The NSPCC identified Snapchat as the most-used platform for online grooming, accounting for nearly half of all identified cases in the UK. The reason is straightforward. Snapchat’s disappearing messages erase evidence before parents, schools, or law enforcement can find it.

Most parental controls cannot see inside the app. Two features, My Eyes Only and screen recording, give children tools to hide activity that most parents do not know exists.

What Snapchat Was Designed to Do

Snapchat was built around one core mechanic, messages that disappear after viewing, and that design decision is responsible for most of its dangers.

800 million people use it monthly. Teenagers treat it as their primary messaging tool, specifically because content vanishes. The minimum age is 13. There is no age verification.

Most parents assume disappearing messages protect their child. The opposite is true. Disappearing messages protect everyone who sends your child harmful content, because there is no record left to find.

The Eight Real Dangers of Snapchat

Snap Map: Location Visible by Default

Snap Map shares a child’s exact location with every friend on their list every time they open the app.

Ghost Mode disables it, but the child controls Ghost Mode, not the parent. Strangers added through Quick Add become friends instantly and gain location access immediately. Understanding how online predators make contact starts with location data being the first thing they exploit.

My Eyes Only: The Hidden Vault

Inside Snapchat’s Memories section is a password-protected folder called My Eyes Only, a hidden vault where children store photos and videos completely invisible to anyone checking the device.

It does not appear in the camera roll. It does not appear in the main app. Snapchat cannot decrypt it. A parent checking a child’s phone will not find it without the passcode.

What gets stored there: images from strangers, drug-related content, screenshots from conversations they want erased. No competitor safety guide mentions this feature. Most parents have never heard of it.

The Screenshot Myth

Snapchat notifies users when a screenshot is taken, but screen recording bypasses this completely, and Snapchat cannot detect it.

Teenagers know about the screenshot alert. So they record the screen instead. No notification is sent. Content a child believes has disappeared may have been captured and kept by the person they sent it to, silently, permanently, with no trace.

Drug Sales and Fentanyl

Snapchat’s disappearing messages made it the primary tool for drug dealers targeting teenagers, with fentanyl deaths directly linked to transactions that left no recoverable evidence.

Dealers find teenagers through Quick Add. Transactions happen via disappearing messages, no history, no record, nothing a parent can find. The New Mexico Attorney General filed a lawsuit in 2024, naming this a platform design failure. The EU opened an investigation into Snapchat in April 2026 over failures to protect minors.

What Snapchat’s Family Center Shows, and What It Hides

Snapchat’s Family Center lets parents see who their child has been messaging, but not a single word of what was said.

Every Snapchat safety setting can be reversed by the child without any alert reaching the parent. Family Center is designed to reassure parents, not to give them visibility into what is actually happening.

Why Blocking Snapchat Is Not Enough

Blocking Snapchat on your child’s Android device removes one access point. It does not remove access.

Three ways teenagers get around it:

Friends’ devices. Snapchat works on any unmonitored phone.

App reinstallation. Takes under a minute. The only visible sign is that streaks reset.

Secondary device. A cheap tablet or borrowed phone bypasses all home monitoring.

The same limitation applies across every platform. Parents who face identical visibility gaps on Reddit see the same bypass patterns. Blocking one app rarely ends the behaviour.

The question is not whether your child can access Snapchat. The question is what happens when they do.

For a full comparison of monitoring tools, see our best parental control apps breakdown.

What Parents Can See, and What FlexiSPY Captures

Most parental control tools cannot capture Snapchat activity because Snapchat messages are not standard texts, and alert-based tools do not reach inside the app.

FlexiSPY’s App Screenshot feature captures what is on screen inside Snapchat on Android at set intervals. The keylogger records every message typed before it is sent. This works regardless of which account is active, and it captures content before it disappears.

Frequently Asked Questions

Most parental control apps block content. Few actually show you what is happening. There is a big difference, and for parents of teenagers, it is the only difference that matters.

We ranked the top apps based on five things: what they capture, how well they work on Android, whether kids can remove them, how secure your data is, and what parents can actually see versus what just triggers an alert.

Key Points

• FlexiSPY is the only app that captures full conversations, records calls, and runs hidden on Android
• Bark is the best option for social media alert detection
• Qustodio leads on location tracking with a built-in Panic Button
• Google Family Link is free, but it stops working when your child turns 13

Many monitoring apps do not work as advertised; our trade-in data shows which brands are the problem

How These Apps Compare at a Glance

What Separates a Monitoring App from a Restriction App

There are two types of tools in this category.

Restriction tools block apps, filter websites, and limit screen time.

Monitoring tools capture what is actually happening and send that data to you.

Most apps in this list are restriction tools. A few are monitoring tools. The table above shows the difference clearly.

For parents of teenagers, restrictions alone rarely work. A teenager who knows monitoring software is on their phone will find a way around it. The question is not whether they can bypass content filters; they can. The question is whether they can bypass an app that runs without leaving a trace.

1. FlexiSPY, Best Overall for Android

From $49.95/month | flexispy.com

FlexiSPY captures full conversations, both sides, from WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Discord, Kik, Viber, LINE, WeChat, Google Messages, and Hike. That includes deleted messages. The keylogger records everything typed on the device.

FlexiSPY has been at this since 2006, the year it invented the commercial spy phone. No competitor in this list was even operating then.

The primary platform is Android. Parents with Android-using children are the core audience.

What Parents Can See

• Both sides of conversations across 13 messaging platforms
• Deleted messages
• Every keystroke typed on the device
• GPS location history
• Installed apps and web browsing activity
• Photos, videos, and audio files
• Call logs and contact details

Call Recording and Live Listening

FlexiSPY records phone calls on Android, including calls made through WhatsApp, Viber, LINE, and Facebook. The Spy Call and Live Listening feature lets you open the device’s microphone remotely and hear the phone’s surroundings in real time.

Runs Hidden on Android

FlexiSPY can run without any visible icon on Android. Your child will not see it in the app drawer or in their settings. It operates quietly in the background. This is what makes it effective for teenagers specifically. FlexiSPY is the first monitoring app to achieve full hidden operation on Android 15.

FlexiSPY EXPRESS

If you cannot access your child’s current device, FlexiSPY EXPRESS ships a phone with FlexiSPY pre-installed. Monitoring starts the moment the box is opened. No installation needed.

Plan

Physical access to the device is required for self-installation. A professional installation service is available if you prefer someone else to handle it.

2. Bark, Best for Social Media Alert Detection

From $14/month | bark.us

Bark scans messages across 30+ platforms, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, YouTube, and alerts parents when it detects patterns linked to bullying, self-harm, predators, or explicit content.

You receive a notification, not a transcript. Bark uses AI to flag the issue so you can have a conversation with your child rather than reading every message yourself. It covers unlimited devices and includes screen time management, website filtering, and geo-fencing.

What Bark cannot show you: Bark does not give parents the full content of conversations. It only shows what triggers an alert. If a message does not match a flagged pattern, you will not see it. Alerts can arrive with a short delay. For parents who want to read actual conversations, Bark is not designed for that.

3. Qustodio, Best for Location Tracking

From $4.99/month | qustodio.com

Qustodio’s location tracking is the most reliable in this comparison. The map updates in real time, logs a full history of every location visited, and includes a Panic Button, a feature no other app here offers. If your child feels unsafe, they can share their exact location instantly with a single tap.

For families where location is the priority, Qustodio delivers. Android GPS tracking is also available through FlexiSPY for parents who want location data alongside full message capture.

Where it falls short: Qustodio does not capture full message content from Snapchat, TikTok, or Instagram. Call monitoring is limited. It is not hidden; a child who finds the app can work around it.

4. Norton Family, Best for Web Filtering

From $4.17/month | norton.com

Norton Family filters content across 41 categories and blocks incognito mode, which is the most common way teenagers bypass web filters. YouTube history is captured when accessed through a browser. Real-time alerts arrive quickly.

Where it falls short: Norton Family does not read messages, emails, or social media conversations at all. It is a web control tool, not a conversation monitoring tool.

5. Google Family Link, Best Free Option

Free | families.google.com

Family Link is the strongest free option for Android. App approvals, location tracking, content filtering, and screen time limits, all at no cost. For children under 10, it covers the basics well.

The problem: When your child turns 13, Google hands supervision control back to them. Your child can disable location sharing and remove the parental oversight from their account on their own. Family Link does not monitor conversations at any age.

Choosing the Right App for Your Child’s Age

Can Teenagers Bypass Parental Control Apps?

Yes, most of them. Common methods include factory resetting the device, using a friend’s mobile hotspot to avoid home router filters, switching to incognito browsing, or simply turning 13 and removing Family Link supervision themselves.

FlexiSPY runs without showing any visible icon. Your child does not know it is there. Our trade-in program data shows 39% of monitoring apps do not work as advertised. The most common apps parents trade in when switching to FlexiSPY are mSpy, Umobix, SpyX, and ClevGuard, because their children found and removed them.

Is Your Monitoring App Keeping Your Child’s Data Safe?

Most parents never think about this until something goes wrong.

mSpy has been hacked three separate times. The 2015 breach exposed 400,000 accounts. The 2018 breach exposed millions of records, including passwords and payment details. The June 2024 breach leaked 150 gigabytes of data, including 5 million support tickets. SpyX, Retina-X, TheTruthSpy, and Family Orbit have all had serious data breaches as well.

FlexiSPY has a100% perfect track record on customer data security, 21 years of operation with no breach. Captured data is deleted from FlexiSPY servers after 90 days. You can download an archive at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the top Internet Safety Tips for Kids & Parents. The internet has been embedded into nearly every aspect of our lives. It’s a place where you can connect with others, discover new concepts, and share your knowledge. However, although the internet may be useful, it also can be a dangerous place. 

People often don’t think twice about what they do online. But did you know that, on average, internet hacks occur every 39 seconds? Hackers, cyberbullies, identity thieves, and online predators, all use the internet as a weapon for their attacks. 

Dangers exist on the internet just as they do in the physical world, which is why it’s so important to take the necessary precautions when surfing the web. Below are some tips on how to stay safe online. 

Use Secure Sites

This may sound simple, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t check to see if they’re on a secure site. Using an unsecured site is like walking through a dark alleyway filled with thieves and muggers. They’re a gateway for hackers, identity theft, and viruses to steal your personal information and use it against you. 

Secure sites encrypt your data before sending it over to the server, which helps protect your information from identity theft. Luckily most web browsers make it easier to tell if a site is secure or not. One of the easiest ways to spot whether a site is secure is by looking at your search bar. If you see a lock symbol or see the URL with HTTPS, then the site is secure. If you see an open lock or see that the URL starts with HTTP, then avoid using the site. 

Some browsers, like Google, will also go the extra mile of giving you a full-page warning if a site has been flagged as unsafe. If you ever stumble upon a site like this, leave the site immediately. Get your kids in the habit of checking the security of their sites before use. It takes two seconds to check but will add a great deal of protection to your browsing. 

Use Strong Passwords 

Your password is your bodyguard. Unless you buy added security software, your password is the one thing that protects you from a thief. 

Most hacks occur because of easy-to-guess passwords. According to Nordpass, the most common password in 2020 was “123456” and the second most common was “123456789.” Passwords like these are the equivalent of closing your front door but never locking it. 

Take the time to craft a strong password for each of your accounts. When creating a password avoid using common words, personal information, and using the same password for every account. Instead, try to incorporate a mixture of numbers, words, and symbols in a unique order. 

For kids and adults that have cell phones, consider a two-step authentication. This will add a high level of protection that’ll make your accounts harder to hack. 

Set Accounts to Private

Social media continues to have a growing impact on kids and adults alike. It can be a great place to stay connected with friends and family, but is also, unfortunately, one of the most common places for online predators and cyberbullies to attack. Anyone that uses social media, unless they’re trying to be an influencer, should set their accounts to private. This will also help prevent any bullies and predators from talking to you or your child.

By switching your account from public to private, you’ll be able to select who can see your posts and who can communicate with you. When you get DM requests or follow requests, try to only accept those from people you know. This will help you and your family avoid any potential scams and unwanted interactions. If your child is young and uses social media, consider monitoring their account until they’re mature enough to navigate it alone. 

Think Before You Post  

Even if you have a private account, be sure to think before you post. Anything you post on the internet stays on the internet, forever. It’s easy to act out of emotion, but what you post could inhibit your future opportunities, image, and safety. Even if a post or a comment is deleted, there’s always a way to resurface them. 

It can be easy for kids and adults alike to overshare on the internet, so make sure to look over what you’re posting before sharing it. Taking the extra time to think about what you say and post on the internet can save you from cyberbullying, hacks, and tainting your public image.

If someone ever posts unwanted pictures or videos of you or your family, take action to get them removed. Although the file will still be on the internet, it’ll be hidden away from the public eye. 

Safeguard Your Technology

Treat your technology as if they were a wallet or a purse. Your computer and phone carry so much valuable personal information that could easily be used against you. Things like credit card information, identification numbers, passwords, work information, and more are all held on your laptop and phone. 

Even if you’re just going to the bathroom, avoid leaving your technology unattended. Doing so will not only get your devices stolen but put you at major security risks. If your devices are unsupervised, make sure to shut them down. This will protect you from strangers using your device and accessing confidential information. 

Monitor Your Accounts 

Whether you believe you were hacked or not, it’s always wise to monitor your accounts. One of the best places to see if you got hacked is your email. Many account services such as Gmail, Instagram, and others send you a notification if there’s a suspicious login. 

Another way to know if someone has stolen your information is by checking your credit score. Identity theft involves using your personal information to gain an economic advantage. This can cause you to go into massive debt and deplete your credit score immensely. This type of attack is especially harmful to any future financial goals, such as buying a house or applying for credit, since loans, like mortgages, have credit score requirements that are hard to meet if your score is severely damaged. 

Your personal information mustn’t be accessible to the public. To see what information about you has been shared on the internet, have each of your family members Google themselves. If personal information such as phone numbers, email addresses, or home addresses come up, talk to the website it’s being shared on to get them removed immediately. Monitoring your accounts can be a great way to put a stop to any occurring damage early on. 

Final Thoughts: 

With new advancements in technology, our lives are becoming more interconnected with the internet. Although the internet can be a dangerous place, it’s what keeps this world moving forward. It’s more crucial than ever that we instill these positive internet safety tips in our everyday lives. Just like in the real world, it’s important to take the necessary precautions to help ensure your family’s safety. 

Let’s face it, the world we live in is a scary place. Big brother is always watching. Hackers are rampant. Nothing is safe. And while we may have taken a few dramatic liberties just now, the underlying message is still the same: we live in an era of over-connectivity where the need to protect your information – both at home and at the office – is more important than ever.

Here are five computer monitoring software features that you need to ensure your families and your businesses stay secure.

Keylogger

A keylogger is an extraordinary feature of computer monitoring software that allows you to capture every keystroke that is typed on a Mac or PC. This includes every time a person enters an internet search term, types a word document, jots down a quick message on a sticky note, and more. Not only does the keylogger save the keystrokes that have been typed, but it even documents any text that has been deleted. This ensures you never miss anything that is entered on your device.

The keylogger is an essential tool for business owners looking to track employee productivity and make sure that corporate data and intellectual property are being communicated with the utmost care. A keylogger is also a feature of computer monitoring software that provides an added layer of security for parents who want to confirm their children are making responsible decisions online and only looking at age-appropriate material.

Email Monitoring

Next to a keylogger, email monitoring is the second most important feature of computer monitoring software. This feature allows you to instantly read all incoming and outgoing messages, as well as providing the time-stamp and contact details of the person sending the message. You even have access to major email providers, including Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook Office 365 for desktop and Microsoft Outlook 365 webmail.

Email monitoring is a priceless tool for business owners who can flag keywords in employee communication as a preventative measure for stopping data breaches; or search through email history logs during an audit for best business practice. This computer monitoring software feature is also necessary for parents concerned about the well-being of their children are able to step in at the first sign of danger or risky communication with potential online sexual predators.

IM & Chat Monitoring

Much like the SMS tracker found in mobile monitoring, tracking instant messages is an extremely useful feature of computer monitoring software. You can read incoming, outgoing and deleted messages from the world’s most popular chat applications like Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE, and more. This feature also lets you see group chats, conversation dates and times, the profile picture of the chat recipients, as well as photos, stickers, and other media files exchanged.

You can’t be everywhere at once, and while some of us wish we could, IM monitoring at least provides some security in knowing what your employees are discussing while you’re on family vacation and what your kids are chatting about when you’re away at work. Use this as a tool to improve employee productivity and discourage time-wasting on social media, as a conversation starter about sexual harassment in the workplace, or as a way to step in at the first sign of cyberbullying both with employees and your children – computer monitoring software used in this capacity alone can save lives.

Monitor Device Usage

Computer monitoring software keeps a log of all data and PC/Mac activity you need to paint a full picture of how your devices are being used. You can track network connections, including everything from bandwith usage, user log-ins, and print jobs; monitor internet activity such as browsing history, bookmarks, and URLs; and even see which files were opened, modified, and sent, and by whom.

Understanding how your computers are used is important, because it allows you to develop strategies for a more efficient workplace, implement new security measures for sensitive information, and protect your device from being tampered with.

Visibility Modes

The best computer monitoring software gives you the option to run in either visible or hidden mode. With this flexibility, you have the power to determine the best method for tracking your devices. Hidden mode is perfect for business owners who suspect someone has been stealing confidential information from their computer after leaving the office; use the keylogger function to track keystrokes and stop hacking before it’s too late. Parents can also find hidden mode useful, especially if they have noticed alarming behavioral changes in their children and want to be sure their son or daughter is okay.

Visible mode, on the other hand, is an exceptional tool for tracking employee productivity, backing up emails and documents, and maximizing device and network performance. Remember to always use computer monitoring software responsibly and to ensure employees are notified of its use on company equipment.

What Is The Best Computer Monitoring Software For Me?

The best computer monitoring software is one that provides a variety of basic and advanced features that suit your personal needs. Business owners may find the keylogger, email monitoring and network activity monitoring the most useful features, while parents may be keener to take advantage of the keylogger, IM monitoring, and tracking device usage. Whatever your reason for using computer monitoring software, one thing remains the same – it is never too early to protect the business or family you worked so hard to build.

To learn more about Flexispy – the world’s most powerful computer monitoring software – visit our website here: https://www.flexispy.com/en/computer-monitoring-software.htm

Follow three easy steps to move your FlexiSPY license from one target device to another without having to purchase a new subscription!

Technology is always changing, and people love to have the newest and the best – especially when it comes to their mobile phones. FlexiSPY understands this, which is why a major benefit of our software is the ability to deactivate your license and move it to another target device as many times as you want during your subscription.

So, if your child wants to the latest Samsung or your business decides to upgrade the company phone model, you can move your license from the original device to the new phone.

Simply deactivate and uninstall FlexiSPY from the original target device and then physically re-install it on the new one. Let’s take a closer look at how this works.

Download Your Data

It is important to note that deactivating your license will delete all data from your online account and it will not be recoverable. Have no fear! FlexiSPY makes it easy to download your data safely to your computer for convenient viewing later.

Check out this guide on how to download your data from inside your online portal.

Uninstall, Deactivate and Re-Install

After you have downloaded the information that is important to you, follow these three steps to begin monitoring the new target device:

Uninstall FlexiSPY Remotely

First, you will uninstall FlexiSPY from the original target device. Here’s how it works for rooted Android and iPhone devices: 

1. Log in to your online user portal
2. Select Help from the left menu bar
3. Select Device Settings
4. Click Device Controls
5. Click Uninstall
6. If the device is currently connected to the server, the Uninstall command will be sent to the Target immediately*

*If the device is not connected to the server, you can choose Send by SMS to uninstall FlexiSPY immediately or choose Send by Network to wait until the device connects to the server (this can take up to 1 hour).

Deactivate FlexiSPY Remotely

Once uninstalled, FlexiSPY will be removed from the target device. If you would like to use the same license key to activate the software on a new target device, please log in to your online portal and follow these steps:

1. Log in to your online user portal
2. Select Help from the left menu bar
3. Select Device Settings
4. Click Device Controls and Select Deactivate
5. Select Deactivate Now
6. Choose to download your data – or click ‘I Understand’ if you have already done so

To verify deactivation was a success, go to Account and scroll down to License Profile to see the status of your account. Activated Licenses appear as “Active” under Status, while inactive or deactivated accounts show up as Ready to Activate under the “Alias” menu tab.

For more information regarding uninstalling FlexiSPY on non-rooted Android devices, read this article and read our Deactivation and Uninstallation guide in your online portal: Help > Reference Manuals > Deactivation and Uninstallation

Re-install FlexiSPY On The New Target Device

For this step, you will follow the normal process you used for installing FlexiSPY on the original target device. This will require physical access to the new phone.

If you have need support in rooting or jailbreaking the new device – or for help with installation – you can also take advantage of our worry-free installation service.

As you can see, FlexiSPY has made it easy to remove our software from one device and re-install it on another – without having to buy another license!

If you are looking to monitor more than one device at a time, purchase another FlexiSPY license today!

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Good News – you can now jailbreak iOS 9.1 and FlexiSPY is compatible too!

The jailbreak steps are near enough identical to the previous versions so whilst the screenshots of the guide are from using an older version of Pangu the jailbreak requirements are unchanged.

What is required to perform the jailbreak?

• A compatible iPhone or iPad running iOS 9.1
• A Windows PC
• The jailbreak software which you can download from here.

How to set up the device ready for the jailbreak

1. Go to Settings > Passcode > Enter your Passcode > Turn your Passcode off and enter the passcode to disable this feature.

2. Go to Settings > iCloud > Find my iPhone and make sure this is turned off.

3. Enable Airplane Mode from inside Control Center.

How to perform the jailbreak

1. Run the jailbreak tool on your Windows PC.

2. Connect the compatible iPhone or iPad. Wait for it to be recognised.

3. Click Start and then click Already Backup when asked.

4. The jailbreak will start and, after some time, the device will reboot.

5. Enable Airplane Mode again on the device when asked.

6. The jailbreak process will continue.

7. On the device, tap the Pangu app when asked.

8. When the device notification appears about Pangu wanting to access your photos tap

9. The device will reboot once more.

10. Disable Airplane Mode on the device and enable Find my iPhone and any passcodes.

11. Tap Cydia to configure Cydia and remove the Storage Almost Full message that may appear.

12. Once Cydia has finished loading and configuring itself the jailbreak is complete..

And that’s it! If you have any questions about this then please ask in the comments section below!

FlexiSPY will work on both rooted and non-rooted versions of Android phones, but what’s the difference between the two?

In this article we will will go over these questions, by the end you should be able to decide what’s best for you- let’s get into it!

Brief overview of rooting

Rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as root access) over various Android subsystems.

Rooting is typically performed using a PC, a USB Cable, and the Android device that you want to root.

Reasons for Rooting

Rooting is often performed with the goal of overcoming limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices. Thus, rooting gives the ability (or permission) to alter or replace system applications and settings, run specialized applications (“apps”) that require administrator-level permissions, or perform other operations that are otherwise inaccessible to a normal Android user.

In short, having a Rooted phone let’s FlexiSPY access and watch over areas of the phone that it would otherwise be unable to.

Rooted vs Non-Rooted FlexiSPY, What’s the Difference?

See the chart below to see features that are root only

As you can see from the chart, there are many features that require FlexiSPY to be installed with Root access.

Rooting Your Android Phone

Rooting an Android Phone can vary in ease depending on the model as well as the familiarity the person doing the rooting has with tech.

For those up to the task of trying to Root the phone themselves, our sister site, Spyphone Review has a great resource for rooting practically any phone which can be found here

If you aren’t too thrilled after looking at the Rooting Resource Page then you may be glad to hear that there’s an easy alternative.

The Worry-Free Installation Service

The FlexiSPY Installation Service is a new service which you can get standalone or as part of a package when purchase our regular products.

Our Installation Service is an optional add-on for your FlexiSPY purchase and is completely refundable if your device cannot be rooted or jailbroken

The Installation Service is in English. But don’t worry if you don’t speak English, we can work with you using an online translation tool, as there is very little customer involvement required.

The price is just $39.99 and our customers have found it extremely useful.

Click here to check out the installation service.

Conclusion

By now you should have a good idea of what rooting, how to do it, and what the benefits are.

Have our Rooting Guides or the Installation Service helped you get your Android phone Rooted? Let us know in the comments section below!

Maybe you want to monitor your kids and elderly parents, or it could be that you want to keep tabs on your significant other. Whatever the case, you decided that you wanted to cover all the bases and you started researching cell phone tracking software.

But there’s so much information on the internet that is published by people motivated purely for financial reasons, there’s even misinformation told by the tv and film industry, how do you know what’s fabricated when it comes to a spy app and what’s not?

To help clear the air, in this post we want to put some truths on the table to guide you on your way to using cell phone tracking software.

How to Start Using Cell Phone Tracking Software

1. Find out if the phone that you want to monitor is compatible with spy apps.

This is an important step that is often overlooked. Did you know that all iOS devices must be jailbroken before installing any sort of spy app onto the phone? (This means iPhone’s and iPad’s.)

Some cell phone tracking websites try to hide this information from you, then when you realize that you’re left with a useless spy app you find out their tricky refund policy won’t actually grant you a refund.

To minimize the risk of any of our customers being misinformed, we make sure that it is nearly impossible to purchase FlexiSPY without having read through the compatibility page. 

2. Find out if it’s legal in your local area to install and or hide mobile monitoring software onto the desired phone.

Laws vary greatly from state to state and city to city when it comes to mobile monitoring software. Before you install and activate FlexiSPY, or any other monitoring app onto a phone other than your own, you need to check these laws to make sure you are in line with them. For example, FlexiSPY has a feature that when enabled allows you to make our application hidden. But this is something that you’d also need to research before installing and activating.

3. Do a test install on your own phone.

If you have purchased the monitoring software you’re probably anxious to get it installed, we recommend that you try installing the software onto your own phone first.

By going through the installation process on your own phone first you’ll be able to gauge things like internet speed, how fast the phone installs the app, and more. This will help you if you know you’ll have a small window of time in which to install the monitoring software onto the target phone.

4. Write down information that’s pertinent to the install and activation

After going through the installation and activation process of FlexiSPY you would notice that you need the download link of our app as well as your activation code in order to install and activate. We recommend that before you try and install and activate on the target phone you should have this and any other information that you found essential to a fast activation near you.

5. Install and activate the software of your choice onto the target phone

After you have checked with your local laws and are very confident in your ability to download the spy app on the target phone and activate it within the window of time that you’ve calculated, you should go ahead and do the install.

6. Setting up your dashboard

All cell phone tracking applications will offer you an administrative dashboard from where you can see the data that is being captured by the app and uploading to the server. This administrative dashboard will most likely also have a section where you can change the settings of the spy app on the phone as well as sending remote commands as needed.

You should go through all of the dashboard settings to make sure everything is setup to your liking. If you are using FlexiSPY you’ll find that the major features are enabled by default but things like the monitor number for call recording still need to be set. You can find our Quick Setup Guide here.

Conclusion:

Read all the tips in this article? Nice!

By now we hope to have given you a better view on the process of using cell phone tracking software -from start to finish.

Did you find this article useful? If so, what in particular? Let us know in the comments section below!

Spy phone software has been thrust into the media spotlight over the last few years, bringing awareness to the critical roles they play in grabbing information that someone would like to hide from you. And while once considered a mythical thing reserved only for the CIA, or FBI, multiple shows, research papers, and news agencies have brought attention to the industry.

But as with most stories that gain attention, sometimes details being reported are either slightly inaccurate, or just blatantly untrue. To advocates in the Monitoring community, it can be frustrating to read and hear about stories that not only are untrue, but are actually harmful, so it’s important to understand what is myth vs reality.

Here are the 4 biggest myths about spy phone software

Myth: You can install Spy Phone Software over the air

Reality: There is no spy phone software that can be installed magically through the air and onto someone elses phone. When installing any spy phone software, you have to accept permissions that pop up on the phone during activation, so you’ll need to have the phone physically in your hand. There are several scams out there though from companies claiming that you can install via bluetooth. This is simply not true.

Myth: Spy phone software can be installed on any iPhone, even one that isn’t jailbroken.

Reality: Our team would love if this was true, but it’s just more misinformation from phony spy apps who are trying to spread this myth so that those less educated about spy software purchase the software. In reality the iPhone—or any other iOS device—must be jailbroken first before installing any type of software that is not directly available in the app store.

Myth: it’s really hard to install spy phone software

Reality:  You don’t have to be some coding master to use spy phone software correctly. On average it will take anyone less than 5-10 minutes to install and activate a spy app onto a phone. But just to make sure you know what you’re doing, we recommend that you install and activate onto your primary phone first, before trying to install it on the phone you actually want to monitor.

Myth: spy phone software is a trojan

Reality: While there’s a possibility of  some NSA-level spy app lurking out there, probably pre-installed on the world’s entire phone supply,  there is certainly not a consumer level spy app that could be classified as a trojan. That didn’t stop a certain anti-virus companies from trying to label us as one though, and you can read our response to the incident here

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has helped to clear a few spy phone software misconceptions that exist. The ones we wrote about in this post probably aren’t the only myths that exist though. If there’s a myth that you discovered then let us know in the comments section below, we’ll be happy to add it to our post!

Yes, that’s right, iOS 9 can now be jailbroken, thanks to the Pangu team.

What is required to perform the jailbreak?

• A compatible iPhone or iPad running iOS 9 – 9.0.2.
• A Windows PC
• The jailbreak software which you can download from here.

How to set up the device ready for the jailbreak

1. Go to Settings > Passcode > Enter your Passcode > Turn your Passcode off and enter the passcode to disable this feature.
2. Go to Settings > iCloud > Find my iPhone and make sure this is turned off.
3. Enable Airplane Mode from inside Control Center.

How to perform the jailbreak

1) Run the jailbreak tool on your Windows PC.

2) Connect the compatible iPhone or iPad. Wait for it to be recognised.

3) Click Start and then click Already Backup when asked.

4) The jailbreak will start and, after some time, the device will reboot.

5) Enable Airplane Mode again on the device when asked.
6) The jailbreak process will continue.

7) On the device, tap the Pangu app when asked.

8) When the device notification appears about Pangu wanting to access your photos tap
9) The device will reboot once more.

10) Disable Airplane Mode on the device and enable Find my iPhone and any passcodes.
11) Tap Cydia to configure Cydia and remove the Disk Almost Full message that may appear.
12) Once Cydia has finished loading and configuring itself the jailbreak is complete.

We’ve been listening carefully to what IM’s our customers want to be able to monitor, and lately we’ve received a lot of requests for KiK Messenger.

So, we are very happy to announce that in our latest FlexiSPY for Android release, you can now Spy on KiK Messenger!

Why spy on kik messenger?

Founded in 2008, Kik Messenger is a chatting app that has recently exploded in popularity, now holding over 200 million registered users. If you are now using a spy app that doesn’t monitor KiK, you’re missing out, as there’s a very real chance that the person you want to keep tabs on is using this chatting app.

Compatibility & Update Options

For now this feature is Android only, but we are looking at the possibility of KiK Messenger Spy for iPhone in the future.

If you already have FlexiSPY installed on an Android device running in Full Mode, you can remotely update the FlexiSPY app from your dashboard, just look for the flashing update icon, click it, and you’ll be good to go.

If you don’t have FlexiSPY yet, then now’s the perfect time to buy, as the new KiK Messenger spy feature is already included in the new release.

Get Started Today

We’ve been running a poll on the blog for the past couple of months. The poll asks our customers what they’d like to see discussed on the blog in the future, and so far there’s been a ton of responses. In this article we wanted to address one that caught our eye.

The question was “Can I use FlexiSPY on a phone in China?”

While this is a great question, we wanted to further expand on it. So we’ve altered it and instead will be answering “Does FlexiSPY have any geographical limitations?”

Q: Does FlexiSPY have any geographical limitations?

A: The short answer to the question is no. When FlexiSPY is installed and activated, it does not need to fit a geographical rule to work. But, let’s get into why -as well as the fine print.

Explained further

There are a few requirements when installing FlexiSPY. One of them is that during installation and activation, the phone will need to have a SIM card in it. But after you’ve installed our software, it doesn’t matter where the phone is. The only other need is that it’s connected to the internet.

Why it works this way

FlexiSPY collects data on the phone, and after there is enough to upload, it’s securely sent to your dashboard. From your dashboard you can view the collected data.

But what if the phone doesn’t have internet for some time?

No worries, FlexiSPY is intelligent and will queue the data for uploading. Once the phone gains some form of internet again, it will being the syncing process.

Things to keep in mind

One thing you might want to consider when using FlexiSPY is the phone’s data usage.

For example, say you have set FlexiSPY to capture videos that are on the phone. Uploading the videos to your dashboard will use a good deal of the phone’s data plan. If the phone is roaming in another country, charges could incur that weren’t expected.

We have built FlexiSPY with this scenario in mind though.

From within your dashboard, you can set data uploads to be WiFi only. This means FlexiSPY will wait until the phone connects to a WiFi connection before the data syncs.

Conclusion

As long as you properly install and activate FlexiSPY, there is no need to worry about the geographical location of the phone.

Of course, if you still have any questions, or would like to tell us what you think about this, please leave us a comment in the comments section below!