many issues.

2022-07-02

Trash app

This app is so awful, it is absolutely hard to use and it takes away all the privacy from a poor kid ( and I can’t even download twitter )

2022-06-20

Tracking does not work -Rest is spot on

Pure and simple the GPS tracking doesn’t work. Went through all the steps. If the kid doesn’t have their phone “on” it doesn’t even register their last “active” location. It just says it can’t find their location. Stupid. Most of the time a kid’s phone will be in their bag/pocket and inactive because they’re going somewhere or simply at school. The rest of the app works great so far. But as the GPS was my main reason for getting the app, I’m looking at other options.

2022-06-19

…

Al the time frozen, lack of options to control kids accounts, takes me to browser to do anything in family link. No point of this app with YouTube kids on the board. Better not to install any of them save you some time and don't let your child to watch anything on youtube kids. Full of rubbish, abusive contents, you can't control it properly. No approved contents option, no option to log on tv at all. I experienced for a short time when we had approved section but they removed it, and this Family link is not replacing it.

2022-05-22

DELETE IT

I HATE THIS APP DELETE SAY BYE TO YT TIKTOK DESCORD OMEGLE AND EVERYTHIGN THERE GONE HIDE THIS BEFORE ITS TO LATE I DONT LOVE MY PERANTS ENYMORE I ALREADY BANGED MY HEAD AGENTS THE WALL AND MADE A BRUISE I COULD NOT CARE LESS I HATE MY LAPTOP INFACT LAPTOP MORE LIKE SCHOOL LAPTOP IVE LIGIT GANNA THROW THIS OUT MY WINDOW THIS IS NOT A JOKE DELETE IT NOW

2022-04-14

Very good app.

Does the job perfectly

2022-04-05

Sounds great- unless your an iPhone user

Can’t use on iPads or iPhones so no good for us in this household.

2022-04-03

Not working on school chrome books

An escape mechanism for the child

2022-03-16

So extreme it would be easier not to give kids tech

Stopped daughter from doing homework andaccessing online school work. Blocked stupid things and it became impossible to override, even putting minimum restrictions on her account.

I was sent an email at rhe start if the yearas she was due to turn 13 saying Family Link would no longer control content she could see…

Nearly 3 months later and it’s still causing problems!

2022-02-20

Not very accurate

Not very accurate it’s saying we are at flats 24 but we are at flat 19, if I was tracking her I wouldn’t find her

2022-02-13

Used to work and now doesn’t

It has stopped working and won’t let me connect to kids account anymore 🤷‍♀️

2022-02-07

Such a bad app

This app is horrendous…

2022-01-20

It doesn't work on iOS

This app is useless and misleading. It doesn't show any activity data ftom my child's device. I bought a Chromebook for my child thinking it would be safe for my child to use while I have control thought this app. Utterly disappointed, I should have bought an iPad instead.

2022-01-09

Awful - Google need to be held accountable for this

Nothing but issues since using family link. Can now not add child’s email account to iPad. Never had issues before. No way to get an answer from Google as they only exist virtually! Lots online about this. Only way to rectify is to delete child’s account!

2022-01-04

Good for confirmation, terrible for kids logging in

The good bit is that it is easy to confirm the kids requests. The bad thing is that it’s impossible for kids to save their progress in games. Google insists that children under 13 have a kids account but that account can’t be used to login to Google play games!!

2022-01-02

Not fit for purpose - do not download if your kids use YouTube on a TV

Was forced to add family link to child’s account. This seems to mean their account can no longer sign in to YouTube on our TV or Sky Q box. YouTube works fine for them on tablet/phone/PC. So unless you want the YouTube algorithm pushing you video based on your child’s viewing, don’t do it! It’s fundamentally broken…

2021-12-28

im not thrilled

Make your app more compatible for families with Samsung and kids who have iPhone 8plus and below fanks

2021-12-26

Ruined my child’s tablet

Has made the table virtually unusable and now won’t even let me redeem a gift card. Literally serves no purpose any more but can’t seem to uninstall it.

2021-12-24

Really happy

Fantastic for Christmas! So important for me to manage their screen times and check what their going on.

2021-12-23

Rubbish

Impossible to pay for app

Payment method is on account

Doesn’t work

2021-12-20

Don’t use this app!

Locked us out of a new chrome book - can’t get support - no online help we can find - my daughters new chrome book stuck on lock screen - very dissatisfied with lack of support - a chat advisor could probably sort us out but this is not available- idea is sound but make one mistake & your laptop is useless!

2021-12-09

Really buggy.

I have found this app to be super annoying. The bedtime schedule resets multiple times every day so I’m having to set it up each time I find it has reset itself. Location settings keep resetting too so again I’m in a constant loop of turning it on only to find 30 minutes later it’s off again. Blocked apps reset so they’re unblocked etc. The list is endless. I’ve deleted the app and reinstalled - that doesn’t work. What’s the point of this app?

2021-11-11

Deleted

My google account was literally deleted for me being underage it says my email doesn’t exist and everything since it was almost a year ago. Can someone tell me how to get it back

2021-10-23

Dreadful

Worst app ever

2021-10-23

Destructive

Set up Family link on my 9 year old sons account (he loves watching Minecraft videos on YouTube)

Next thing I know, it’s refusing to let him log into YouTube on either his LG TV or Fire-stick.

Trying to log in on either just gives me a something gone wrong message.

Even worse our Samsung TV now refuse to load YouTube (so I can’t even use a different account with it).

Once Family Link is enabled, it is impossible to remove.

The only solution I can find is to delete my sons account and then create an adult account, which defeats the whole point of the exercise)

Goggle must have known that Family link would have done this to non Goggle devices.

2021-10-17

Ok but one big and one medium issue

The big issue: you can’t add any other accounts, for example, an older child’s to a phone with the linked account even if there’s permission

The medium issue: you can’t see screen time total or by device, which is annoying if multiple devices are on one account

2021-09-18

Location service is not good

I thought I finally found a great family app, the monitoring of the apps etc is great but I wanted it most for the location service. It keeps saying it cannot connect although I know the kids are using their phone. It says I have to update location service, I do this and it does not work. Sometimes it works but that is nor very often. It uses google maps and it just don’t makes sense that this works so badly?

2021-09-04

Great apart from….

The location tracking doesn’t work. Please don’t rely on this app to safely track your loved ones - it will let you down.

Apart from that, it’s really good. Full control over what the kids can (and can’t) do on their phones with lots of options to limit time. You will need a separate proper tracking app alongside it though.

2021-08-31

Family link

I will recommend this application to every parent a thousand times. It’s very awesome and teaches your children discipline while monitoring all they do. Best application to ever

2021-07-05

Worst app o ever TRIED to use!!

Iv spent over an hour on my device and my daughters device, trying to set up a family link so I can monitor her phone, finally as I thought I was getting somewhere it then says not for children under 13??? It doesn’t say this information on the description!! So Iv wasted my time setting up stupid gmail accounts going back and forth with passwords for nothing!! Not user friendly and just another way of getting peoples details off them!! USELESS !!!

2021-06-02

Great app

Love the way it gives you the knowledge you need to protect your kids and diverts you to page after page to get where you need to get brilliant I would keep click and getting re directed but my phone needs to get carpet

2021-05-22

Developers wise up!

Any savvy child can work out how to circumvent all those restrictions. Mine downloaded a “secure folder” app which didn’t need parental approval and stored copies of all the apps they wanted continued access to. This meant they could dodge the time limits set on phone use and have unrestricted time on phone.

Flagged this to the developers and no improvement made yet.

I’d shop around for a more solid parental control app. If your child is 6yo and below this app works for anyone above with good search/knowledge of internet they’ll figure out soon enough the loopholes!

2021-04-19

It's good but frustrating

My son has defeated it on his phone by stopping certain processes in start up (not 100% sure how). More probs for his chromebook I have to add parental pin and sign in every time he uses it. Can't stop this happening after trying all the options making use of laptop possible only when I am there and have to enter my complex password. Finally he's 12 and can watch some you tube but in chromebook it blocks all access as he's not 13 yet he can access on phone. Good thing is unlike other apps it does seem to work for timers and scheduling.

2021-01-21

So intuitive !

Wow. I’m a complete Luddite in technology. This app is sooo easy to use. Prompts me about things I’d never even considered. I feel she is safe with the controls. Love the monitors and location on there.

2021-01-19

Cannot use/link school account

The app itself is fab, I can control what my child accesses... but you CANNOT ADD A SCHOOL ACCOUNT if family link is enabled on a device.

If you are thinking of getting family link to monitor your child’s activity especially during home schooling or remote learning you CANNOT do it with family link.

I’ve been chatting to app support today and have been told that school accounts using google classroom/ meets/hangouts etc cannot be used if a device is set up with a personal google account that has family link supervision.

Either you need to delete family link and have no supervision or you delete your personal account and use the school account BUT you still CANT use family link as you are unable to supervise an account managed by someone else (I.e the school) so even if you’re prompted to add a School account as a user your request will not be completed. Basically you can’t add a school account if you have family link!

I am really unhappy and the developers need to address this, create a working option to add a school account.

2021-01-17

Google Classrooms doesn’t work with this!

I have used family link for the last year and have really liked it for the controls it gives me over my kids Samsung tablet BUT our kids school like many in the country at the moment are now using google classrooms for homeschooling and this does not work with Family Link - really frustrating (basically won’t let you log in despite having the option of adding a school account it just won’t work) - have 2 very good tablets that the kids cannot use for their school work! This really needs to be sorted asap with current lockdown and everyone homeschooling.

2020-12-09

Useful but slow

A useful app to control how and when your child uses their device. Good features are time limits for apps and usage times for the whole device. Unfortunately, the app is sometimes 12 hrs out of sync so you can’t see what your child has done recently - it really needs to refresh more frequently to be really useful.

2020-11-16

Add a password so that my child won’t open the app

When ever I forget my phone opened on the table my child goes to family link and change some settings

Please add a password on the app so that I can open it myself

2020-11-05

Poor

I’m a parent. This app has some useful features like setting time limits and location tracking but it sometimes doesn’t refresh for several hours, so monitoring how much gaming time your kid has had on the same day is virtually impossible. The tracker only works half the time too and you can’t specify times when different categories of apps can or cannot be used. I will be opting for one of the paid parental monitoring platforms like Norton or Qustudio.

2020-10-21

DONT DOWLOAD and waste your time - kids iPhone

The google family link child part of the app you don’t have the option to download onto a iPhone ! Doesn’t work on a IPHONE even if you download Chrome and remove Safari as a workaround they can just sign out. Have full access to the internet This has to be the worst app ever. No protection for your child. Can’t believe that can’t make it work for a iphone! DON’T download even though you can add the parent app!! Throw your iPhone in the bin! If you want to protect your child!

2020-10-04

Does not have the feature that I need

Was sent to download this app to manage my child’s account and all I wanted to do was to configure outlook for my son. After several hours of research, trials and unsuccessfullness, I was guided to download this app to be able to manage his account. Well, no option for that. For his school I had set up this email. Now have to find a different server that will allow me to configure outlook so he wont have use a browser allvthe time to check his emails..

2020-07-19

Nightmare trying to deactivate

I’ve had this app which I like for a considerable length of time. I no longer require it and have tried several times to deactivate it from my child’s phone as well as from mine. It has been a nightmare.

Please can clear directions be given for me to successfully do this.

2020-07-07

Managing Chromebooks

I have recently started using this application to manage my children’s Chromebooks. Once you get used to where settings are this is a great application for controlling activities. Like similar apps there is always room for improvement (eg it would be good to see web browsing history) and hope this will come quickly.

2020-05-26

Very cool!!

Helping managing kids activities on phones that doesn’t have a built in kidsmode. Even if it did, this app is fairly useful and offers some neat benefits over native kidsmode or guided access.

2020-04-08

Great app but does not work with dark mode

I really like this app, it allows us to easily manage our kids time on their tablets.

It’s been pretty much flawless, however there is a bug currently where if your phone is set to dark mode and you set an app limit you cannot see the times in the spin controls. The times are all white the same as the window background. Please fix this and it’s 5 stars!

2020-03-31

This is an awful app

I’m very disappointed in this app, I never write reviews on apps but this app is so bad I felt the need to warn everyone that it’s a huge waste of time. I’m a parent and this is such a restricting app and it can bring trust issues into your child’s life. If you want to get this app then your child will probably rebel against you. Not only is this a huge waste of time but it ruins your child’s life because they can’t do anything they want. This is a really terrible app so if you want to be a good parent then you should give your child some freedom in life. I cannot stress how disgusting this app is. I hope you take my advice and don’t waste your time on this app.

2020-02-20

Brilliant app!

This is a fantastic tool for parents as it enables you to be in control of your child phone. I am a iPhone user my son owns an Alcatel. The app works really well across the different platforms and it makes my life really easy in terms of accessing my son device and customise it to my liking. The most amazing thing is that it’s completely free of charge! Highly Recommended.

2020-01-27

Amazing app

Came across this app by accident when I was setting up my child’s first “adult” tablet, and it is the best app for parental controls I have ever used, and what’s better is it’s absolutely free to use and easy to set up. Hands down beats any built in parental controls on the numerous devices I have tried in the past. Only thing I’d like to see in the app is break times...you can set a daily limit, but at weekends when my child has a longer limit an automatic break time would be ideal, rather than me having to lock the tablet from my phone. If that were to happen then it would be 5 stars.

2019-09-21

Great idea but with Flaws

The idea behind the app is great it allows me some control over my child’s phone such as, when he can turn it on when he has to turn it off and what he can access. It also so allows me to see his usage and location. Or it should!

In reality, half the time I can’t see his usage or his location, and even when his phone is locked there is a loophole which allows him to go to emergency access his contacts, access his messages then follow a link on one of his messages into a game which then gives him full access to the phone.

If these flaws were fixed the app would be 5 *.

2019-09-15

I love it!

I love this application! It allows you to create an account for your child and set the appropriate control from one place.

You can set the app, tv and movies allowed age. Control (approve/reject) new app installation , set screen time & bedtime and even monitor how much time they spent in each app! Very easy to use and to setup

2019-09-09

So far so good

Using this to add safety to my kids chrome books. Working in IT for two decades and Data security for the last few years, I can say that this lets me let my 2 10 year olds to have independence whilst we have peace of mind that there is added safety. Read a few bad reviews but as I run Google for 9 schools, I knew it would work. Good job (again) google 👍

2019-09-05

Really useful in setting limits

Great tool for setting boundaries and keeping kids safe online. Easy to change time allowed or restrictions when needed. Reassuring to be able to see your child’s location and know that they can’t access inappropriate material.

2019-08-06

Location and activity tracking no longer work

The app was great at first but I no longer can see my child’s app activity nor location (despite battery saver not on, the device is connected, gps is working). Seen this issue flagged here and on google support by many other people months ago. Need to find another location tracker app as she’s becoming more independent spending more time outside and I need to see where she is for my peace of mind.

2019-07-20

Don’t use it!!!

I am so frustrated right now. This is the very opposite of parental control because this app doesn’t allow me, the parent, to choose what my daughter can or cannot have on her phone. Who are you to decide what is suitable for MY child???!! And as the cherry on the cake I now cannot remove the app from her phone without deleting her google account which I don’t want to do. I can’t tell you how annoyed I am that this has taken up some of our precious family time and I can’t even remove it. Very poor.

2019-06-26

Working well

Could do with the ability to switch off during several day parts eg school hours and each app restricted to certain times too .

2019-06-13

Why do I have to give card payment details?

So, it was a pain not being able to use any email address but a google mail address, so anyway I set one up for me and one for my child. But then it wouldn’t let me go any further until I added my debit / credit card details. I wasn’t happy to do this so I deleted the app straight away. As it’s meant to be a free app, why on earth do they need card payment details? A big no no for me. Waste of time

2019-06-02

Horrid

I got this app as my sons had a Samsung and me an iPhone- I hated it from the off, I’m not a big Samsung fan and would rather have just had two iPhones so I could do the family account that way, however this app was meant to be just as easy.

The whole process has been horrid, having to create a google account for my child just to set up the app was a hassle, then the app setup is a hassle too.

The app wasn’t very helpful other than to stop my son playing till all hours in the morning, the layout and functionality is poor.

I also found that adverts have been popping up on the Samsung phone since installing this app which eat at the data and are just annoying in general- not needed or wanted. I also found I couldn’t do anything on the Samsung in settings due to the app being the admin on the phone now- a password override should be in place.

Uninstalling was a nightmare as you have to remove the account from both phones but if you don’t do it from the kids phone first it’s a nightmare. Not a great experience and would not recommend it or use it again

2019-06-01

Bug stops you before even start

As per other reviews, I got as far as the “parental consent” screen that requires your credit card. Details entered, but the "accept” button is completely unresponsive. Have had to abort and will look for a proper, child-specific email provider. Just annoying that Google now has sensitive information about my 7 year old, and it’s all for nothing. No conspiracy, just very shoddy coding from Google’s developers, and they seem to be testing it on the public rather than alpha testing properly in-house, first.

2019-05-07

Awful

Faced similar issues after battling to create gmail accounts and having to input wrong ages to make them work?!?!? Tried to sign in with phone number it told me my phone number wasn’t linked to an account despite three steps earlier telling me I had two gmail accounts with that number.

Due to creating one child’s email that automatically created a family group which now I’ve had to delete completely and google only allow you to switch once every 12 months. This means that as the new family account set me up as a member rather than a parent I cannot now use it for a year. It’s like it was designed by various committees who refused to talk to each other.

2019-03-08

Brilliant app for parents

This does exactly what I needed. I control apps, need my permission to download, parents can block social media apps including pre installed Facebook. GPS tracker tells me exactly where my son is, it text alerts activity if required. Really recommend it if you want your child to have a phone but want to protect from accessing social media etc

2018-11-22

Typical google poor quality

Honestly, apart from searching the web what other reliable software can google actually build (google for google graveyard for a sad list of their poor track record).

This is a great example of their shockingly poor quality design. All we want to do is to manage our 6 year olds account. And indeed the family link app worked, we've linked the account.. Great?

Sadly not, if we then go to the child's account we find its disabled because the age is under 13...yes that's why we want to make it. The only option is to say the date is wrong and they are over 18. Isn't the obvious thing to say if the age is too low, link to the family link app????? But no, there's nothing, no help, nothing

So now we're totally stuck. Google account is locked and will be deleted in 29 days. Thanks google. Really really helpful.

2018-10-06

App crashes - now working but chromebook not yet supported

Can’t rate it as I can’t get into it after downloading the app. A tad frustrating. Seems to download and open fine on Samsung phone but not iPhone 5S even though I have the latest software.

Update: the above is now fixed so I can open it on my iPhone. Daughter has chromebook and Samsung phone. Installed app on her phone and tried to connect but as she is signed in on chromebook it won’t connect as chromebook not yet supported. How frustrating. Cannot connect her phone or chromebook. If I try on phone I have to set up a new account (email) but ensure her current gmail account is not attached to her phone. Grrr!

2018-08-27

Very disappointing waste of time

Multiple Problems - I have the latest version of the app but can’t complete the account creation process. The only thing I’ve succeeded in doing is giving Google my children’s birthdays and my credit card details.

I cannot complete the credit card process. Buttons do not always respond and the app seems to crash in the middle of collecting personal credit card data - which is very worrying!! I have visited the help section but cannot find any way to contact tech support.

The disclaimer says the account I am trying to create for my child will be exactly the same as an adult account - “not designed for children”. What’s the point?

Cannot add an existing account. Why not?

Looking at other reviews, Apparently it doesn’t work on Chromebooks.

The app requires the child’s full birthdate details - why? Surely they just need year and month.

Summary: I think the point of this app is for Google to collect more personalised information in order to target advertising to children.

From a parent’s perspective, when compared to Apple’s brilliant Family features, this Google app is a poorly designed waste of time, developed by a legal and marketing team that has no idea what parents need. I wasted 45 minutes on this rubbish!

2018-06-18

Best app on my phone

I love this app, controlling my kids internet use from my phone is great, shout the kids no reply ! simply lock the phone and you see them in 30 seconds. Seriously though this app is fab I put in set times for internet use and can also see my child’s location (when device is on) I also have to authorise any downloads gives me peace of mind and works great

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App Store: Customer Ratings

Ratings & Reviews

Latest update has crashed my app !

Issues

Worst App

Useless After the Last Update

Awful upgrade downgrade

Bring previous UI

Bring back the last version of the app

Terrible update

Where’s the refresh??

Horrible update

Update not great

this is a stupid idea

Annoyed at them changing the layout today

Over complicated

Very good application

Wspólne ustawienia

Need access pin for parental app

Don’t waste your time

Intermittently stops working

Supervised YouTube: kids still can’t cast TV

Won’t let me change to adult account

Great for keeping track

iPhone app won’t recognise child’s chromebook

There has been something wrong

Problems

Fine when it works shocking when it doesn’t

Trash app

Tracking does not work -Rest is spot on

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DELETE IT

Very good app.

Sounds great- unless your an iPhone user

Not working on school chrome books

So extreme it would be easier not to give kids tech

Not very accurate

Used to work and now doesn’t

Such a bad app

It doesn't work on iOS

Awful - Google need to be held accountable for this

Good for confirmation, terrible for kids logging in

Not fit for purpose - do not download if your kids use YouTube on a TV

im not thrilled

Ruined my child’s tablet

Really happy

Rubbish

Don’t use this app!

Really buggy.

Deleted

Dreadful

Destructive

Ok but one big and one medium issue

Location service is not good

Great apart from….

Family link

Worst app o ever TRIED to use!!

Great app

Developers wise up!

It's good but frustrating

So intuitive !

Cannot use/link school account