Family Link, Google’s parental control application, has the right to a major update, with a new interface and the addition of several interesting functions, in particular to locate children in real time on a map.
While Apple beefed up parental controls with iOS 16 — including the addition of Quick Start, which lets you set up screen time restrictions for children in just a few steps — rival Google is doing the same and deploy a important update for Google Family Link, its mobile parental control tool. If the app keeps its usual functions – content restriction, screen time limitation, app approval, etc. –, it has a clearer and more intuitive interface as well as a new function to be able to follow your offspring in real time.
Google Family Link: all about children’s activities
Google has revamped the Family Link interface to give you quicker and easier access to the tools you use most, like screen time management and app blocking and approval. Thus, the home page displays a report of the use that your child makes of his mobile device – smartphone but also tablet -: the total screen time of the day, the time spent on each application, and even the latest apps he has installed. By tapping the bell in the top right, you can see important updates, requests for downloads and access to blocked sites, as well as purchases.
The Controls tab allows you to group all the restrictions and time limits for each child in order to manage them more easily. New settings are available to provide more flexibility to the usual limits. For example, you can authorize more screen time because it’s school holidays, or exceptionally authorize access to a commercial site because your child needs to buy something. The new setting is only applied temporarily, without changing any settings.
The Location tab is likely to appeal to many parents! From now on, you can follow your child – or at least his smartphone – in real time on a Google Maps map. You can also see the remaining battery life of the mobile and make it ring if ever it is misplaced. And if ever you do not have time to check every ten minutes if your offspring has moved, you can receive a notification when it leaves or arrives in a place you have defined. Another small novelty: Google Family Link is now accessible from any web browser. All these new features are being rolled out gradually from October 19. Also, you should have access to it in the next few weeks at the latest.