Google Family Link

Google LLC

About this app

Google Family Link is a parental controls app that helps you keep your family safer online. Every family’s relationship with technology is unique, so we built tools for you to choose the right balance for your family, and help them create healthy digital habits. You can use the app to see 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 — Find the screen time that works best for your child. Family Link lets you set daily time limits, with school time and downtime schedules for their devices, so you can help your child find a healthy balance.
• Manage your child’s apps — Give your child the flexibility they need when it comes to app usage. Set individual app time limits, and unlimited time for educational or regularly used apps. You can block apps, too.

Manage content filters and security & privacy
• Manage what they see online — Set up parental controls on Google services like Chrome, Play, YouTube, and Search. Family Link allows you to block inappropriate sites, require approval for new apps, manage permissions for apps and websites, and more.
• 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 necessary.*

*Children over the applicable age can manage their own account.

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 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 will not need approval to install app updates (including updates that expand permissions), apps you have previously approved, or apps that have been shared in Family Library. In addition, purchase approvals will apply only when your child makes a purchase through Google Play’s billing system and will not apply to purchases made through alternate 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 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 powered on, recently active, and connected to the internet through data or wifi.
• 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 can not 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.

Ratings and reviews

This app was supposed to fill in some gaps on Bark premium on a non-bark phone. We are paying for the add-on Bark feature for a regular Android phone. The two apps do not work at all together. It kept locking up her phone. It is very complicated to use with no internal help in the app. You must use Google to explain exactly what you're using and that you are combining that with Bark. I followed many menus (deep in the phone system) to unlock the phone and gave up and uninstalled Family Link.

As a child, obviously I'll rate it low, but I'm trying to be fair. I always get worried, normally I'll go on late night walks with my friends, and When my device locks, I cannot even text my parent. ONLY call, which can be super annoying and in my opinion a little dangerous in case I was in danger, but couldn't call. This app DID help me realize I need to spend less time on my phone, but overall, it's methods kind of suck. And for the time I "spend" on each app, it doesn't feel accurate at all!

often times it doesn't lock my child's phone & yet his dad, (my ex) has had no problem. On occasion I call him to change the settings, if he's available, but it's terribly annoying I can't control things with my kids phone, in my home. it used to work remarkably well, my kids would listen to me & do what I asked to get his phone time back. I give a low rating because of my dissatisfaction in my experience. please fix & I'll submit a review to match.

What’s new

New simplified design and screen time tab.