Tracking the kid's phone?
Discussion
I'm not a stalker (honestly).
I have 4 kids of various ages with various jobs, out of school activities, and social lives. As such one of mine and Mrs Countdown's main family roles is "Taxi driver". Unfortunately, quite often, the kids themselves won't know where they are going to be, or when they are going to be there.
For example DS1 plays basketball for his school team and the town team. DD2 plays netball after school and may or may not go to her At the moment me and / or Mrs C will get texts letting us know where they are and when they want picking up but it can be a PITA if we are running late.
Is there any way we can install "Find my IPhone" style trackers so that we can switch on the Ipad and see where they are at any time?
I have 4 kids of various ages with various jobs, out of school activities, and social lives. As such one of mine and Mrs Countdown's main family roles is "Taxi driver". Unfortunately, quite often, the kids themselves won't know where they are going to be, or when they are going to be there.
For example DS1 plays basketball for his school team and the town team. DD2 plays netball after school and may or may not go to her At the moment me and / or Mrs C will get texts letting us know where they are and when they want picking up but it can be a PITA if we are running late.
Is there any way we can install "Find my IPhone" style trackers so that we can switch on the Ipad and see where they are at any time?
Countdown said:
Apologies for the DS/DD malarkey 
IPhone 5, Samsung 5S, and a Samsung ace I think. What are the apps?
For the Android based phones you need two things: GPS (location) activated on every phone and the Google account credentials (user name, password) for the phone. You can log into:IPhone 5, Samsung 5S, and a Samsung ace I think. What are the apps?
https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=a...
You will "see" them instantly.
Edinburger said:
My brother uses an app called Life360 which impressed me.
He and his wife can view their three teenage daughters locations in real time, there's check in and even panic functionality too.
Don't remember the ful details but it's worth having a look at.
Here you go:He and his wife can view their three teenage daughters locations in real time, there's check in and even panic functionality too.
Don't remember the ful details but it's worth having a look at.
https://www.life360.com/
It says it's free. So I'd read the small print closely and find out how they are making their revenue from you.
Edinburger said:
My brother uses an app called Life360 which impressed me.
He and his wife can view their three teenage daughters locations in real time, there's check in and even panic functionality too.
Don't remember the ful details but it's worth having a look at.
WOW this is really good.He and his wife can view their three teenage daughters locations in real time, there's check in and even panic functionality too.
Don't remember the ful details but it's worth having a look at.
OP I think you need this one, works with Apple, Android and Windows phone, so you are covered all the way.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/life360-family-loc...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com....
Life360 is particularly freaky. It shows your movements for the last few days. And can send messages as to where you are to trusted members of your family. Just freaky, because I do not want to be tracked all the time. And although it is used to track your children, it is also switched on for you / your wife.
Another vote for Life360. We use it on three Android and one IPhone. My youngest has an old Galaxy Ace with poor battery life so we have the GPS off but as long as you have mobile data and WiFi turned on its still pretty accurate.
You can also set up 2 geofence on the free version. We have one at home and one at school so I get a text when they leave home then one when they get to school and the same on the way home.
Great app I've tried a few and found this to be the best.
You can also set up 2 geofence on the free version. We have one at home and one at school so I get a text when they leave home then one when they get to school and the same on the way home.
Great app I've tried a few and found this to be the best.
randlemarcus said:
I haven't seen anything quite as unintrusive as Find My iPhone, but happy to be corrected.
The "device manager" of google is basically the same thing with some functionality (have it "ring", "lock", "wipe",... you'd have to have it activated on the phone once though for this to work).https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
However, this is the "kid's" phone, so you'd either need:
- have your account setup as a secondary account on the device (not great because the kid could potentially access your data)
- have your kid's login to access the device manager
The wife and I use it all the time and it works pretty flawless on the Android devices. It gives a location, the possible error margin and the time it was update (eg 5 min ago). I haven't yet tried it on my iphone or ipad tbh, but I'd imagine it works just fine.
Life360 is good for instantaneous tracking - I use it so that I can tell when our son is on his way home from school because it's a 15-minute walk down to the place where I have to collect him, and it's handy to know when he leaves the school premises.
But it's not much good if you lose the phone. I've installed Cerberus on both our phones for that. Both can track the phones, but you can set Cerberus to play a loud alarm or - I think - wipe the phone if it's lost or stolen.
There are lots of other Cerberus functions too - you can track the phone's movements, enable and disable WiFi and data, display a message, speak a message... lots of things. All good fun but not particularly useful unless the phone is lost.
But it's not much good if you lose the phone. I've installed Cerberus on both our phones for that. Both can track the phones, but you can set Cerberus to play a loud alarm or - I think - wipe the phone if it's lost or stolen.
There are lots of other Cerberus functions too - you can track the phone's movements, enable and disable WiFi and data, display a message, speak a message... lots of things. All good fun but not particularly useful unless the phone is lost.
SGirl said:
Life360 is good for instantaneous tracking - I use it so that I can tell when our son is on his way home from school because it's a 15-minute walk down to the place where I have to collect him, and it's handy to know when he leaves the school premises.
That's exactly the reason why I want it installing. There have been numerous occasions when I've been waiting outside his school after basketball, wondering where he is, why he isn't answering his phone, whether he's got a lift off his mates....kids can be pretty thoughtless at times Anyway I texted them all this morning to instal it and got the following responses;
12 year old "Done it daddy, love you lots. Have a good day"
15 year old "This is just like Stalinist Russia".
22 year old "Don't text me at 6.30 in the morning on my day off!! Anyway why do you want it? Why the interest all of a sudden in my whereabouts? I'm not doing it anyway"
Kids - can't live with them, can't sell them on Ebay
p.s. I know the 22yo isn't really a kid but Grandma worries about them all so it would give her a bit of peace of mind if she could just look at the Ipad and see where they all were.
Countdown said:
22 year old "Don't text me at 6.30 in the morning on my day off!! Anyway why do you want it? Why the interest all of a sudden in my whereabouts? I'm not doing it anyway"
"Because the old tracking app we installed on your phone keeps sending us copies of all your texts and Snapchats and your gran doesn't want to see them anymore." Countdown said:
That's exactly the reason why I want it installing. There have been numerous occasions when I've been waiting outside his school after basketball, wondering where he is, why he isn't answering his phone, whether he's got a lift off his mates....kids can be pretty thoughtless at times
It's ideal for that. You can set it to alert you to when the other phone arrives at or leaves a specific location, too, so mine makes a little noise when he arrives at school and leaves at the end of the day. It's good for peace of mind, if nothing else. And if I'm left standing waiting for his taxi to arrive, I can see whether he's stuck in traffic on the motorway and hence whether I have time to nip to the garage for some chocolate! 
Only word of warning is that it doesn't work if there's no data coverage. I had an "OMG" moment a couple of weeks ago when his phone didn't move around school all day - I thought he'd lost it. Turns out there was just no data coverage!
We use Life360 as well. I'm not bothered that the wife can track me if she wants. One of her friends thinks it's all very creepy, Surely only an issue of you've something to hide? Would have saved them phoning everyone in a panic looking for their 11 year old when he wasn't answering his phone recently though!
Use it for my 11 year old, get a notification when she leaves home and arrives at school etc.
Dog is a clever thing though, she's got used to the noise the phones make when someone nears home and legs it to the front door to wait for the imminent arrival!
Lookout quite good for finding a lost phone, will also send a signal flare just before the battery dies.
Use it for my 11 year old, get a notification when she leaves home and arrives at school etc.
Dog is a clever thing though, she's got used to the noise the phones make when someone nears home and legs it to the front door to wait for the imminent arrival!
Lookout quite good for finding a lost phone, will also send a signal flare just before the battery dies.
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