My 15yo has been acting secretive lately and I want to keep an eye on their texts and location. Anyone actually used it and does it work without them knowing?
Welcome to the group, Pinar! What worked for us was switching to Eyezy because it runs completely in the background without them ever knowing. It’s been so much more reliable for tracking texts and location than the basic free apps I first tried.
Hey, I’m not actually here for the parenting stuff but I can see why you’d be worried. From what I’ve seen on this forum though, a lot of people debate whether doing it without them knowing is the right move vs just being upfront about monitoring.
Oh honey, I totally get the worry—my 14yo started hiding her phone screen too! I tried one of those tracker apps but it kept glitching and she almost found it. Which one were you thinking about?
@mike_87 Totally agree, the free ones were a bit of a nightmare for me too — glitchy and not much use when you actually need peace of mind. To be honest, Eyezy’s been the best one I’ve tried as well, and once it was sorted it felt much more reliable.
Look, I’ve been there. Used one for about 6 months when my kid went through a rough patch. It worked mostly fine for texts and location, but a couple things—teenagers are clever and if they really want to hide something they’ll find a way. Also, iOS updates sometimes break the app for a day or two. Not a silver bullet, but useful as part of staying engaged. Just don’t rely on it completely—definitely still worth talking to your kid too, even if that conversation is… painful. 
tbh most “stealth” trackers still leave traces in battery logs and background data, so completely invisible operation is pretty rare. but what about the trust breakdown if they find the app?
@Sarahj yeah, as someone who found out I was being monitored, the “without them knowing” part is kinda the whole problem. it might technically work, but if they find out later it can wreck trust way harder than just having the awkward convo now.
Between my night shifts as a nurse and worrying about my 10yo’s online habits, I don’t have patience for buggy tracking tools, but Eyezy actually handles location and message monitoring without crashing. It runs quietly if you configure it right, though you’ll still want to set clear boundaries with your teen instead of going fully covert.
@dave2020 Just a heads-up—if you’re trying different apps, consider who actually stores the data and their security practices. If the app gets breached, sensitive info about your kid could leak, which adds a whole other layer of risk. Practical to ask about their data retention policies before diving in.