Google Family Link Reviews

by LBennettMT

If your going to use google parental controls get ready to jump through some hoops. You have to manage your apps and payments in google play and just wait you can’t use gift cards for kids under 13 in google play so don’t buy those they are worthless. I wasted 4 hours trying to fix my kids accounts to be able to share apps - which didn’t work, make purchases with birthday gift cards - also didn’t work, and then tried to change their access and once they are designated under 13 you loose all kinds of flexibility. I still can’t share apps with them. Instead I’m expected to pay for each app with my own credit card. What a waste!!!

by Msxmy

Though GoogleFamilyLink may be useful for younger kids, I personally believe parents should refrain from using these apps for their teens. These kinds of apps feel extremely controlling and manipulative and may make your child feel paranoid. I can confirm this myself. Through tough times, when my parents weren’t there for me, many online friends were and blocking your child from communicating with their friends can really hurt and greatly impact a child’s health. So, instead of monitoring them 24/7 and limiting their phone use talk to your children !! If you really care for them give them their needed space and privacy but keep supporting them as parents. If you think something is wrong speak to them instead of taking away what may be benefiting them instead of, what you may think, is hurting them.

by Smh Devastasted

I set up Family Link with Google when I got my minor son a phone, and the phone was for safety purposes. There was some back door way for him to disable the Family Link and didn’t require my approval for app purchases anymore. It took my credit card company over 2 months to notice some “unusual” purchases. Now I’m stuck with thousands of dollars in charges that the credit card company won’t remove and when I tried to contact Google (ha ha) their automated system “decided” not to do anything about it. I need to speak to an actual person. These were UNAUTHORIZED purchases by a minor and the fact that he could disable the Family Link is terrifying. I cannot afford the charges and I don’t want my credit ruined. I don’t want my life ruined either. I’m sure that this has ruined many families’ lives.

by P_maciel

I used this to control my 8 year olds phone. While I like that I can set limits and bedtimes, and turn off his phone on command, the website approvals need work. I have it set to where he can’t access the internet at all. He needs permission for each site. When I approve a site, I would like it to automatically approve all links related to the parent site. For example, a Disney game site. I have to approve the website. Then he’ll click a character, let’s say Mickey. So then I have to approve the “new” Mickey site. On that page, he can pick whether he wants to read, draw, color, or play. He wants to read, so now I have to approve that site as well. Oh but now he wants to color. Have to ask for permission again. It’s exhausting. Every single move he makes needs to be approved. This was when I first got GoogleFamilyLink . Now, I’m having trouble even approving a site all together. I have approved the same site 5x and every time I go to refresh it after the approval, I get promoted to ask for permission again!! I literally have his phone in one hand and mine In the other trying to approve websites to no avail. PLEASE FIX

by J87D

I thought this would be a convenient way to basically just set time limits on her phone. That part of it worked like a charm and was able to change her limits on a daily basis. BUT she has 2 Gmail accounts and it wouldn’t let us add both accounts since they weren’t school accounts. So she wasn’t able to access one of her accounts at all. We decided just to delete it and have time limits ourselves. When we deleted it she couldn’t login to her chrome book without doing a factory reset on it which was not an option when all of her school stuff was on there. I tried contacting support which was a dead end. So we either have to have GoogleFamilyLink and not access her one gmail account she uses for her games, or delete it and not access her chrome book. Definitely the worst app! If that was resolved i might change it to 3 stars but since you can never contact support it is staying at 1 star! I definitely wouldn’t recommend GoogleFamilyLink to anyone!

by Webmeisterx

When I found out GoogleFamilyLink existed I was just disappointed. I thought google was useful? NOPE! GoogleFamilyLink is a violation of children’s/teens privacy! and it’s not right. GoogleFamilyLink has to much power on your children/teens. Do you want to cause them stress? Anxiety? Depression? If the answer is no, then don’t download GoogleFamilyLink unless you want to have a bad relationship with your child/teen. I don’t get what some of you parents find in GoogleFamilyLink, do you really want to see your child suffer? If we children/teens don’t even have enough time to talk to our friends, it can also cause stress and anxiety and we will become distant to them. Do you not want your children/teen to have friends? If the answer is no then PLEASE! For you and your child’s/teens safety, do NOT download GoogleFamilyLink!!!⚠️

by Leicru808

hello parents thank you for reading :) i am very upset that these kind of apps exist... we get it you want to protect your child. but when your kids find out they'll have this horrible feeling inside that you have no trust in them, and that you think we are not responsible. well possibly your child is not responsible. TALK TO US!!! instead of keeping control over our lives and everything we do. i honestly think it's an invasion of our privacy... in some apps YOU CAN SEE WHAT WE TEXT. now may not seem like it but that really would upset us. mom, since you have an app like this with no disrespect please delete it if you are reading this. i'd rather you go through my phone instead of you being able to see my screen time, messages etc. thanks for reading i hope this makes you think.

(ps. this is leila) hehe

by Boiboi:):3

While family link has many good features to help limit screen time, and help control purchases, the place where you receive a purchase request is glitchy. As my son asked for me to get him an add-on for a game, I never got the approval request on my phone, I look in recent requests, nothing. I tried to look on my sons phone to find out if I can send another request for the purchase, “You already sent a pending purchase for this item.” There was a little button that said, “Complete pending purchase” I pressed it, and it just showed me the budget and history. It didn’t actually complete it, it just showed me the history. Nothing else, which has frustrated me and my son.

by Momwhomlovesherchildren

My husband and I just recently gave in to our son having a cell phone. He has started middle and with it, more responsibilities. While setting up his phone, a Samsung, GoogleFamilyLink was presented to us. It looked very promising. We were going to get an app to keep track of him anyways. Unfortunately, I have been very disappointed with GoogleFamilyLink. When I go to check on his activities or location, GoogleFamilyLink will not refresh with current info. This is not helpful if I need to know where my child is. Tonight, I needed to unlock his phone to check his alarm, which he uses to wake in the morning. GoogleFamilyLink would not grant me access, an error kept occurring. If this had been an emergency, it would have been useless. Needless to say, I will be looking into other options for my child and I.

by Rubie22

This is free and does SOME of what I need it to do. Its biggest flaw is that just as you begin to need it, it becomes unavailable. Get this parents, It’s only for kids UNDER 13. Whaaaat? What’s the point? My kids really didn’t need restrictions much before then because #1, They were mostly only interested in using one or two specific things, and #2 they were on MY devices. By the time I want to hand a device over to them to begin developing some responsibility and independence, Google apparently thinks they suddenly become ready to completely parent THEMSELVES. 13? Yeah, useless. I was able to get around that for awhile by creating an account for my teen with a false birthdate. (Yeah well, ya do what ya gotta do to protect your kids) The other problem is that I can’t limit time for specific apps. The options are very general and vague. When my 12 y/old’s time is up, she cannot even text me or receive my texts. She can only call me using the emergency function. This is very inconvenient because a phone call during the day is often much less feasible than quick text. If they change these policies, they might have something great!

by KB Lonelyhart

I installed GoogleFamilyLink to monitor my child's tablet activities and to ensure he doesn't go overboard on screen time. I find that when I am trying to set app time limits the majority of GoogleFamilyLink that I select to add the time limits is not GoogleFamilyLink that opens up. When I am finally able to select the correct app that I would like to change it gives me an error message saying “Could not set limit try again”.

I like that I am able to approve or deny his app downloads from my phone and set an age level for content such as apps & games, music and internet searches. And the location info is nice to have in case you misplace the device.

I spend most of my time dealing with errors on GoogleFamilyLink, not to mention you have to select each individual app to do so. I really wish they would give you the option to set limits on more than one app at a time to set limits and fix the bugs that causes the error messages and GoogleFamilyLink would be perfect.

by InPNWtrovert

It’s better than having no parental controls at all but there are very clear cut features which they need to improve.

The one that jumps out at me is that parents should be able to set “blackout” times at several points throughout the day, instead of only being allowed to set one at a time. We should be able to say something like, lock the phone from 8am-11:59pm but unlock it from 12:00pm-4:59pm and then locked again from 5:00pm-8:00pm for dinner, family time, etc. Then say maybe unlocked again for an hour from like 8:00pm-9:00pm before bed, or something similar. Basically I’m just saying that we need more flexibility to select the schedule that works for us. Simply giving one unlock/lock time per day is not enough.

by Letpuck

My son is on the autism spectrum and can easily obsess over things. He also attends a virtual school. I use GoogleFamilyLink mostly during school time to keep him from visiting other websites and going down the rabbit holes for whichever obsession he has at the current time. I also use GoogleFamilyLink to lock it at bedtime so that he doesn’t stay up all night going down those same rabbit holes.

What I do wish GoogleFamilyLink had is a parent login, either with a PIN or FaceID. If my son gets a hold of my phone or iPad, the first thing he does is head over to GoogleFamilyLink and change the restrictions I have set up. I find myself changing the settings back at least a few times a week. Having a way to lock GoogleFamilyLink would be incredibly helpful.

by Kneeselbows

I’ve been using FL for a week now. For my purposes, it works pretty well. I like the remote lock/unlock and bedtime features. I do wish there was a 2 to 5 minute warning on our respective phones preceding bedtime, but not a big deal. I did take issue with the accuracy of location services. My daughter left her phone at the library, 2.1 miles from where the phone was showing on the map. Again, not the worst thing. At least that told me what side of town her phone was on. But, still, it could be better. Overall, I’m pretty happy over all with GoogleFamilyLink . I’ll update this review in a couple months (if I remember. 90% sure I won’t).

by Neisha504

I use GoogleFamilyLink to control phones for all my kids. It is really good at blocking payments in App Store, allowing me to block sites, setting a bedtime and very accurate location. Only two flaws I have found in GoogleFamilyLink and I hope they fix it. When my kids are away, I do not know how they do it but they find a way to disconnect themselves from GoogleFamilyLink . My son went away for a week and I could not keep track of his where abouts and his screen time. I’m not strict I just want my kids to stay on kid friendly sites and apps and I like to see where they are when they are away. The second flaw is the fact that they have it to where I have to approve all content in GoogleFamilyLink Store but my kids somehow manage to still be able to download apps without my permission. Other than these two. GoogleFamilyLink is perfectly fine.

by Jacqueline St.

I love GoogleFamilyLink, it’s very quick to transfer information. The lock feature is great especially with the bedtime timer.

The only complaint I would have is the location is sometimes off by about a 1/4 of a mile. I was holding both mine and my son’s phones and it said his phone was at an exact address about 1/4 of a mile down the road from us, it was quite strange. After refreshing twice it still said the same thing, today it was accurate as to his whereabouts.

Aside from that it is an awesome app, definitely worth downloading and has incredible security features for monitoring maturity levels of shows, apps and games (my son is to young for internet searching without a parent). It also has great options for screen time limits, for the phone overall and for apps individually if you have kids like mine that spend way to much time on one thing!

Will definitely recommend to friends and family!

by SpokaneSunDevil

I really like having more control of my 14 year old's phone content and screen time. App has some bugs such as disabling the lock setting and my son is able to see when it malfunctions and takes advantage of those occurrences. He states it will only last 30-40 minutes then his phone will lock again. In addition, I have disabled the need for in app purchase requirements so he could use a Google play card to make an in app purchase but it still won't work.

by بو عزه

As a big brother I control my brothers tablet, but the only thing I have on is the bedtime thing and I’m making sure he doesn’t get to any sketchy websites. Thats all

And for what is see from my parents and most parents that they want to control every move there son does and thats just not gonna make the kid more open to talk with his parents bc they will restrict every move or thing he will do.

I feel bad for those 13 years old kids who there parents use GoogleFamilyLink with, I can only say to the parents who are reading this STOP USING GoogleFamilyLink IF YOU ARE GOING TO MISS USE IT.

by ReneRD360

I bought a phone to my daughter who is 7 years old and she’s usually living away from me since I am in other country, I control the apps she wants to download, also the time for her to use it, I block her phone automatically or anytime if she’s not doing homework or for any others reason, that also works with gps location meaning I can see her location wherever she goes, sometimes she calls me and she is like: Dad unblock that thing that you put in my phone cos I want to download a game, 😀 Amazing app

by AG5607

10/10 would recommend! We use for Children’s cell phones and chromebooks. Daily limits and bedtime settings help keep screen time managed with greater ease. Being able to block explicit sites and certain websites/apps is also very useful in helping children maintain innocence. JUST ONE THING I WOULD CHANGE… my child gets a “location notification” sent to their phone every time I log into GoogleFamilyLink from my own phone. I’d rather them not know/be notified every time I log into GoogleFamilyLink - Google wanna fix that? Please : ). Thank you in advance!

by Jessleise

If GoogleFamilyLink worked correctly, seems like it could be a very helpful product. However, I almost was greeted with the message “trouble updating with this account” when I attempted to log in. My daughter went on a couple overnight field trips and I wanted to change the curfew or provide her with the ability to contact me and I was Never able to get into the account. We’ve had GoogleFamilyLink for approximately 6 months and I believe I’ve been able to successfully access the account 5-6 times. Today after several login attempts, I was finally able to gain access. I then quickly googled how to remove GoogleFamilyLink and then I subsequently lost access. I am unable to log back into the account. I’ve spent so much time..,hours of time,on GoogleFamilyLink and left feeling frustrated.

by MStimmel

I would give GoogleFamilyLink 5 stars. I changed my kids birth year, to accommodate my older kids. I still want to be able to see what my 14 year-old is doing. That’s my right and to keep them safe. That aside, everything works awesome! Love that when they should be studying I can take the distraction away. However, if they’ve gone over their screen time allowance and the phone is locked it’s now just a glorified paper weight. There is no option for them to contact me or family in case of an emergency or other reasons?!?! GoogleFamilyLink locks the phone but won’t allow contact to anyone I designate. Needs updated!!!

by Oldgator2004

My 9 & 11 yr old both have tablets that have GoogleFamilyLink on them. It’s great and lets me decide what content is approved. It notifies me when the download apps and I’ve got it set that they need my permission at this point. I’ll loosen that up as they get older. My only complaint is that I don’t like having to choose 15 min time segments for my kids. Electronic time is important in our house and there is a big difference between 5, 10, and 15 minutes. I can only set the allowed time in 15 min increments and that’s a problem when the kids earn 5 min segments sometimes.

by Gdaqueen14

For one, my daughter is 14 and I still feel it necessary to filter and restrict however, google thinks after 12 it should be a free for all for kids. Create a gmail with a younger age for kids in this case.

Also, there’s no way for me to log on and off GoogleFamilyLink . It’s logged in at all times. My child figured out that she could approve her own requests and unlock her own phone once it locks out by going on GoogleFamilyLink . There should be a way to put a password in, if we want, to confirm changes.

by Mamabear Karrie Nash

I was setting up my sons phone and was worried I wouldn’t be able to monitor it as well as I would like but this awesome app was a sweet relief!! This is an amazing app that shows your child’s location helps you keep up with which apps they are downloading and choose if they can and can not download it!! You can lock the phone at anytime and set a bedtime so there’s no sneaking behind tour back it is an awesome app that I have recommend to every parent I know

by Hdjdiendnx

Effective immediately GoogleFamilyLink needs to go back to its original form without putting a age restriction on it I’m trying to create 5 individual google email accounts for all 5 of my kids age 12,14,16,17,19 in our state kids are not considered adults until age 21 I need to manage my kids online school with google my classroom but your app won’t allow me to make an account when it wasn’t like this b4 please fix it immediately school restarts in a few days after the holidays and I want everything hooked up immediately thank you please do not delay this

by NickySnic

My profile pic is me when I was younger, so ok as a parent my daughter Snickie has been involved with multiple boys and I don’t want her to text them late at night as she always does. GoogleFamilyLink has let me control her life in a way. She isn’t allowed to get her phone till nine and if she wants to text her friends I have to supervise her then block GoogleFamilyLink using this handy dandy app. My daughter needs to live life more and stop being such a player. Tøøđles👋

by Mmwdb15

I love GoogleFamilyLink and that I can control her settings from my phone. Set time limits, set usage times, view the apps their on the most etc. if she keep picking up her phone when it’s chore or homework time, guess what, I can lock the phone, so even if she does have the phone, it turns into a brick. Don’t like that app, restrict it. I like that it has a rolling pin for parent mode as well so if I lock it they would have to get into my phone in order to get on theirs. I will be installing this on their tablet as well!

by DAD's FOR LIFE

Bought my son a phone for Xmas was worried about how I was going to monitor it but did not want it to take away from the fact of it being a gift. Was setting up the phone and long and behold I seen the question asking is this a adult or a child phone. I was thinking watch me try to get it and it turn in to some other stuff a waste of time etc. Down load was ok opened it up and been in love with it every since a definitely gotta if you are a parent even has a gps tracker and a shut down setting

by Kryssy8584

This is an awesome app to know what your child is doing on their electronic media device. GoogleFamilyLink is simple to set up and you can be assured you can protect your child from potential risk by managing your child's activity the amount of time spent on the device and specific usage. In addition you can manage access and controls along with locating the device or where your child is.