Verizon Smart Family - Parent

Verizon Consumer Group

About this app

Get Verizon Smart Family for $4.99/mo or 30 days of Smart Family Premium on us, $9.99/mo thereafter.*

Verizon Smart Family is your partner in parenting. It lets you limit internet access, block content, manage calls, texts, and data, and with Premium, you can monitor your children’s whereabouts in real time on one map as well as encourage safe driving habits.

What’s New
• Simple, easy to use interface.
• More robust content filtering with a new dating category.
• Monitor locations of multiple children on one map in real time, with Premium.

Download our Parent app to your Android and pair your child’s smartphone or Android tablet to:
• Monitor screen time
• Filter apps and website content
• Block internet access
• Review device usage
• Manage calls, texts, and data

Select Premium to unlock:
• Live family member location monitoring
• Arrival and departure notifications
• Location sharing with pickup requests
• Driving insights such as safe driver score and drive activity history
• Crash detection alerts

*After the 30-Day trial period, your Smart Family Premium service will auto-renew at $9.99/mo unless you cancel before the trial period ends. Cancel anytime through the Smart Family app.

+++

Once the child’s iPhone or Android device is paired via the Verizon Smart Family companion app, the parent app can configure parental controls (iPads aren’t currently supported). If enrolled in Premium, the parent app can also monitor location and driving history – for either a driver or a passenger.

Ratings and reviews

This app has never worked like it should and keeps getting worse with each upgrade. Location defaults to approximate if the phone is unused for a period of time (like overnight). When the location changes itself to approximate, then notifications don't work. Approximate Location is accurate to within a couple hundred yards, which is effectively useless. My child can easily bypass or remove the child app from their phone. It's obvious you don't care about helping parents keep kids safe

As someone who's had this app before, not only is it spyware but bloatware to. Sure, you can track your child and everything. But with how widespread data breaches are now, I wouldn't trust it just to keep your child's information safe. It doesn't even work that well most of the time, and the location is so inaccurate. This whole app honestly needs more quality control. If you're worried, your child is not ready for a phone.

I agree with most others. The new updates are awful, especially the location function. It doesn't show real-time location like it used to. I wish I could go back and use the previous version. If this glitch isn't fixed, I may cancel and look for an alternative app to use. **Update 12/18/23. The location function seems to be getting worse. I'll be looking for a new app after the holidays.

What's new

Enhancing your family’s physical and online safety, this update brings you:
- Continuous live location of your family members. (Premium only)
- Travel indicators showing modes of movement: biking, running, walking, and driving. (Premium only)
- A Security Threat Report that notifies you how many times security threats were blocked.
- Enhanced notifications showing which websites and apps were used during school hours and night hours.