FamilyTime App Review

Out of the many parental control apps we’ve researched and reviewed, FamilyTime is one of our favorites. It allows you full control over how your child uses their phone. From app blocking to tracking, it does almost everything. It also has some nifty features that can ease the mind of parents of both younger and older kids.

FamilyTime offers a free version and a premium version that starts at $27 per year.

The free version includes a few features:

• Call tracking
• App installation and app usage tracking
• SOS panic button
• Web-based online parental dashboard
• Mobile parental dashboard

The premium version includes those features, plus many more:

• Location tracking and geofence with check-in/checkout alerts
• Contacts viewing
• Internet scheduling (on Android phones only)
• Internet filtering
• Text message tracking
• Bookmark and web history tracking
• Screen time limits by app
• App blocker with alerts for when your child tries to download a blocked app
• Bedtime mode
• Homework mode
• Dinnertime mode
• Phone locking modes
• Content filters
• TeenSafe Drive tool that lets you know when your teen is speeding
• PickMeUp reminders to pick up your child
• FunTime mode
• Watchlist contact alerts to know when your kid is contacting certain people
• TimeBank feature that lets your kids earn screen time

The premium version is priced by how many devices are monitored by the account. Since you can monitor up to five devices, various premium version prices exist. It’s important to note the annual cost since FamilyTime bills annually.

Even at its highest price point, FamilyTime is affordable when compared to other parental control apps like Qustodio.

If you’re not sure you’re going to like FamilyTime, they give you three days to try it out for free. Bark gives you a trial period of seven days, and MMGuardian gives you a whopping 14 days for free, so three days doesn’t seem like a lot of time comparatively. But at least you get to try the app out.

The big problem is that the trial doesn’t let you try out all the premium features. We couldn’t get access to the text messaging monitoring during the trial.

The thing that sets FamilyTime apart from its competitors is the amount of control you have over your child’s media consumption. You can regulate what your child has access to on their phone during meals, bedtime, playtime, and school. You can also limit (only on iOS) or schedule (only on Android) screen time or block dangerous apps for kids and unwanted phone contacts altogether.

Need to talk to your tot, but they’re glued to their device? The pause mode lets you temporarily lock the phone so you can get a word in without getting interrupted by Peppa Pig.

You kid can also roll over unused screen time to use later in a mode called FunTime. This can be a great way to encourage your kiddo to use their phones less on school days and rack up those screen time minutes for the weekends or that long drive to Nanna’s.

FamilyTime lets you track just about anything your kid may do with their phone, with one big exception. You can’t track any social media apps except for YouTube and TikTok. You can block other social media apps but can’t track them.

Still, just YouTube and TikTok tracking is a big step up from Qustodio and SentryPC, which offer no social media tracking. We’d like for it to offer full coverage, though, like Bark.

Beyond monitoring your child, FamilyTime has a few extra features that are super helpful to parents. Two of them are the PickMeUp and SOS buttons. When your kid needs you to come get them, all they need to do is open the app, tap the car icon, and then tap it again. A message is sent to your phone with the location of your child. They can tap the SOS icon to let you know they are in a dangerous situation.

We can think of a lot of times these buttons could be useful, particularly when your child is in a bad situation and needs you ASAP. They can quickly tell you where they are without a lot of typing. We particularly like that if your child is lost they can tell you where they are without knowing the exact location too.

One of the most unique things about the FamilyTime app is the Teen Safe Drive feature that will be available soon. With this nifty tool, the app monitors your teen’s driving and will tell you when your teen drives too fast.

The family locator is also a nice touch. With a press of a button, the locator will present you with a map and the location of all your family members using your FamilyTime account.

While we really like FamilyTime features, using the app was a little disappointing. The first thing that threw us was the ads. Yup. As soon as the app opened, there was a full-screen ad with a little button you had to tap to leave the ad and get to the app.

Another problem was the family location tracker didn’t update as it should. It showed that the kid’s phone was still in the same location an hour after it moved to another location. That’s less than helpful if you want to keep tabs on your child.

If you want to control exactly how your child uses their device throughout the day in multiple ways, then FamilyTime is the best parental control app. Its location tracker isn’t great, but it makes up for it with a wide variety of helpful features.

For our FamilyTime app review, we downloaded the FamilyTime parental control app and FamilyTime Jr. kid’s app and put them to work. We drove the child’s phone all around town, and tried it using various apps and more. We also compared it to over a dozen top parental control brands. For more on how we test products and services, see our methodology page.

• How Can I Protect My Child From Strangers Online?
• Circle Home Plus Review
• OurPact Review
• Net Nanny Review
• Online Safety for Kids in 2022: Parenting Tips for Tech
• What Age Should Kids Get a Phone?
• Guide to Parental Controls