Reviews for Verizon Family

I got the app and companion app on two children's phones. All paired. Worked well for a couple weeks. Then it didn't work at all. I would get email updates that stated usage and link to the app, but the app showed no activity. One of my children deleted the app and I was not notified. I also got kicked off the app and when I signed in, 2 step authentication went to a number not on my plan. Don't know if I was hacked. Code didn't come to my phone. When I signed back in later, everything was ok.

I've uninstalled, reinstalled, rinsed and repeated. I can't even access the settings. I've done EVERYTHING in the instructions, what customer "care" & tech "support" told me to do. I wasted 2 hours of my life trying to make this work. The call dropped and the dude didn't even have the courtesy to call back. Not to mention the "free" phone I'm trapped with for 2 years otherwise I have to pay for it. Do not even suggest I open a ticket. I've been through enough with you people. Horrible company!!

My 12 year old was able to make a new profile (her phone can have multiple users/profiles) that bypassed all filters and settings. I'm guessing that it sets up a new VPN. But long story short, my twelve year old outsmarted the app and me. ☹️😩 Also, they just have to turn off their location which the app doesn't allow us to force it to come on and it makes the location a very large range and sometimes wildly inaccurate!

This app is horrible. I get constant texts from Verizon telling me that content filters aren't working on my kid's device. The GPS locator is slow and inaccurate most of the time. Also, there is a huge range on the location unlike many other GPS tracking apps. Worst of all... Verizon charges $10/month for this. It should be included. If I could give it zero stars, I totally would.

It will report that your child was online in the middle of the night, when it's actually the smart family app checking for updates on its own. I can only imagine the kids that have gotten in trouble for those incorrect alerts. It will also say your kid was texting during night or school hours even if they only receive a text, and don't respond or acknowledge it. It's decent overall, but there are some kinks that need to be worked out.

This app is garbage and the support is worse. The location is off by as much as 5 miles and one phone updates location once every 5 to 6 weeks. I know it isn't a person manipulating it because it is my phone. When it does locate it used to be exact. Now it is never closer than a half mile. Usually several miles off. I've opened tickets with tech support. Attempted to use the feedback section. They just ignore me or say they will be contacting me soon. I live in a 4G city. Save your money!

App was working fine until the latest forced update. Now nothing is blocking on my kid's phone. I deleted my kid profile, deleted the app from my phone and my kid, downloaded the apps on the phones, did all the setup on phones and nothing blocking. The service feed back on the app is useless as they just send you a link on how to block things. Useless. Please release an update fixing this.

Generally works, when it wants to, but your latest forced update means that I can't change my child's settings until they update their app. I logged in to change their settings and the parent app wouldn't let me do anything without updating the app. So I did. Now I can't update their app because they are locked out of internet connection during school hours. Now both of my kids are essentially locked out of their phones until the restrictions come off at the end of the day.

They dont have the time settings correct. I live on west coast. The app time limits for the app are based on Eastern time. So there is always a co fliction as to what the limits are, and when I get reports of him being on his phone past a time limit. Its stupid. He sent 500 texts in a month, and I never got any reports as to who or when he was texting because it doesnt sync with what is on my phone. The app is horrible and can 100 times better if someone decided to put a little effort into it.

App is basic, slow & error-prone. I'm not even using location (Life360 Free is far superior) or the companion app (Qustodio is superior). I just want to be able to block certain numbers on my daughter's phone. And even that is limited to 20! It makes no sense! Plus it won't sync with contacts or start a contacts list so you're typing in numbers (can lead to errors). And it recently began allowing blocked contacts through. And tech "support" is a joke. I expect more at $5/mo.

App is horrible. Kids leave, I don't hear from the app for an hour or so, same when they arrive home. If it's not reliable on when the leave and return, how would it be if they were actually in trouble. Oh yeah, not to mention that it put limits on my phone as well that it took me 3 phone calls to have that fixed. Not impressed Verizon. Not impressed.

I love most everything about the app, except the location is usually inaccurate, and when it is accurate, it still does not show precise location, only approximate. I also feel like it does not give the parent enough control over what kids can get into on their phones. I have tried to troubleshoot this and it won't allow me to contact the help center in the app. Update 7/24/23: I have canceled this service. It never really did a very good job...

For a company as big as Verizon and for paying $10/mo for this app, it should work nearly flawless! But it doesn't. Even if I click "Keep me signed in" I still have to log in each time. Half the time I try to make adjustments to the limitations on my kids profiles, it says "Error try again later." It is very frustrating to pay for an app that only works half the time.

What is the point of having this app if the kid can turn it off? I was told, once you pair it, they can't get rid of it so but thats not the case. I get texts saying content was removed & then very inaccurate locations due to phones not being paired, even though we already paired them. The whole point of having an app like this is so that you're in total control but it's useless when they disable it. life360 is way more accurate and its free, I'm canceling!

I'm paying for this app to pinpoint the location of family members as well at other features. I've followed directions during installation, reinstalled and updated on all devices and still the locations are incorrect. It continually gives me or others incorrect location information. I'm pissed off thinking my child is not at school when he is. not happy paying for something that doesn't work for locations, that's one of the main reasons I pay! This app will definitely cause marital issues. Fix!

I am trying to remove the restrictions on some of my lines. I can't get into the app. It doesn't even tell me if the password is wrong, it just says client error. So I tried to cancel Smart Family through my PC and it keeps saying there is an error, try again later. I can't even get a live rep to chat with, just a bot. Very frustrating because my elderly parents can't make phone calls after midnight! This was never a problem before, and now suddenly I'm getting cut off while talking.

I use this app to keep track of an elderly relative (with his consent!) Reassuring and works well for us, but I wish the geo location was tighter. Sometimes I can see him moving around a grocery store, sometimes it shows him 2 miles from his known location. Sometimes it will show me the phone call I made to him earlier in the day, sometimes not. All-in-all, a very useful app (not just for parents!), but there's still some room for improvement.

For some reason I can't update my daughter's school time. It keep telling me that I need to remove and set a new restriction time, which I did, but still not working. I paid extra $10 for it and I keep getting problem and I'm not sure how to fix it. And for location, it takes a while to update her location. Life360 is way faster. Disappointed about this app.

I have had this app for almost a month and it hasn't worked at all, it just say technical difficulties.I can't set restrictions, block numbers or even add trusted numbers. I have called and talked to several tech people, I went to the store, I have several "tickets" open to address the problem, but no one knows how to work it. One rep had me clear data and uninstall it, when that didn't work she literally said "well, we went through the whole troubleshooting guide" . good grief!! Please fix this

This app is just so so. I'm paying $10 a month and can't even get this so to work half the time! Every time I try to do something like, block numbers, set night time or school time, add trusted numbers, etc, I get a message telling me that they are having technical issues and to try later. Well, how much later?? Day after day it does this! What's the point of this show of you can't do anything! I'm actively looking for another option to use where the developers actually take pride in their app!