FamiSafe Review 2024: Is It a Reliable Spy App?

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In this FamiSafe review, we check it out to see if it lives up to the hype, how it compares to competitors and if it can indeed offer parents a good night’s sleep. After all, the internet’s super connectivity, albeit highly advantageous, can also be dangerous for children.

Protecting kids from potential online dangers, be it accessing inappropriate content, cyberbullying or online predators, is a no-brainer. To the rescue is a range of products designed to help parents monitor and control their children’s online behavior — among them FamiSafe.

FamiSafe Pros and Cons

Here’s a brief rundown of FamiSafe’s main pros and cons.

What Is FamiSafe?

The FamiSafe app is parental control software — a 24/7 online safety guard that lets you know exactly what your child is accessing and viewing. It provides content and web safety, as well as a clever little location service with driving behavior functionality.

FamiSafe’s AI-powered features enable you to set rules, view activity reports and block certain apps — whether indefinitely or for a specified time. Not too keen on your six-year-old having carte blanche on YouTube? This is where you make the rules.

FamiSafe can also detect inappropriate pictures (graphic images such as nudity, violence and the likes) and social apps. Enjoy a full view of your child’s browser history, with the option to set web filters.

Most parental apps have a geo-fencing tool. Take Eyeze, for example. Its geo-fencing feature lets you set physical boundaries for your child, and will send you a notification when they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be.

FamiSafe takes this a step further. You can check their live location and location history, create geofences and view reports of their driving behavior, such as speeding and hard braking — great for parents of a teen with wheels.

Is FamiSafe Reliable?

A flurry of parental control apps are hitting the market — some of them pack a punch while others fall short of the brief. Which category does FamiSafe belong under, and is FamiSafe legit?

FamiSafe is a product of Wondershare, a China-based AI-powered software company founded in 2003. It has a range of video editing, PDF editing, data recovery, diagram and graphics solutions (among them Filmora, UniConverter, Recoverit and PDFelement) under its considerable belt, and a user footprint of over 1 million across over 150 countries. So, the company comes with a healthy degree of credibility.

At the end of the day, FamiSafe is, of course, a spy app — and spy apps come with pertinent ethical implications. It is, ultimately, an invasion of privacy. However, this particular reviewer believes that if the well-being of your child is the primary motivation behind using family protection software, then have at it.

A heart to heart with your child is a good idea, explaining the reasoning behind installing FamiSafe on their device. They probably won’t like the idea, but at least they’ll hopefully understand why you’re putting it there.

Also bear in mind your child’s age — older teens might not be too thrilled at having restricted access to their WhatsApp or Instagram, or knowing that their folks have clear visibility of their search history and contacts. Discretion is obviously advised.

What are FamiSafe’s Features — What Can It Do For You?

All parental control apps have an array of safety and tracking features. What makes FamiSafe’s features stand out, and why do you need them? This is the part of our FamiSafe review where we delve a little deeper into that.

Device Activity

There are five sub-sections under Device Activity — Activity Report; Set Rules; TikTok App History; YouTube App Report; and App Blocker.

Activity Report displays which apps have been used, and which websites have been visited.

Under Set Rules, you can instantly block access to all apps on your child’s device (handy if little Bobby prefers screen time during the family dinner). However, this won’t apply to certain functions, among them calendar, camera, clock, gallery and phone.

Then there’s screen-time limits and downtime. You can also set time limits for certain apps and block specific apps for a set duration.

TikTok App History, unsurprisingly, displays an activity log of TikTok usage. However, that’s only if the TikTok app has been installed. When reviewing this on a mobile phone sans TikTok, we viewed a TikTok in the browser, which reflected in the general Activity Report mentioned above, but not in the app history. Hmmm…

The YouTube App Control has a “suspicious words library” with 12 default dictionaries spanning alcohol, cyberbullying, sex, violence and everything in between (and you can add your own criteria to this). So, say little Bobby does a search on YouTube for cocaine. This will reflect on the YouTube App Control activity log, and you’ll receive an alert.

App Blocker will show you a list of each app on your child’s device, with the option to block the ones you don’t want them to access, barring the apps exempt from being blocked, as mentioned earlier.

Content Safety

Inappropriate pictures, once enabled, will let you adjust the “accuracy level” — a lower accuracy level means more child-inappropriate images, such as explicit violence or nudity, being considered “suspicious”. However, when testing this functionality with an “inappropriate” image via WhatsApp image, the app struggled to detect suspicious activity. Perhaps this reviewer needs to raise her game on what is deemed “inappropriate”.

Social Apps Detection is an option we quite like. You’ll find a list of social media apps (including apps that are not installed on the device). Select which ones you want automatically scanned for harmful content in line with the “suspicious words library”. It works for text but TikTok and YouTube don’t feature on the list; nor do emojis.

That last bit is actually quite important. Emojis have become a language in their own right, and while they’re mostly innocuous, they can also represent things you’ll find in that “suspicious words library”.

As an example, this cute little dragon 🐉 is also popular heroin emoji, while cocaine is often represented by a snowflake ❄️or magic eight-ball 🎱. FamiSafe won’t pick up on those, though.

Location Service

Live Location shows you the exact location of your child, as long as they have their connected device on them, that is. And said child, via their device, has a handy “Find my Parent” option, which will send a notification to your dashboard. A great little feature for a kid trying to track down their parents. Be warned, though, accessing your child’s real-time location is a battery drainer on their phone.

Want to check that little Bobby went to the library after school and not straight to the skate park? Location history will reveal all.

Geofences is another good feature for peace of mind regarding your child’s whereabouts. Add your home, school or other places to be notified when your child enters or leaves those areas.

Driving report is a great tracker for kids who like to go around. Whether as a passenger or behind the wheel, you’ll be able to see a detailed map of their journey.

But what really stands out is the driving behavior detector. Select ‘Enable Drive Safety’ and choose a speed limit; you’ll be notified when that limit is exceeded in addition to hard braking (although, the hard braking sensor is perhaps a tad sensitive).

Web Safety

Browser history is precisely what it says; a list of the sites browsed on your child’s device.

When enabled, Safe Search will block your child’s browser search results if explicit contents are detected. Again, the ‘Suspicious Words Library’ comes into play here.

The Web Filter option lets you block websites according to categories, which range from violence to games, with an entire gamut of fields in between. There is a tab for exceptions, though. For example, it’s likely a hard no to Minecraft for your five-year-old, but you can make an exception for online Snakes and Ladders.

What Does FamiSafe Cost?

Compared to similar parental control apps, FamiSafe is priced competitively.

FamiSafe has three types of subscriptions — monthly, quarterly and annual, with a default auto renewal for each, and a seven-day money-back guarantee. The prices displayed exclude tax, though.

There’s also a free version, albeit for three days only. Still, that should be enough time to decide if it’s the right app for you and your family.

FamiSafe is much more affordable than, say, uMobix, which has a monthly subscription of $50.26, a quarterly subscription at $30.15/month, and an annual subscription at $12.58/month.

How Easy Is The FamiSafe Interface To Use?

The FamiSafe interface is easy to use. FamiSafe is also Android- and iOS-compatible, and it can be set up on your kid’s mobile phone, Kindle Fire, PC, Mac or Chromebook. That’s pretty impressive.

Head to FamiSafe’s website (or Google Play/App Store), create an account to receive a download link for both the parent and child apps. You need physical access to the child’s device to download and install the app. We found installation fairly straight-forward, with the expected prompts on the protected devices in terms of access, privacy and permissions and the child’s device.

The dashboard, all but identical on both mobile and web versions, is simple and easy to navigate, though it could benefit from a little visual creativity.

Toggling between features could also be improved but, ultimately, the drop down menu clearly displays FamiSafe’s four distinct features. It’s simply a matter of getting used to knowing where to find what you’re looking for.

However, comparing FamiSafe’s dashboard to competitor apps — say Qustodio’s, for instance, which gives a detailed overview of all relevant activity — this one falls a bit short.

Another slight drawback is that the child’s device — a mobile phone in this instance — receives continual notifications to “Tap to see usage and tasks”. That shows the top five most used apps, and the “Find my Parent” functionality, but nothing else. We found this quite annoying. Then again, we weren’t lost or in need of tracking down a parent.

How Does FamiSafe Fare Against Other Parental Control Apps?

From a price point, FamiSafe does really well, but it’s the driving behavior function we were most impressed by. And yes, the dashboard is a little less comprehensive than its counterparts, but at that price point, all’s forgiven.

Find out more about these apps and other parental control software here.

FamiSafe Reviews — What Do People Say?

FamiSafe describes itself as “the most reliable parental control app” — a bold claim. Our experience with FamiSafe has been largely positive, but we wanted to find out what full-time users of the app had to say.

Oddly enough, there’s a dearth of feedback on Reddit, Trustpilot and the other usual suspects. So we headed over to the Play Store to see what people who had downloaded the app from there had to say.

Reviews were mixed — more than 20,000 reviews with a 2.8/5 rating. Negative feedback includes kids bypassing the security features (highly concerning), connectivity issues and glitches with the interface. However, there are lots of satisfied — happy, even — customers.

“The most reliable parental control app”? A bold claim indeed. That said, FamiSafe has a proud display of accolades on its website.

It will be interesting to see what updates FamiSafe rolls out to ensure a fully satisfied client base, and raise that just-above average rating. Again, though, at that fairly inexpensive price point, perhaps small flaws are worth it as long as they don’t compromise that reliability.

FamiSafe Alternatives

FamiSafe isn’t the only parent control app on the market. There’s a host of other options, and while they all cover the basics one would expect of a parent control app, many have unique features and advantage points that make them suitable for individual needs.

For instance, mSpy is particularly vigilant when it comes to SnapChat. It also has stealth mode, which makes the app undetectable on the tracked device.

Whereas if you’re on the hunt for an app that can listen into live calls, then Spyera is worth looking into.

Take a look at these links to read up on the latest and greatest apps we have already reviewed.

Why You Can Trust Our Review of FamiSafe

When we put together a review, we go into super-sleuth mode; eager to scrutinize and poke holes in all the features the software or tool promises to deliver. Test every single one of the app’s functionalities? Challenge accepted.

For this FamiSafe review, we installed the app through the three-day free trial on offer to all potential subscribers. A lot of testing has ensued, including reliving our teen years and intentionally trying to sneak some naughty stuff past the FamiSafe detectors.

We also took into consideration the experiences of other FamiSafe users — the good and the bad — for a well-rounded overview of the app under review. And, of course, this FamiSafe review takes into account the many other parental control apps already tested and reviewed on TechReport.com, and how FamiSafe fares in comparison to its main competitors.

How To Set Up And Use FamiSafe

We found installing and setting up the FamiSafe app on a parent device and child’s mobile phone to be a fairly painless process.

Here we explain how to do it.

Getting Started

We downloaded the FamiSafe app from Google Play. You can also find it in the App Store, as well as the FamiSafe website. Once you’ve launched the FamiSafe on your phone, choose the identity — “Parents”.

For this FamiSafe review, we also set up a FamiSafe account using an email address, although FamiSafe also supports third-party logins via Google account, Facebook and Apple ID. Once you’ve logged in or registered, you’ll be directed to the pairing page where you’ll find a pairing code to connect to your child’s device.

Connect Your Kid’s Device

The next step is to install and set up FamiSafe on your kid’s device. As a reminder, FamiSafe works across all the major operating systems. For this FamiSafe review, we installed the FamiSafe app on an Android phone. Again, off to the App Store, this time in search of FamiSafe Kids.

Once installed, launch the app but this time select “Kid” as the identity. You’ll be directed to the registration page — select “Have an account? Log in” and log into the FamiSafe account you initially set up.

Another way of connecting to your kid’s device is via the pairing code. Select the “Pair with Code” option and then enter the six-digit code received on your own phone. This will complete the tie.

Lastly, allow FamiSafe to stay active in the background, bypassing battery saving or optimization settings. Once that’s done, it’s time to start setting up rules and check details of your kid’s Android device on your own device.

Managing Your Child’s Device

On Android devices, FamiSafe offers 14 key features grouped under four sections, some of which have rules that can be set up and configured. Here’s what you can do with each of those features.

Device Activity

Set Rules — This is where you set up all the restrictions you want applied to your child’s device. Select instant block to cut access to all apps on the device, with a few exceptions that include, among others, the phone, clock and camera.

This is also where you can specify a daily time limit for the device, select the available time range, set time limits for apps and block certain apps for a specified time.

Activity Report — Monitor a timeline of daily phone usage details, including which apps were used, when and how long they were used for. Unless you’re using the three-day trial version, the FamiSafe activity record will date back three months.

TikTok App History — Your child’s TikTok usage history will show up here, so you’ll know what they watched, but only if they viewed it via the TikTok app.

YouTube App Control — If your kid watched, posted or commented on a video that triggered the FamiSafe app’s suspicious/risky keyword detector, this is where you’ll find out.

App Blocker — Block specific apps on your child’s device and receive alerts when they attempt to open those blocked apps.

Content Safety

Inappropriate Pictures — Enabling suspicious pictures detection and setting the level of sensitivity means you’ll be alerted when an inappropriate image is sent to your child’s device.

Social Apps Detection — This is where you’ll find a list of social media apps to select from. FamiSafe will then monitor that app and notify you if explicit content is detected, specifically text.

Location Service

Live Location — Pinpoint the exact location of your child. The only caveat is they need to have their connected device with them.

Location History — This is where you’ll find a detailed log of your kid’s previous whereabouts.

Geofences — Here you can specify a home address, school location or set up other geofences, and be notified when your child enters or leaves those places.

Driving Report — Perfect for parents who worry about their child when they’re on the road, this feature can be set up to detect speeding and/or hard braking. Enable Driving Report and set a speed limit; you’ll receive reports of their driving behavior, including when they hit the gas or the brakes too hard. In our experience, this is a particularly good feature that sets FamiSafe apart from some of its competitors.

Web Safety

Browser History — This is where you can see which sites your child has visited.

Safe Search — Enable Safe Search to block browser search results if explicit contents are detected.

Web Filter — If you want to block websites access according to category, drugs, for example, enable the Web Filter function. There’s also an exemptions tab.

So, Is FamiSafe Worth It?

We put the FamiSafe app through its paces, and we weren’t disappointed with the results. Setting the permissions for the child’s device is a simple process, and we like that this includes screen time limits and down time (although your kid will likely be less pleased about those features).

And again, the ability to monitor driver behavior is a definite plus — it’s a feature that isn’t necessarily standard in parent control software.

Is FamiSafe definitively “the most reliable parental control app” as it claims? Well, the jury’s still out on that one, but from our experience, FamiSafe does pretty much what it promises.

So the interface is a little lacking. Forgivable, surely? We recommend trying it for yourself through their free trial.

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