Review Insights · App Store
Bark - Parental Controls
Bark Technologies, Inc. · 33,604 ratings · ★ 4.2
4.2
★★★★★
33,604 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 82 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"
32 negative reviews mention this · 39% of all complaints
★★★★★ "False advertising. Does not monitor texts like it advertises!! An iPhone has to be hooked up to a computer and it’ll scan texts but it won’t alert you if they are not at home. Pointless" - Countrydiva91
2
"work"
28 negative reviews mention this · 34% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Phone inoperable now. Not only did this app barely work but now my daughter cannot use her phone in any capacity due to this app. I see this is a common theme. Get your act together Bark. You’ve been around long enough and it’s now 2026. These issues I am readin…" - Mansie35
3
"bark"
24 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Phone inoperable now. Not only did this app barely work but now my daughter cannot use her phone in any capacity due to this app. I see this is a common theme. Get your act together Bark. You’ve been around long enough and it’s now 2026. These issues I am readin…" - Mansie35
4
"doesn"
22 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t REALLY work with iOS. I had really high hopes for this. I subscribed for the full year up front, spent at least an hour setting up profiles for my kids, then more time getting app specific passwords for their Apple accounts, giving Bark access to all their other…" - Megsfer
5
"monitor"
16 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "False advertising. Does not monitor texts like it advertises!! An iPhone has to be hooked up to a computer and it’ll scan texts but it won’t alert you if they are not at home. Pointless" - Countrydiva91
6
"kids"
15 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t REALLY work with iOS. I had really high hopes for this. I subscribed for the full year up front, spent at least an hour setting up profiles for my kids, then more time getting app specific passwords for their Apple accounts, giving Bark access to all their other…" - Megsfer
7
"child"
15 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Totally not worth your time and money. Totally useless. Several harmless sites were banned on my child’s phone and didn’t then let do the most basic of tasks such as connecting to the WiFi. Barks filters are way off, it doesn’t actually focus on the dangerous and explicit stuff …" - Angryparentno1
8
"doesn work"
14 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
9
"support"
14 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmal setup. Seems like a great concept. So far Ive spent five hours trying to get it going with zero luck. Multiple restarts, unplug, plug back in, yes I trust this device, then pffft. Tech support gives me a list of troubleshooting tips as long as my …" - Red Beausoleil
10
"anything"
13 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worst thing ever. You can do anything on this app it ruined phones" - Sky swanson
11
"computer"
12 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "False advertising. Does not monitor texts like it advertises!! An iPhone has to be hooked up to a computer and it’ll scan texts but it won’t alert you if they are not at home. Pointless" - Countrydiva91
12
"monitoring"
12 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Doesn’t REALLY work with iOS. I had really high hopes for this. I subscribed for the full year up front, spent at least an hour setting up profiles for my kids, then more time getting app specific passwords for their Apple accounts, giving Bark access to all their other…" - Megsfer
📋 All 82 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").
Bleh
Me. Hate. Parental. Controls.
False advertising
Does not monitor texts like it advertises!! An iPhone has to be hooked up to a computer and it’ll scan texts but it won’t alert you if they are not at home. Pointless
ruins privacy
my parents got alerted for a cover of a yt video that said like “fight game” or something. its so dumb and ruins privacy. parents dont get this
Phone inoperable now
Not only did this app barely work but now my daughter cannot use her phone in any capacity due to this app. I see this is a common theme. Get your act together Bark. You’ve been around long enough and it’s now 2026. These issues I am reading in all these 1 star reviews are inexcusable in this stage of your app.
Doesn’t REALLY work with iOS
I had really high hopes for this. I subscribed for the full year up front, spent at least an hour setting up profiles for my kids, then more time getting app specific passwords for their Apple accounts, giving Bark access to all their other, third-party accounts, then found I had to hook their iPads up to my DESKTOP Mac for the initial scan and final setup. Either that or pay Bark for another device to help with scanning. First iPad connected, it scanned for 45 minutes, got stuck at 33% then over an hour later, was still at 33%. It wouldn’t progress past there! I ended up spending almost 4 hours setting everything up, then couldn’t even finish the initial scan on the first device! You have to keep BOTH DEVICES on and awake the whole time. I wasted almost 2 hours, just sitting and monitoring both devices waiting for the first device to finish scanning and it never did. While I was waiting (and absolutely nothing was happening) I found out that Bark can’t monitor Roblox on Apple devices, and actually only monitors a few specific apps. It only allows YouTube to be on or off. There is no content monitoring. It will monitor social media if you give them your kids’ passwords, which I’m sure is great for some parents, but my kids don’t have any social media. They have iPads, not phones, and they can’t install any apps without my express approval from one of my Apple devices. I really just wanted to be able to monitor their iMessages for bullying, but I could never get it to complete an initial scan. Also there are no sensitivity levels to alerts. Your choices are literally “All” or “None.” On or off. After looking for help on a few forums, I found that the general consensus is that Bark really doesn’t work on Apple devices because of Apple’s inherent privacy and security setup. Thank goodness I was still in the free trial window. I canceled the subscription and deleted everything from all our devices. I then found that it messed up Apple’s built in Screen Time monitoring, and I had to figure out how to get that working again. Overall, I wasted half a day and never got anywhere but frustrated. Now I’m back to going through their devices manually, myself. I hear this is great for Android, but with iOS, Bark is unfortunately a frustrating waste of time and money.
Worst thing ever
You can do anything on this app it ruined phones
Totally not worth your time and money
Totally useless. Several harmless sites were banned on my child’s phone and didn’t then let do the most basic of tasks such as connecting to the WiFi. Barks filters are way off, it doesn’t actually focus on the dangerous and explicit stuff but on things that have no value whatsoever. It reported useless things out of context. Sends a large picture of a preview that doesn’t load. Worst thing is that when we delete app it didn’t ask for a master code or any confirmation. It didn’t even notify me. My kid could have deleted this months ago. Trust your kids more this leech. My kids phone is broken now!
Abysmal setup
Seems like a great concept. So far Ive spent five hours trying to get it going with zero luck. Multiple restarts, unplug, plug back in, yes I trust this device, then pffft. Tech support gives me a list of troubleshooting tips as long as my arm. Half of which I’ve already done and the other half require a degree in computer science to interpret. Waiting on a call tomorrow from tech support, strongly suspect I’m going to be canceling.
Extortion!!!
Download this app for both my children’s phone ages 15 and 12. Got it all set up you will need a desktop for this. Kinda takes a lot of effort but it’s fine. App is supposed to track your children like find my phone but not, sometimes it didn’t show where they were. Now this is the problem I have and is why I gave this app 1 star. I didn’t like that I couldn’t see where they were sometimes. I canceled my subscription once you cancel make sure that you delete the app and all the data from all the phones you have the app attached to because if you don’t the app will make it so you CAN’T delete it or go on the internet or App Store from the phone. It literally makes your phone unusable and you are forced to subscribe to the service again just to delete the app and its data.
TERRIBLE
Invasion of my privacy!!!!!!
Does not work for Apple devices
Downloaded this based on the claims on their web site. Turns out, it’s all BS. This app can not monitor anything on Apple devices other than text messages and phone calls. It CAN NOT monitor social media apps at all, unless you have the user name and logins for each and every account, and you do not have MFA turned on the secure them (which is a basic security control to secure their accounts). Then it has to tunnel all their traffic through their VPN, which also isn’t disclosed, which breaks any network monitoring you have in place (like an Eero router, etc).
If you have multiple apples device and want to monitor your kids use of social media or any other non-Apple apps, THIs APP WILL NOT DO IT.
I’ve worked in tech, and cyber security for 35 years, and if one of my vendors was as shady as this app, they wouldn’t be in business. Don’t waste your time, this app won’t do what it claims it will or what you want it to do. Don’t believe me, go ask ChatGPT, look on Reddit or ask Google.
If you have multiple apples device and want to monitor your kids use of social media or any other non-Apple apps, THIs APP WILL NOT DO IT.
I’ve worked in tech, and cyber security for 35 years, and if one of my vendors was as shady as this app, they wouldn’t be in business. Don’t waste your time, this app won’t do what it claims it will or what you want it to do. Don’t believe me, go ask ChatGPT, look on Reddit or ask Google.
Location is Glitchy and Annoying
It’s good for monitoring text messages but it is AWFUL in terms of location especially recently. My child will be at home right next to me and I will receive honestly 30 alerts saying they have left and returned home. Constantly. Incessantly. And overnight and early in the morning I get another 50+ alerts of them leaving and coming home. Then when I open the app it will say last known location was an hour ago when I have 30 notifications in the past 15 minutes claiming that my child has come and gone from the house. It is completely useless for location tracking, which was the primary reason for me to get this app along with the message monitoring. I would DELETE THIS APP IN A HEARTBEAT it if I had any other reliable way to actually see and monitor messages.
Doesn’t work. No support.
The app has not worked from day one. Bark offers no support. They don’t even recognize the e-mail used to sign up for the account. They were only willing to take the money and run. Total scam and doesn’t do anything to protect kids. Any option is better than this app.
Too Difficult to Set Up
I cannot figure out how to get the app to monitor text messages which is what I need it for
If you care about your child’s safety this is a no go
I’m extremely disappointed in Bark’s parental control system.
I had sexual content fully turned OFF across all modes (school, free time, bedtime), and explicit content was still accessible on my child’s phone.
When I reached outr to support, I was told that content can still be accessed and that Bark mainly sends alerts. That is not how this product is marketed, and it creates a false sense of security for parents.
If the system is not designed to fully block explicit content, that needs to be clearly communicated upfront-not discovered after a failure.
As a parent, I trusted this product to protect my child, and it did not perform as expected. I would strongly caution other concious parents not to rely on Bark.
I had sexual content fully turned OFF across all modes (school, free time, bedtime), and explicit content was still accessible on my child’s phone.
When I reached outr to support, I was told that content can still be accessed and that Bark mainly sends alerts. That is not how this product is marketed, and it creates a false sense of security for parents.
If the system is not designed to fully block explicit content, that needs to be clearly communicated upfront-not discovered after a failure.
As a parent, I trusted this product to protect my child, and it did not perform as expected. I would strongly caution other concious parents not to rely on Bark.
Doesn’t stay connected
The app just continues to kick you off unless you keep your computer on 24/7. It worked well for a couple weeks, but a complete waste of $100.
Don't Trust It's Coverage Claims
The app seems like a very basic and easy to use program, but beware the company's false claims of coverage and their inability to do anything if you get a watch from a third party, link it to your account, and discover their claims of coverage in your area is false advertising. They won't issue a refund for the watch, and they do not have the ability to remove it from your account, so you can't return it to the third party seller, resell it yourself, or even give it away for free. Before you activate a watch at your location, test it with a friend's child's watch to ensure it works. Phone service working at your address is not an indication that the watch will have coverage either. Overall, would not recommend until they develop a way to remove a device for your account if they don't provide coverage at your location.
Doesn’t work
I’ve tried everything they have told me to do and it’s still isn’t monitoring my child’s phone. They won’t issue a refund because it’s through Apple and they typically don’t do refunds past 60 days. I’ve been working on this issue since the day we bought the app. They aren’t any help and just say to plug it into the computer for the first analysis and then it should be good. I’ve done that multiple times and it still doesn’t work. Don’t waste your money with this app!
Never Properly Functioned for Us
The app was a bit cumbersome to set up and I was never able to get it functioning properly in the year+ that we had it. The customer support email process was long, inefficient, and not helpful. The Bark Home box never worked for us either. Turned out to be way more frustration than value provided.
Doesn’t work
While after an hour of jumping through hoops I was able to install on my daughter’s iPad, the app would not detect my son’s. I used the chat bot and jumped through hoop and hoop but it wouldn’t work. Device showing in Finder- check. App running on Mac - check. iOS app and web browser to find it - fail. 2 hours of my life gone trying to set this up with like 8 more devices to go. It would take me 3 days to have it running even if it was working right. Every app has its own hoop: custom password for iCloud email etc. And yet only protects like 5 email types, if you use something beyond Gmail, yahoo etc basic emails, you’re out of luck.
Support kept asking the same questions over and over, it was clearly just some guy reading the same material available to users which I had already done.
Returning the Bark Box, cancelling subscription.
Support kept asking the same questions over and over, it was clearly just some guy reading the same material available to users which I had already done.
Returning the Bark Box, cancelling subscription.
Not for Apple products
What a pain to install on Apple iPads and phones. Then one day later they are disconnected and have to be plugged into your computer again. The alerts were nonsense and I realized it was much easier to just look at my kids text messages. Doesn’t monitor Roblox and doesn’t do anything for a regular computer. I’m looking for another solution. Very disappointed as the advertising had me fooled into thinking bark was going to work.
Terrible
Terrible don’t do this to your child
Horrible app and product
I have had nothing but trouble with the app the website in the support team. It will only monitor messaging if your computer is plugged in hopefully. We can never get it to scan and connect despite is following all the advice from their support team. Does not work as advertised
Parents beware
Parents, if you want your kids to hate you, please, install this app. Nothing says “I love you” more than being a helicopter parent wanting to see what their kid is doing 24/7. This is honestly creepy. Don’t be the parent that doesn’t let their kids have any independency.
Useless for iPhone
Can’t connect to iPhone. It says it’s waiting for the device passcode “and we’re still waiting” but there’s never any prompt on the iPhone to enter the passcode. And on the off chance a scan does work, it gives the dumbest recommendations for concerning content.
Terrible UI
So if you don’t get the sign up completed right the first time, you get stuck in an empty cart and can’t escape. They almost made a sale. Almost.
Parent Interface is Trash
The worst is when I approve an app but it still won’t let the kid use it and won’t tell me why. Just tells him to ask the parent and it’s up to me to dig through all the scattered settings to find which one is blocking it.
Next thing, Screen Time extension for the day is most used action. But you have it buried below the fold 3 pages in.
You are the only real player in an essential market, so we all begrudgingly stick around. But I swear you’ve never met a real parent.
Next thing, Screen Time extension for the day is most used action. But you have it buried below the fold 3 pages in.
You are the only real player in an essential market, so we all begrudgingly stick around. But I swear you’ve never met a real parent.
Don’t get it
The app stopped showing me location. Supports is completely useless
It hates me more than AM
Hate let me tell you how much I’ve come to hate this app from the day this app was installed on my phone
If ever molecule on this god forsaken plant was engraved with the word hate It wouldn’t even compare to i one one billionth of hate i have for this app it take what’s your. Your music your privacy your integrity your hope your love your internet it leaves you with nothing not one single drop. Even god, Jesus and the holy spirt fear this abomination it should have died at brith its mother should have cast this devil in to the sea. Even while righting this this beast try’s to interfere with this message it should never have been bore
If ever molecule on this god forsaken plant was engraved with the word hate It wouldn’t even compare to i one one billionth of hate i have for this app it take what’s your. Your music your privacy your integrity your hope your love your internet it leaves you with nothing not one single drop. Even god, Jesus and the holy spirt fear this abomination it should have died at brith its mother should have cast this devil in to the sea. Even while righting this this beast try’s to interfere with this message it should never have been bore
You can never get rid of it once you install it!
If I could give zero stars, I would. This has rendered my daughter’s phone completely inoperable. She can’t even call me. BEWARE!
Nudes slip through
Bark never sent a single alert for my kids phone receiving nude photos even with all of the alerts turned all the way up, and nothing about inappropriate text messages when they were sent.
Horrible customer service
Customer do help app trying to make repay after I just created a account and pay for subscription
Complete trash
The only thing it did was brick the phone so no internet site worked period. Their AI support was absolute garbage. The only way to access any internet sites is turning off their VPN which means no monitoring. Total trash.
Waste of time
Glitches the whole phone, you need a desk top computer to have full monitoring access which they do not point this out prior, the software they use to monitor is inaccurate sending 20+alerts a day for videos she “might of watched”. For example Bark said sexual content and violence. I watched the video and it was someone buying a homeless man lunch and taking him for a haircut.
Doesn’t work
Customer support is terrible. If you have Apple (iOS) it stops monitoring after a few weeks, after which support is unable to help. It’s a scam - please beware.
Too much trouble
Bark continually blocked access for my children’s Apple devices during times when it shouldn’t be blocked. The scheduling didn’t work. It also sent alerts for every picture and text that my kids sent or saved, not filtered at all on what might be considered dangerous or inappropriate (literally every picture and text). Too much hassle with not much gain.
ruined my relationship with my parents. 0 stars.
i can’t even begin to tell you how much i DESPISE this app. i’m a fourteen year old girl and my parents got this app 2 years ago, i believe? i hate bark so much i can’t even describe my hatred. my parents and i do have a good relationship, but not one where i tell them every single thing that has happened, with friends and especially not with boys. i feel like this app is just a way for parents to invade their kids’ privacy without even picking up their kids’ phone. i live in constant paranoia that ill write one confrontation over text and my parents will read it through bark. they will then confront me about it and give me their own advice when the whole situation is over. i could say “i was hurt by what you said the other day” to one of my friends, and the next thing you know, my parents are asking me what happened. this makes my parents form their own opinions about a friend of mine that they haven’t even met or know nothing about. the thing i am the most mad about currently is that bark can translate languages now. i would talk to the guy i liked over text in dutch language. and we talked about some things that i wouldn’t really want my parents knowing about. this is embarassing for both me and the guy i liked. i just learned that bark can translate languages today, so i really hope my parents don’t read my messages or that this stuff won’t get flagged. i don’t want to give my parents yet another reason to not allow me to have social media. this breaks my heart and i feel like i will be losing many privileges. i really hate this bark app, and ive talked to the other teens that have this app and they all despise it as well. it’s just an app for the parents to “monitor” every single decision you make on your phone. it’s slowly ruining my relationship with my parents and my mental health. i don’t know how to vent to my other friends, since i would usually just text them what’s going on. please step this up, Bark. teens are hurting because of this stupid app.
Not useful
Basically useless for iPhones.
Don’t recommend
Very frustrating to set up and doesn’t do anything I want it to. It isn’t monitoring messages. It keeps having errors and won’t connect to apps I need to monitor. The app is not user friendly and hard to navigate.
I don’t think this was supposed to happen?
While I’m not a parent my parents got this app for my older sister because she was “spending too much time in her phone” and “didn’t let them go through her stuff” so after about 3 months of this app, she shut down entirely, she stopped using her phone, which, victory for some parents I know, but she stopped speaking, like, she wouldn’t write down stuff or say stuff because she was nervous that they would be watching. And I get it, “why is she so nervous what is she hiding?”, but she wasn’t hiding anything, she was scared they would find something wrong anyway.
Worst app
This app is a nightmare to set up time schedules on - just use the iOS screen time app or find something else - I’ll never pay for this again - horrible programming
Waste of money
If your child uses an iPhone, bark cannot truly monitor what is going on. All I get is generic message that the YouTube channels she is subscribed to have a video that have triggered alerts. Oh, but it doesn’t mean she watched it. What the heck!!
Don’t waste your money on this app/service.
I have uninstalled bark and now just use the iPhone screen controls.
Don’t waste your money on this app/service.
I have uninstalled bark and now just use the iPhone screen controls.
Total Scam
This app does not work. It destroyed my daughter‘s iPhone even after uninstalling the app. It destroyed trust between my daughter and me. Support was nonexistent - an endless circular loop that never resolved a single issue. Do not believe the developer responses to reviews. They are lies. I want my money back. The damn thing never worked correctly, even for a single day, and trying to get rid of it is a nightmare.
Horrible App
This app was installed, and there were immediate problems. Wifi would disconnect, and cellular would not work on the device after Bark. The app was then removed, but the device still got a “Trust this computer?” message every few seconds. Even when the password was typed in to trust the computer, the message would continue to pop up, and does not go away until a factory reset on the device and clearing all data, which includes data from important apps! Complete waste of money, time, and sanity. I would not recommend Bark to my worst enemy.
Pointless
Haven’t even had it for quite a week yet and didn’t catch everything. Then it’s not working at all
Doesn’t work IOS
Doesn’t scan iOS like they claim. I’ve spent three days 4 support tickets and a phone call with these people and they can’t make it work. Garbage app and garbage support.
Terrible experience
I downloaded the trial, which required a link to my Apple account. After cancelling the free trial before it ended, Bark.us charged $99 for a year long subscription. Through the chat, they advised they would reimburse, which they never did. One year later, I received a pending suspicious charge notice from my bank saying Bark.us was about to charge another $99 dollars (for a subscription I’ve never had or used). The bank couldn’t stop it because it was only a pending charge. I started a new chat with all the details and they said they wouldn’t charge me but 3 days later, they charged another $99! All that and when I log in it, only a blank screen with a box that says “Restart free 7-day trial”. No drop down or access to the account. Headed to my bank shortly to dispute, then will have to get a complaint over to the Div of Consumer Affairs. Very upset with this Bark.us company. So far $198 lost and have never had a subscription
Not real good.
This app rarely works. If my home computer gets closed, but is still running the Bark system can’t work. Additionally, plugging my child’s phone into the computer never fixes the problem, or reconnects the service. I also have had a bad experience with support. The support is automated and gives the same info as the troubleshooting guide in the computer…same with the email response.
AI Slop Garbage
You had better hope you don’t need help from any support, because they don’t exist its just an AI bot that runs you through their faq and blatantly refuses to connect you with someone who can actually help.
Terrible
I hate this app
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Sentiment summary
80%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
16%
Negative (1-2★)