Review Insights · App Store
AT&T Secure Family® parent app
AT&T Services, Inc. · 20,872 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
20,872 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 69 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"
25 negative reviews mention this · 36% of all complaints
★★★★★ "One more price gouge. I should not have to pay a fee to set limits on my child’s phone." - 2Blu55
2
"work"
18 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t work for flip phone. Loaded to be able to make sure my 98 year old father was safe. Said it works for flip phone, the only thing that works is the billing. Trouble turning the dang thing off." - Gab112115
3
"doesn"
15 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t work for flip phone. Loaded to be able to make sure my 98 year old father was safe. Said it works for flip phone, the only thing that works is the billing. Trouble turning the dang thing off." - Gab112115
4
"update"
15 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Slow. It’s extremely slow and it updates location hours later. We’re both home, connected to wifi and giving this a try and I must say- it’s really bad.." - Thegirlofyourdreams
5
"kids"
13 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I Only keep it for old numbers. It still triangulates old numbers. That’s why I’m still paying for it. Otherwise, it’s junk. Requiring to install stuff on the kids phone, change settings, install vpn, and then it still doesn’t work. sadly, they changed a perfect app, and …" - Fr1endz4evr
6
"family"
12 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Glitches. This app keeps telling me that it is unable to complete your request please try again later. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max. I am the only one in my family having this problem. I am also the one who downloaded the app and set the family up. If…" - Prcdone
7
"doesn work"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
8
"location"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Slow. It’s extremely slow and it updates location hours later. We’re both home, connected to wifi and giving this a try and I must say- it’s really bad.." - Thegirlofyourdreams
9
"working"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Stops working. Every month it stops working for my stepson’s phone. I spend hours trying to fix it. Think I have it works for awhile and then stops working ugh." - Busymomma66
10
"month"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Stops working. Every month it stops working for my stepson’s phone. I spend hours trying to fix it. Think I have it works for awhile and then stops working ugh." - Busymomma66
11
"service"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AT&T Charges For What Verizon Gives For Free. Family location services are free on Verizon, but AT&T wants $7.99 per month? Seriously? This should be free. Especially for top tier accounts." - CPST_Jim
12
"device"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Random. Disconnects from VPN randomly. Holding our child’s iPhone myself untouched and within a day exclamation warning about ‘Device has been disconnected from VPN…’ even when his phone has not been used. Reconnecting child’s phone gets tedious." - Japan Manager Lee
📋 All 69 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").
One more price gouge
I should not have to pay a fee to set limits on my child’s phone.
Doesn’t work for flip phone
Loaded to be able to make sure my 98 year old father was safe. Said it works for flip phone, the only thing that works is the billing. Trouble turning the dang thing off.
Random
Disconnects from VPN randomly. Holding our child’s iPhone myself untouched and within a day exclamation warning about ‘Device has been disconnected from VPN…’ even when his phone has not been used. Reconnecting child’s phone gets tedious.
Slow
It’s extremely slow and it updates location hours later. We’re both home, connected to wifi and giving this a try and I must say- it’s really bad..
Glitches
This app keeps telling me that it is unable to complete your request please try again later. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max. I am the only one in my family having this problem. I am also the one who downloaded the app and set the family up. If this problem persists I’ll be deleting the app the last time I had this problem with it, it took me about 2 full days to fix it.
The app is not working
I’ve been using the AT&T security family app for the last two months and all of a sudden today it doesn’t work at all. I called AT&T pro tech-support and they said there’s something wrong with the server now I can’t even talk to anybody. I can’t even connect to my family members to make sure that they’re safe. The child app on their end works and doesn’t work. They can’t even see. Because the parent app is not working at all.
AT&T Charges For What Verizon Gives For Free
Family location services are free on
Verizon, but AT&T wants $7.99 per month?
Seriously?
This should be free. Especially for top tier accounts.
Verizon, but AT&T wants $7.99 per month?
Seriously?
This should be free. Especially for top tier accounts.
as a kid I had this app
Heya I’m tori a victim of this app. My mom installed this app on my phone after finding my discord account. It has installed three viruses on my phone within the first day. I won’t wish this app on my worst enemy. Now when I log into anything or google anything all I see is gore or p0rn. I hate this app with a passion parents please don’t give your kid this app. Now I’m stuck cleaning out everything this app installed on my phone.
ATT customer can’t even subscribe?
Maybe their update the app since it’s 11:30pm California time - still why take my money on a 30 day trial when the app will not install or open? Seems typical AT&T - and this comes from a 20yr customer.
Horrible
Only worked the first day. Then stopped working all together
I Only keep it for old numbers
It still triangulates old numbers. That’s why I’m still paying for it. Otherwise, it’s junk. Requiring to install stuff on the kids phone, change settings, install vpn, and then it still doesn’t work. sadly, they changed a perfect app, and made it a piece of junk. By the way, most recent reviews have 1 star. The app’s 4.6 rating is probably because of old reviews of the old version
Completely useless
If you want to use this app to monitor and limit the usage on the children’s devices then it’s a complete fail. I don’t even know what is the monthly fee they are charging for given the buggy design of this app.
Terrible, again
Location is terrible on this app. Will be good for a bit then back to awful. For $8 a month, just ridiculous.
Not good
Does not work most of the time
Not working
It was working fine and not it doesn’t work. My kids phone is stuck in limbo because I can’t access the app
It is supposed to be a free service
It is supposed to be a free service, everyone has the right to manage their account as they like, children's safety is important, we cannot pay twice
App doesn’t work
I can’t get past the terms of service page. I press the “I agree” button but nothing happens.
App no longer lets me sign in
It forgot that I was already signed in, so I had to do it again. I got to a point where I had to accept the new terms of service, and it won’t let me advance from there. When I click accept, it just spins for a second and then returns to the same screen.
App setup n use
Difficult
Not working
horrible
Why not use Screen Time?
Unless this app is multi-platform (might be, don't know)... I'm not sure why pay $8/month per decide (that's hundreds/year for my family) when it offers less functionality than Apple's "Screen Time" and "Find My" gives families. I've seen some mention Chatting/communications... um... got that with iMessage, Signal, Whatsapp... wait that's far too many already! I must be missing something... but whatever it is I'm guessing isn't worth hundreds per year for a family.
PSA: Don't use any app or phone to prevent your kids from committing harmful acts to others or themselves. I'm a bit alarmed at comments thinking that's the purpose.
PSA: Don't use any app or phone to prevent your kids from committing harmful acts to others or themselves. I'm a bit alarmed at comments thinking that's the purpose.
Doesn’t block hotspot as advertised
We were told the only way to set it up so the internet/hotspot would be blocked each night was to subscribe to this service. It doesn’t work. The hotspot could be accessed during “bedtime.” We tried to get help and were told there were glitches at times, but this was no glitch. It simply doesn’t work. We emailed the support email as directed and no one bothered to respond. If you want this app to block the internet at set times, don’t waste your time or money.
Could be good
This app would be good if there was a way to block child from turning off VPN. Now is is just at best fair. Might be OK for young. Children who do not figure out how to turn off VPN.
Doesn’t stop hotspot
We were told by AT&T that when data was turned off by this app, the hotspot would be as well. That was not true, the hotspot continues to function even when you turn off your kids data. There’s no point of turning off data if they can just use each other’s hotspots to bypass all of it
Issues
Won’t let me agree to terms
Inaccurate
Unfortunately this app does a poor job in a lot of areas. The location tracking is incorrect OFTEN as well as the online activity data. I will be cancelling this soon
Worst App in App Store
Never ever works
Horrendous
Horrendous
Doesn’t work anymore
Been using this for years with no issues until one of the recent updates took away the ability to track location. Absolutely ridiculous.
Issue
There’s an issue with the kids using the Internet for the day and adding rewards to extend their time. It’s not working right they’re allowed two hours and then we’re supposed to get a notification that time has timed out and we can give them more time that is not happening, please fix.
Would NOT Recommend
Sure I could track my daughter’s GPS, set time limits, and block apps BUT the VPN prevented her from using FaceTime to talk to me, she couldn’t use kids messenger to talk to her friends, and they don’t send reports regarding concerning messages.
Bad app
Don’t work
Trash!
This app worked at first but it continually like unpairs with the child’s phone making it useless. I kept noticing my child on the internet when it should’ve been blocked. Then I’d go to daily usage and it’s as if he hasn’t used the phone when I saw him playing on it. It’s great in theory but trash in reality.
Difficult
This app is horrible to use and install on the companion device! I have never used a more difficult app
WARNING!!
You will NEVER be able to delete this app once installed. Just use Apple Family for your children to remain in control of your device.
Go figure
What if i told you this wasnt a real app nor was this the iPhone App Store? What if i told you it was either- depending on your device, a hacked version of the Apple WatchOS system or the MacOS system. If youre seeing this while trying to download an app on your iPhone or iPad Im quite sorry, but youve probably had your identity stolen… for a long time. This is specific to this app and AT&T because your prepaid cell service is so unsecure you dont even have a single dedicated fraud prevention staff member willing to help me fix all this stuff… I should move to post huh? Well not now. One star is a gift when its so riddled with exploits its on this version of the app store.
No sirve
The first version was better now I have to download the application on all Pat phones to be able to see where they are and sometimes it doesn't work
Creepy Stepdad
My stepfather uses this app to creep on our internet search history and to follow me around when I’m out and about it’s really creepy
App stopped working
***Updated again 2/9/24***
Please stop telling me to update again! You know how to do it. This keeps happening. I will cancel service if you insist on me updating, because I will NEVER get my kids to comply with it. Which makes it completely useless.
Updated again 11/16/23 Seriously guys, everyone hates this new update. Bring it back the way it was. I did not update, but you made it stop working. Please make it work again! You know how to do it. **updated review** So, a few days after I wrote this review, the app -not updated - started working again. This made me very happy, since that is what I wanted. Just tried it again, though, and it won’t work any more. Coincidentally, right after AT&T just billed me for the new month. Please make this app able to work -again - without the horrible new update!! I will cancel this service otherwise. ** (Original review) I loved this app, but it stopped working just today. It worked fine yesterday. I read the reviews and I DO NOT want to update. We all have old phones, and my kids are away from home - they will not update voluntarily. Please make this work without updating!!! Or I will have to cancel this subscription.
Please stop telling me to update again! You know how to do it. This keeps happening. I will cancel service if you insist on me updating, because I will NEVER get my kids to comply with it. Which makes it completely useless.
Updated again 11/16/23 Seriously guys, everyone hates this new update. Bring it back the way it was. I did not update, but you made it stop working. Please make it work again! You know how to do it. **updated review** So, a few days after I wrote this review, the app -not updated - started working again. This made me very happy, since that is what I wanted. Just tried it again, though, and it won’t work any more. Coincidentally, right after AT&T just billed me for the new month. Please make this app able to work -again - without the horrible new update!! I will cancel this service otherwise. ** (Original review) I loved this app, but it stopped working just today. It worked fine yesterday. I read the reviews and I DO NOT want to update. We all have old phones, and my kids are away from home - they will not update voluntarily. Please make this work without updating!!! Or I will have to cancel this subscription.
Terrible
Woke up 1/30/24 to a message that my subscription was cancelled. Why? I was sleeping I didn’t cancel.
Had to create a new account?? None of my information is there
I can’t track my parents because they don’t have smartphones and I can’t download the app.
I shouldn’t have to. I should have access to Any phone number on my AT&T account without having to download an app.
I travel a lot and need to be able to see if my parents are safe when I can not call them.
Please fix this asap
Had to create a new account?? None of my information is there
I can’t track my parents because they don’t have smartphones and I can’t download the app.
I shouldn’t have to. I should have access to Any phone number on my AT&T account without having to download an app.
I travel a lot and need to be able to see if my parents are safe when I can not call them.
Please fix this asap
App constantly crashes when sending new invite
Unable to resend an invite to child device after iOS update. Uninstalled app, rebooted and reinstalled. App crashes immediately when sending invite to family member.
Only works for AT&T phones, not Home Internet
Repeatedly throws error that the app can only be used by AT&T customers yet allows no Home Internet login ability, meaning it solely relies on the cellular account matching - not what I’m looking for. I need to parental control on AT&T home internet.
Terrible coverage - very spotty
We got this to use across various cellphone platforms and it rarely works. Every single day we get notifications the child’s companion app has had changes made to the settings (when none have) and that we need to re-sync. The entire point of having a way to locate a missing cell phone goes out the window when the app uninstalls itself. Not worth the $8/month.
Crashes adding any children
This application completely crashes, anytime I try to add my kids. This makes it completely useless. I’m on an iPhone 14. I have uninstalled the app and reinstalled it. I’ve restarted the phone. I tried to click on app support here in the App Store but there’s nowhere to submit any bug reports or get a hold of anybody or email anybody or call anybody or anything. I paid for this subscription and it doesn’t work at all.
#runaway do not #walkaway from this app.
I wish I had more time to write this review but this is could be so much better.
1. Always drops VPN (my kids did not touch the VPN settings.)
2. Location data is always incorrect or lags, not hours but days.
3. For $7.99 a month subscription this is the worst app ever. (Wish I had stopped the subscription sooner but being a loyal AT&T customer for over 30 years, could not believe it was so much a waste without giving the app the benefit of the doubt.)
1. Always drops VPN (my kids did not touch the VPN settings.)
2. Location data is always incorrect or lags, not hours but days.
3. For $7.99 a month subscription this is the worst app ever. (Wish I had stopped the subscription sooner but being a loyal AT&T customer for over 30 years, could not believe it was so much a waste without giving the app the benefit of the doubt.)
Issues
Ever since the update we have had so many issues with the app disconnecting from the child’s phone. Disabling the VPN and blocking connection when internet was not turned off. We never had these issues before and we have had the service since it came out. Very disappointed. Also when saving locations it keeps telling me I can’t add new locations because my subscription is not equipped and I would need to upgrade but there is nothing to upgrade to.
Can’t add new devices since fall ‘23 update
The app was updated in October/november and now doesn’t keep track of usage history. It always says “o minutes” every day. I got a new device yesterday and it won’t let me link it my app. Each time I try to invite him the app crashes and I have to start over. I’ve updated my phone, deleted and reinstalled the app, and called customer service. They told me they were running maintenance and to reinstall it in 30 minutes, then tried to sell me device protection plans….🙄. Needless to say 3 hours later the app still isn’t working even though I’m paying $7.99 a month. Hopefully it gets resolved soon because it worked well before the update a few months ago!
Poor upgrade
I’ve called ATT 4 times now to resolve functionality. All they tell me is “we will update our app eventually”. They claim they will resolve it then they just close the ticket without resolving anything. I then have to call back and start the whole process over. The last round (with the issue still unresolved) the agent actually suggested I try a T-Mobile or Verizon app. Like, seriously, I’ve been with ATT for over 10’years and to direct me there I should just move service
defect in the app
You have to download the application on all the phones and if the children want to, they delete the app and that is a big problem because then you cannot locate them. The previous version did not need to download the app on the children's phones. It automatically appeared on the map where they were. our children's phones and now they don't, because if the children want to delete or stop the app on their phone, I am very upset the previous version was better in that I hope they can add that again, let me know because I already canceled the subscription .
Not working on iPhone 14plus after an update
I have been paying for it for several month, but after the update it has not been working at all.
App doesn’t work!!
Previous version at least work although far less accurate than find my iPhone. After upgrade to latest iOS version, the family devices (both an iPhone 15 and an iPhone 12) cannot be added anymore - it simply shows a big !. The app crashes after sending invitation code and doesn’t show QR code for companion device to add. What a disappointment! After a few future tries I decided to cancel the subscription.
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Sentiment summary
90%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)