Parental Control Features for Android
Every TheTruthSpy parental control feature in one table: what it does, which build it needs, which Android permission it depends on, and what it costs. Fifteen features, all free. The detail pages are linked from each row.
| Feature | What it does | Build | Permission it needs | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPS location tracker | Live map, full history trail, geofence alerts on saved places. | Either | Location — “Allow all the time” | Free |
| Wi-Fi tracker | Which networks the phone joins and when. Corroborates the map indoors. | Either | Location | Free |
| Screen time app | Daily budgets, bedtime and school windows, per-app time limits. | Either | Usage access | Free |
| App blocker | Every app set to allowed, limited or blocked. Approval for new installs. | Either | Usage access | Free |
| Website blocker & web filter | Category blocking, Safe Search enforcement, unknown browsers stopped. | Either | Accessibility service | Free |
| Browsing history tracker | Sites visited with time, category and what the filter stopped. | Either | Accessibility service | Free |
| Social media monitoring | Counts, senders, timing and keyword alerts across every messaging app. | Either | Notification access | Free |
| Chores & screen time rewards | Children earn minutes by finishing tasks you set. | Either | None | Free |
| SMS tracker | Who they text and when. Message content is a separate, deliberate switch. | Direct only | SMS | Free |
| Call tracker | Call logs with names, direction, duration and timestamps. | Direct only | Call log | Free |
| Contacts monitoring | Who is saved on the phone, and alerts when someone new is added. | Direct only | Contacts | Free |
| Photo monitoring | Flags the few images worth a look. Does not copy the gallery. | Direct only | Storage | Free |
| Video monitoring | An index of clips saved on the phone, with capture time and size. | Direct only | Storage | Free |
| Remote camera | One still on request. Announced on the phone every time. | Direct only | Camera | Free |
| Ambient recording | A short clip on request. Announced on the phone every time. | Direct only | Microphone | Free |
Reading that table
“Either” means the Google Play build does it. Eight of the fifteen features work from the Play Store version, including everything most families rely on day to day — location, screen time, app control, web filtering and social media alerts.
“Direct only” is Google's rule, not ours. The Play Store does not permit SMS, call-log, contacts or media access for this category, so the Play build ships without that code entirely. Text message and call logs therefore need the build downloaded from our site.
The permission column is the one that predicts problems. Almost every “it stopped working” report traces back to a permission that was revoked or reset by a system update — most often location dropping from “Allow all the time” to “While using the app”, which looks granted and collects nothing. Your panel watches all of them and says which one broke.
Free means free. No card, no trial clock, no feature held back behind a plan. The free parental control pricing explains how that works.
The four that matter, and the eleven that do not
Fifteen features is a lot, and a list that long invites you to switch everything on. That is the wrong instinct. In practice the features fall into three tiers.
Almost every family ends up living in four. For a child under about twelve, screen time limits and the web filter carry nearly all the weight. For a teenager the balance shifts to the location map and social media alerts, because where they are and who is messaging them matter more than how long the screen is on.
Text and call logs are the next tier. They are most useful for the pattern of who is in touch and how often, and work best when you never open a message body at all.
The media and capture tools at the bottom of the table exist for the moment something is seriously wrong. Most families never open them, and a parent reaching for them weekly has a problem that a feature will not solve. They are permission-gated, announced on the phone every time they run, and we would rather you left them alone.
The feature we refuse to build
Every product in this category is defined by what it will not do, and ours is secrecy.
TheTruthSpy sits in the app drawer with its own name and icon. A screen inside it lists everything being collected. The camera and microphone announce themselves on the child's screen every single time. There is no stealth mode, no disguised package name, and no way to run it without the person holding the phone knowing.
That is a real cost. It means a determined teenager can uninstall it — and when they do, your panel tells you rather than hiding the failure. We think a tool that survives being discovered is worth more than one that works only until it is found, and the about us page sets out the rest of what we turned down.
There is no keystroke logger either, for reasons the keylogger question page sets out in full.
Every parental control feature, free.
Create a free account and pair your child's Android phone in about ten minutes — or open the read-only demo first.
Android · Free to set up · Visible on your child's phone