Every FreePhoneSpy feature, grouped the way you’d use them
This is the whole toolkit for looking after a child’s Android phone — location, screen time, routines, app limits, alerts, and the check-in tools — laid out in the same order the web panel puts them. Everything here is transparent by design: the child can see the app, nothing runs until you turn it on, and the sensitive tools sit behind a consent switch. Pick what fits your house and leave the rest off.
Consent by design
Run from any browser
You do not need all of this. Most families run three or four things and never touch the rest. So we have grouped the features by the job they do — knowing where the phone is, holding the evening together, seeing who your child talks to, and the heavier check-in tools you turn on only when there is a reason. The core is free forever; the advanced tools unlock through simple tasks, which the pricing page explains.
A quick word on how it all fits before the list. Every feature is set in the browser panel and enforced on the child’s phone, which is why the rules keep holding even when the phone is offline. Every feature is also visible to your child — the app shows a Transparency screen of exactly what is shared — and the most sensitive ones need a deliberate consent switch that takes both of you. Read the group headings below and jump to the one that matches the problem you actually have.
Their day & location
The first question most parents want answered: where is the phone, and did it get where it was going? This group covers it without a single check-in text.
Location & Places
See the phone’s live position on a map and the history of where it has been. Save the Places that matter — home, school, a grandparent’s — and get an alert when the phone arrives or leaves, including a “left school early” alert for the days it counts. When you just want to check, a locate-now request opens a live-location window.
The point is not to watch every step. It is the two or three moments a day when knowing saves a worry: that the phone reached school, that it left the friend’s house, that it is where it should be after football. You set the Places once, agree them with your child, and the alerts do the remembering so you do not have to send a text at nine every morning.
Location is one of the free-forever features, and it is usually the first rule parents set. The full page covers accuracy, history, and alerts on location tracking and Places. It also feeds the weekly activity reports.
Time & focus
The evening features. These four decide when the phone is on, what it can run, and how bedtime and homework actually hold — with the phone doing the enforcing, not you.
Screen time
Give each child a daily minute budget — a weekday number and a weekend number — split across games, video, social, and the web. The phone counts it and enforces it, with a wind-down warning before time runs out. Because enforcement runs on the phone, it keeps holding even when the phone is offline.
The wind-down warning is the part that keeps the peace. Your child gets a heads-up that time is nearly up, so the phone going quiet is expected rather than a surprise. That small courtesy is the difference between a rule that sticks and one that starts a fight every night. Screen time pairs naturally with routines and app limits.
Full detail, including how the split works and how extra time is requested, is on screen time.
Routines, Bedtime & Homework Hour
Set scheduled on and off windows: a Bedtime that winds the phone down at half nine, a Homework Hour that quiets the distractions, a school-time window. You agree the schedule once and the phone keeps to it every day, whether or not anyone is watching the panel. It is the fix for the same argument happening at the same time every night.
Routines are different from a plain time budget — they are about when, not how much. Homework Hour can leave the essentials and study apps working while it parks the games; Bedtime can hand the last few minutes back with a warning first. Because the windows live on the phone, they start on time even if your laptop is shut and the phone is on mobile data. Routines work hand in hand with screen time.
App & website blocking
Put a time limit on a single app or block one outright, without touching the rest of the phone. The essentials — phone, messages, maps, keyboard — stay untouchable, so a limit never leaves your child unable to reach you. A website and category filter runs on the phone too, so you can keep whole categories like adult or gambling out.
Because the filter runs on the device rather than a server, it works on mobile data as well as home Wi-Fi — the phone keeps the blocked sites out wherever it goes. It is a scalpel, not a hammer: cap the one game that eats the evening, leave the study apps alone, and the phone still does everything a phone needs to do. Read how per-app limits and the content filter work on app and website blocking.
Tasks & rewards
Set chores your child can complete for extra minutes — tidy a room, finish homework — with a proof photo, and approve them with one tap when they are done. It turns screen time into something earned rather than argued over. The same task idea is how you keep the app free: your own tasks, like an honest review or a referral, add days and unlock advanced tools.
The proof photo is what makes it work without nagging. Your child does the chore, snaps a picture, and the extra minutes land after you tap approve — a small, honest loop that shifts screen time from a fight to a deal. See how the child side works on tasks and rewards, and how the same idea keeps the whole app free on the pricing page.
Who they talk to
The contact side, handled with a light touch. You can spot the thing that matters — an unknown number, a flag word, an open network — without reading every message your teenager sends.
Text messages & social
See the SMS and social message log — who wrote, and when — with the notification lines from Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok in one feed. Message bodies stay private unless you and your child turn on a deliberate consent switch together; that line is there on purpose.
The default is the light touch: headers and flags you can scan, not every word your teenager types. The fuller view exists only when both of you decide there is a reason. Full detail on text message and social monitoring, and to flag specific words, pair it with keyword alerts.
Calls & call recording
The call log lays out numbers, names, times and duration, in and out — so a number that calls a lot, or an unknown one at an odd hour, is easy to spot. Contacts are listed too, with unknown-number flags.
Call recording is here as well, told honestly: on modern Android it is best-effort, the platform blocks capturing the other side on most phones, and it needs the child’s microphone permission. See what is realistic on calls and call recording.
Wi-Fi & email monitoring
See the networks the phone has joined, with a warning when one is open and unsecured — the coffee-shop network that anyone nearby can listen on. Open networks are where a lot of everyday risk lives, and children join them without a second thought, so a quiet flag lets you have a quick word about the ones that matter.
On the email side you get subject and from lines — enough to spot a scam, a stranger, or a sign-up that should not be there, without reading the contents. It is the same light-touch idea as messages: the signal you need, not the whole inbox. Full detail on Wi-Fi and email monitoring.
Alerts & keywords
Flag words and phrases — something like “meet me alone” — and get a notification when one shows up in the child’s notifications. Everything worth a parent’s eye also gathers in a single readable feed, so you are not hunting through separate screens. It is the early-warning layer that sits over the rest of the app, and it is how the Today dashboard knows what to put in front of you. Set your own flag list and see the feed on alerts and keywords.
Check-in tools (advanced)
These are the heavier tools, off by default and unlocked through tasks. They carry the strongest consent and transparency requirements, and most families never turn them on. When you do, you and your child should agree it out loud first.
Remote camera
On demand, ask the phone for a photo from its front or back camera — a way to check in when a call goes unanswered and you want reassurance. This is one of the most sensitive tools in the app, so it is heavy on consent: it is visible, off until unlocked, logged each time, and meant for a genuine safety reason, not routine surveillance.
We are honest about the limits, too. On modern Android these captures are best-effort and the platform can refuse them; this is not a magic window into a room. Read the honest limits and the consent framing on remote camera. It unlocks through a task, as the pricing page explains.
Ambient audio
Request a short ambient audio clip from the phone’s microphone and listen back from the panel — for the moment you need a quick, agreed check-in. Like the camera, it is visible, off until unlocked, and logged every time it runs.
Consent laws for recording audio vary by place, so check what applies where you live — and this is never a hidden bug for recording other people. The honest limits and the framing are on ambient audio, and it unlocks through a task on the pricing page.
Photos, videos & recordings
See photos the on-device safety check has flagged, videos found on the device, and short audio or call recordings where the platform allows it. Call recording is best-effort on modern Android — we are honest that it does not work everywhere, and we would rather tell you that up front than promise more than the phone can do. Consent sits front and centre here, and it is an advanced feature unlocked by tasks.
The full picture, including what is and is not possible, is on photos, videos and recordings.
Activity reports & insights
A weekly rollup of screen time, apps, places, and flags, so you see the shape of the week rather than a stream of moments. It is the step back from the daily Today glance — good for the “how are things going?” conversation on a Sunday, and for noticing a slow drift before it becomes a problem.
See what the weekly report covers on activity reports, and how it draws on screen time and location.
You: the web panel
The parent side is just a browser tab. There is no parent app to install and nothing to keep running on your side. You sign in to the web panel from any browser — a laptop, a desktop, your own phone — and everything above is there: the Today dashboard, the map, the rules, the alerts. Pair as many child devices as you like; they are unlimited on one account.
This is the split that makes the whole thing work. The panel is your window; the child’s phone does the enforcing. You dip into the panel when you want to, it stays in sync, and there is nothing to update or forget to renew. See how the panel is organised, and how to add and manage devices, on the web panel. When you are ready, the setup guide connects the first phone in about two minutes.
Feature questions
Do I have to turn on every feature?
No. Nothing runs until you switch it on, and most families use three or four things — usually location, screen time, and a bedtime routine. Start with one rule that solves a real argument and add more only when you have a reason.
Which features are free, and which need a task?
The everyday core — location, screen time, app limits, the website filter, and alerts — is free forever, no task needed. The advanced check-in tools like remote camera, audio, and the keylogger unlock by completing a simple task. The pricing page lays out exactly what is free and what a task unlocks.
Can my child see all of this?
Yes. The app is visible on the phone and has a Transparency screen listing what it shares. The sensitive features — message bodies, the keylogger, remote camera and audio — sit behind a deliberate consent switch. FreePhoneSpy is designed to be used openly, and we ask you to keep it that way, within your local law.
Does everything work if the phone goes offline?
The rules do. Screen time, routines, app limits, and the website filter are enforced on the phone, so they keep holding with no connection. New events — a school arrival, a flag — queue on the phone and appear in your panel once it reconnects. The setup guide explains the two-way sync in more detail.
What about an iPhone?
The child app runs on Android today; an iPhone version is in development. The parent panel already runs in any browser. If the phone you want to look after is an iPhone, that is the limitation to know before you start.