FamilyTracking
Premium feature

Screen time, set at the kitchen table

See how much time each kid's device actually gets, and set limits and downtime schedules you agreed on together — homework hours, dinner, lights-out. Fully visible to the child, because covert never works for long.

Get the free app All features

What you can see and set

For each child device in your Circle, screen time shows the honest daily total, the week's trend, and how today compares to the family's agreed budget. Controls are simple and blunt where blunt helps: a daily limit, and downtime windows when the device locks to essentials — calls to family always work, the rest waits for morning.

Typical schedules: school-night downtime from 9 PM, homework lockout from 4 to 6, and Sunday morning gloriously unlimited. The settings hold the line so the nightly negotiation doesn't have to happen nightly.

Agreed limits beat imposed ones

The research and the lived experience agree: rules kids helped set get followed; rules imposed in secret get circumvented. That's why every monitoring feature here is visible on the child's own device — they see the same daily total you do, the same schedule, the same remaining budget.

It changes the conversation. Instead of 'get off your phone' (contested, hourly), it's 'the budget's the budget' (settled, once). The app plays the villain so you don't have to.

Family sets the budget Device holds the line Exceptions, transparently
Agree once at the table — the app handles the nightly enforcement.

Downtime that bends for real life

Rigid systems break on the first exception and never recover. FamilyTracking's downtime supports one-tap extensions ('15 more minutes' granted from a parent's phone), per-app always-allow lists for homework tools, and a request button on the child's side — they ask through the app, you approve or not, and nobody storms a staircase.

Exception history is visible too, which keeps the system honest in both directions: a parent who grants extensions every night learns something about the schedule they actually believe in.

What screen time tools can't do

Honesty section: no app makes a teenager value sleep, and determined kids find friction's edges — a sibling's tablet, a school laptop. Screen time tooling is scaffolding for habits, strongest from roughly 8 to 14, and progressively more advisory as kids age. Plan to loosen it deliberately as they earn it; the goal is self-regulation, with the app as training wheels rather than a cage. Pair with app usage reports to see where the hours go, not just how many there are.

Schedules families actually run

  • The 9 PM school-night lock. The single highest-impact setting in the feature — sleep wins.
  • Homework hours. 4 to 6 PM, essentials only; the math homework stops competing with the entire internet.
  • Dinner downtime. Thirty minutes, all devices, parents included if you're brave.
  • The earned weekend. Budgets that expand on Saturday make the weekday limits legible as fairness, not punishment.
  • The reset week. After habits slide, a tighter temporary schedule beats a shouting match.

Stronger together: pairings worth enabling

No FamilyTracking feature lives alone — this one gets noticeably better next to the right neighbors:

  • App usage reports. Limits say how much; usage reports say on what. The pair turns 'too much phone' into a specific, fixable pattern.
  • Web filtering. Downtime closes the apps; filtering guards the browser that stays open for homework. Together they cover the device's whole surface.
  • Scheduled alerts. The 9 PM downtime and the 10 PM 'not home' rule share a philosophy: set the boundary once, let the system hold it.

The bottom line

Screen-time tools succeed or fail on legitimacy, not enforcement — which is why everything here is visible, negotiable and symmetric enough to survive a teenager's sense of fairness. Use the blunt instruments where bluntness helps (the 9 PM school-night lock is worth more than every other setting combined), keep exceptions cheap so the system bends instead of breaking, and plan the loosening as deliberately as the limits. The goal was never a locked phone; it's a kid who eventually doesn't need one. Premium's wellbeing bundle covers the years in between. And keep one ritual alongside the settings: a monthly five-minute review of the schedule with the kid it governs. Limits that get revisited stay legitimate; limits that fossilize get circumvented — the review is the maintenance the whole system runs on. The settings enforce; the review legitimizes — keep both and the system outlasts every phase.

How to get screen time tools on your phone

  1. Install FamilyTracking free from Google Play (Android 8.0+) or the App Store (iOS 14+).
  2. Create a Circle and invite your family with the code the app gives you.
  3. Upgrade to Premium, then add the child's device under Settings → Family → Screen time and build the schedule together — visibly.

Full walkthrough with screenshots: download & setup guide.

Google Play App Store

FAQ

Screen time — your questions answered

What can I see with screen time monitoring?

Daily totals, weekly trends and budget status for each child device you administer. Pair with app usage reports if you also want the per-app breakdown.

Can my child see what's monitored?

Yes — always. The child's device shows the same totals, limits and schedules you see. Transparency is enforced by design, not left as a setting.

What happens when the limit is hit?

The device enters downtime: essentials and family calls keep working, everything else locks until the schedule reopens or a parent grants an extension.

Can my child request more time?

Yes, with one tap — the request lands on parents' phones for approval. The exchange happens in the app instead of as a negotiation across the living room.

Can certain apps stay available during downtime?

Yes. Always-allow lists keep homework tools, e-readers or music available while the rest sleeps. Family calls through FamilyTracking always work.

Does this apply to my teen's phone without them knowing?

No. FamilyTracking has no covert mode for any feature. Screen time is for managed child devices in your Circle, set up openly — which is also the only version that survives contact with a teenager.

What ages is this for?

Most effective from roughly 8 to 14. For older teens we recommend shifting from limits to agreements, using the visible data as the conversation's referee.

Can each kid have a different schedule?

Yes — budgets, downtimes and allow-lists are entirely per-device. The 9-year-old and the 14-year-old don't live under one rule.

Does it work on Android and iPhone?

Yes, on managed child devices on both platforms, using each OS's native screen-time frameworks under a single FamilyTracking interface.

Is screen time included free?

It's part of Premium's digital-wellbeing bundle with app usage reports and web filtering. The 7-day trial covers all of it.

What happens during downtime if there's an emergency?

Family calls and the SOS button always work — downtime locks entertainment, never safety. That exception is hard-coded, not configurable.

Can grandparents administer screen time when kids stay over?

A parent can grant temporary extension rights to another Circle adult — the sleepover-at-grandma's setting, revocable anytime.

Set the rule once. Skip the nightly rerun.

Screen time tools come with Premium. Build the schedule together — it's the version that works.

Download FamilyTracking Next feature: app usage reports →