Review Insights · Google Play
Google Family Link
Google LLC · 5,044,754 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
5,044,754 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 61 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"phone"
16 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "come on like really they should be an age atleast like put on a setting that says only kids until 15 can use this app like seriously what's gonna happen to our privacy I hate it plus I can't do anything for kids who are brain rotted there p…" - Teju Ethiopia
2
"child"
14 negative reviews mention this · 23% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Serious Safety Concern: My Child Can Bypass Parental Controls... Why and how is my 12-year-old able to bypass apps and websites I have blocked? For over 6 months, I’ve had to keep reopening this app to reset settings and re-block apps/sites…" - MsZeta OES
3
"control"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "one of the kids can bypass the controls and it is frustrating." - Arthur Santi
4
"hate"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "come on like really they should be an age atleast like put on a setting that says only kids until 15 can use this app like seriously what's gonna happen to our privacy I hate it plus I can't do anything for kids who are brain rotted there p…" - Teju Ethiopia
5
"kids"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "one of the kids can bypass the controls and it is frustrating." - Arthur Santi
6
"device"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Often having issues with locking a child device, it says it is locked on the app but the device is still unlocked" - Mia Cordova
📋 All 61 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Suck it is boring
one of the kids can bypass the controls and it is frustrating.
Serious Safety Concern: My Child Can Bypass Parental Controls... Why and how is my 12-year-old able to bypass apps and websites I have blocked? For over 6 months, I’ve had to keep reopening this app to reset settings and re-block apps/sites. How is she changing permissions or getting around parental controls? This is extremely upsetting and concerning. I thought this app was meant to help parents control access and protect children from content they are too young for.
come on like really they should be an age atleast like put on a setting that says only kids until 15 can use this app like seriously what's gonna happen to our privacy I hate it plus I can't do anything for kids who are brain rotted there parent don't us eghis but TEENS WHO ARE LIKE 14 PLUS AND ARE TRUSTWORTHY HAVE THIS LIKE EXCUSE ME change the setting please in the sake of child rights like even if a child's in trouble there parent can litreally lock up there phone and torture them so pls
I always find all limits off without modifying them I find bouns time always on I must every day put it off
Often having issues with locking a child device, it says it is locked on the app but the device is still unlocked
Oh my god do I ever hate myself for having anything to do with this idiotic app or telling Google my kid's correct age when I set up his email. All I wanted was to lock in his name with a cool email and now this cumbersome, overbearing pile of cyber junk won't let us out of its clutches. My advice, be a parent and control your kid's device and screentime yourself, don't let Google step 1 millimeter into your family life or have anything to do with your children, that's YOUR JOB. That's all.
The One thing that I want is FAMILY LINK TO BE REMOVED IT BLOCKS EVERYTHING I DO Like I Play a Video Game Or I Watch a Video MY DAD LOCKS MY PHONE I WANT FAMILY LIKE GONE and Family Link IS A VIOLATION OF FREEDOM THATS WHY ASWELL I HATE THIS APP and it EATS AWAY YOUR BATTERY Like When I'm at School AND AFTER SCHOOL MY BATTERY WAS AT 100% IT DROPS TO LIKE 40% SO That's WHY I WANT THE APP GONE AND IT SUCKS LIKE EVERYTIME I ASKS MY DAD TO ACTUALLY UNLOCK MY PHONE SO THE APP NEEDS TO BE DELETED
Time log is never accurate. I set a 6 hour limit for a special trip and 30 mins into the time, it locked my child out saying time had run out. I tried giving her bonus time and that did not eleviate the lock. I tried turning off the timer to give her unlimited time. still it showed she was locked out. it also showed she had spent less than a minute on YouTube, Google, and messages. when those are her top used apps. we tried Uninstall/reinstall. Tried turning the phone off/on. checked for updates
used to work great but now it randomly disappeared from my phone but it's still on my childs phone and it's locked so it's stuck. My child did not turn 13 or delete the app, the device is not old/unused, and their phone is not dead.
Have to delete the account to remove it. what the hell is this. That is my 5 years of hard work and you are telling me to just delete it just to get rid of this link!!! 😡
cannot unsupervise my son and we cannot work out why. Very frustrating. my son is 16! wish I had not started using this app. there seems no way to stop it now without deleting things for my son.
very bad my childhood is ruined i can't play roblox now
I don't like this because when you try to unlock your child's phone, you can't unlock it because it needs internet connection what if your child was in an emergency and they can't contact their parents because their phone was locked. In school time kids/students(with parental control) can't open some important apps such as calculator chatgpt, messenger and other important apps. School time should consider other apps.
boooo booooo I hate this app, only download this app if you want your children to know you dont trust them. Seriously, just have a good talk w you kids and tell them to be safe on the internet. The screentime limit is easy to break, and the censoring doesnt work either, so keep that in mind :/
this is good apps but when i delete it, it's still working on my niece phone it's still needs approval even tho we already deleted it
I hate it
ts is worst than physical torture
its pathetic. You dont have many options for control and the ones available are eigher too restrictive or to wide.
Not a good app if you want to restrict the children from having too much screen time! It is so unreliable it is driving me insane. I set it to lock at a certain time everyday and it unlocks instantly (btw I know it is not the children unlocking it themselves) or it doesn't lock at all. It also resets downtime as well. I could download an app that charged but the reviews were similar.
it doesnt function well. it keeps on resetting. i always register it to my childrens devices and tomorrow. its gone again. so fustrating.
i hate this app,i don't want it bc my parents control what i can and can't do on my phone💔💔
You will never understand 🥀
clunky,bad ui
Visiška tryda
why FL is no longer requiring to accept any app for installation?
just trash. read the others review.
wont let use locstion for child as says app has a bug.
No longer maintains accurate location for family members, does not page phone immediately when locating it, there's a 5 minute delay. Does not leave open apps that have no limit
the most recent update made it so my child can't make any outgoing calls INCLUDING 911, so they are unable to make any calls in case of an emergency. This is a severe problem as it prevents contacting even emergency services.
worst app ever
As a teenager to have parent control isn't fun so I'll always hate this app
would not recommend.
Settings for call and text blocking have been moved to the Fi app. As soon as this was done, my child's phone began getting spam texts. Google, this is precisely when you must put a tip in your app to explain that settings have moved! And please ask the Fi team to fix their feature.
Lock and bonus time not working
gives people the impression that they are your parent and the should NEVER BE GIVEN THE ADMINISTRATOR privileges
Doesn't sync with my phone when I make changes so annoying. now the issue is the fact that it is in the shop for a new screen and they cant get into the settings to run the tests and if I delete it from her phone it deletes the whole google account so dumb
The App no longer sets down time. For some reasons there is extra time and if I click lock the extra time continues to run. This is not the first time this happened.
the app blocked my child's ability to make phone calls and really poor assistance in trying to figure out a solution
this garbage is literally just for making people suffer. like why make such a pointless app that literally only has two functions. locking a device and setting screen time limits. the rest of the functions are impractical or useless.
Used to swear by this app when my boys were younger. I guess it's true, you get what you pay for. My daughter has a disability so we have to carefully restrict her phone including incoming and outgoing calls. I'm always careful to make sure everything is updated and settings stay in place. in spite of that the app has recently allowed calls in that are not in her contacts and allowed her to add contacts which is restricted. we're going to have to look for another parental control app.
this is a horrible app i do not recomend
as a teeni hate this app. its so controlling and stupid. parents dont make your kids suffer as much as I did
it's so baaadd it's controlling everything in my phone Please delete this app. 😑🙏
Really lagging and not working, don't recommend
mostly error! it's hard to block my kids stuff
this is a somewhat redundant setup. most people who need it want proper control, not this reluctant, uncommitted nonsense. like who tf controls a kids device in this day and era, and leaves settings and play store unattended?! do better!!!
ewwwwwwwwwwwww i am saying as a kid this is just ew i will not even allow you to make a channel
it's rubbish
my 12 year old niece just deleted the entire parenteral control after i put her tab and phone in downtime without knowing password or anything. she told there was help given in the side of downtime window itself. she didnt show me how to do. im using this for more than 2 years in my kids phone and tab without any issue. but even a small kid can remove the entire account in less than 1 minute.
+ 11 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
89%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
7%
Negative (1-2★)