LA Weekly*Brand Partner Content*
If you look at the world around you, social media platforms and mobile phones have become some of the most important elements in the life of a modern-day child. As per the details revealed in the Common Sense Census, it was found that 84% of American teenagers falling in the age bracket of 13 to 18 years, got their first smart phone in the year 2019. Thereafter, these teenagers spent precisely 7 hours 22 minutes on average per day, using nothing but social media websites or apps.
Despite the fact that Internet has proven to be a great boon for youngsters all across the world, providing them with an effective means of free education and communication, it has also enabled them in way to interact with complete strangers who may or may not be really safe to interact in the actual world. Throwing some more light upon the e-safety aspect of these children, they are constantly exposed to online hazards such as cyber bullying, harassment and sextortion. Not just that, extensive usage of social media can also cause Internet addiction, which can potentially lead to social interaction problems in young kids.
As responsible parents, it becomes our duty to keep a close watch over our children’s mobile phone activities. Going by various independent reviews and feedbacks left by mSpy customers on social media platforms and online forums, it becomes clear that it is by far the best cell phone tracker you can use for any such monitoring. mSpy has been in the market for over 10 years now, and has been constantly releasing updates to its software, year after year. As can be gauged, the experts at mSpy are continuously engaged in discovering and integrating features which can give their product an edge over the competition. Here in this detailed review of mSpy, we will take you over all its important features, functions, pricing and more, to help you decide whether to use it or not.
What is mSpy?
mSpy can be termed as a mobile phone spying application, which can easily help you monitor the activities on a target mobile phone, from a remote location. Actively using this app, provides you with information related to the following activities: locations visited, instant messages, social media activities, phone calls and more. What’s most important is that this app works completely hidden in the background, on the target device, making it almost impossible for the user to know about its presence.
mSpy was launched over a decade ago, in 2010, and has gradually improved its capabilities to become one of the most dependable and regularly used mobile phone spying apps throughout the world. Though it is primarily targeted at parents who would like to keep a constant tab on their kids’ activities on their mobile phones, the app is equally popular amongst other users, for instance, corporates, spouses etc. who’d like to use it for their specific needs. In fact, there are over 1.5 million parents all over world, who regularly use this app to ensure the online safety of their children.
The software is easy to setup, reliable and compatible with both iOS and Android mobile phones. Other than that, it offers you detailed analysis of the activities carried out on the target device.
How mSpy Works?
As mentioned above, once you successfully install mSpy on the target cell phone, it will continue running in the background on that device. Thereafter, it will gather all kinds of information from the target device, including call details, text messages, IM messages, location etc., and upload it to your account on the mSpy platform.
You can then simply log into your account, through any web browser on a phone, desktop, laptop etc. and go through all the retrieved information, at your convenience.
Easy monitoring in 3 simple steps
You can follow the below provided 3 simple steps and start monitoring your child’s device without any hassles.
Step 1 – Choose a subscription
Your 1st step should be to choose a subscription plan on the mSpy website, based on the specific features you require in the software. Thereafter, you must provide your payment details and complete the purchase. Once you’ve done that, you will receive a confirmation email in your inbox.
Step 2 – Install mSpy on the target device
The welcome email sent to you will contain an installation guide, which will help you easily set up the mSpy app on the target device.
Step 3 – Begin monitoring
After you have successfully installed mSpy on the target device, you can log into your control panel on the mSpy website and start viewing the retrieved data, through an easy to use dashboard.
MSpy Features
Monitoring and Blocking Of Websites
This mSpy feature allows you to monitor which all websites your child or target user has been visiting, even the pages they have bookmarked. Not just that, the app can instantly update you when any specific keyword gets typed into the mobile phone. Such functionality can be immensely helpful for parents and allow them to better understand what their kids are searching for and watching on the Internet
In addition, you get the ability to block websites of your choice, provided that the monitored individual uses any of the popular web browsers like Safari, Chrome or a native Android browser.
Information Retrieval and Managing Key Functions From/On The Target Device
The app gives you the ability to retrieve important information related to the target mobile phone, through your dashboard. The retrievable information includes: phone’s model, operating system details, memory details, version of the mSpy software, whether the target is rooted/jailbroken or not, cellular service provider, last time when phone was synced with the dashboard and the remaining battery life.
mSpy app also make it easier to manage some important functions on the target device remotely, through the mSpy dashboard. These functions include: disabling the mSpy app on the target mobile phone, removing all logs, remotely rebooting the target phone, remotely locking the target phone, unlinking the target cell phone from the mSpy service, restarting mSpy app by sending a ‘777’ text message, exporting the logs on the Control Panel for storage purposes and wiping off all the data from the target device in case it gets lost or stolen.
Managing The Target Phone’s Settings
Using the mSpy’s control panel you can decide the target phone’s default behaviour. Post that, the application will continue working based on your defined settings, until you explicitly make any changes.
For instance, if you choose to set everything to ‘Auto Update’, every bit of reported data will get automatically uploaded to the mSpy’s control panel. Since uploading all the information, that too frequently, can impact the data usage and battery life of the target phone, you can specify which all information must be uploaded, based on the internet connection being used. For instance, videos being large, must be uploaded only when the device is connected to a reliable Wi-Fi connection.
Apart from that, you can also define the update intervals for location information and data. The smaller are these intervals, the more frequently updates will happen. It’s important to find the right balance, so as to avoid the target phone’s battery getting drained too fast. The recommended update intervals are 30 minutes for general information and every 2 minutes for the location data.
Tracking Text Messages
mSpy offers the ability to track all the outgoing and incoming text messages on the monitored phone. Your dashboard will show you the exact phone numbers, timing and content of the text messages. It’s also possible to view any text messages which have been deleted from the target phone.
Tracking Outgoing And Incoming Calls
It’s also possible to keep a constant track of the outgoing and incoming calls on the target mobile phone, through the mSpy Control Panel. You can keep yourself informed about the total number of calls, names, phone numbers, durations and timings of the calls. As in case of text messages, you can even retrieve this data if the target user deleted their call log. Not just that, you can block phone calls coming in from certain phone numbers or contacts; and can even block incoming calls in entirety during a specific time period. To give you an example, you can block all incoming calls on your daughter’s mobile phone, from 10 PM to 7 AM next morning. All this can be configured right from the mSpy dashboard.
Accessing Contact and Calendar Details
With mSpy you can go through the contact names, email addresses, phone numbers as well as the physical address details, stored on the target mobile phone. Additionally, you can go through the calendar schedule of the target device too, enabling you to stay on top of any scheduled tasks, calendar entries and/or pre-scheduled meetings.
Tracking Physical Location
Keeping a track of the physical location of the target user, is an extremely important feature offered by the mSpy app. This tracking is done through GPS technology, and the phone’s location remains trackable within a distance of 20 meters. What’s even more impressive is that you can view this location information on a map for a specific time period. In the event that the target device can’t connect to GPS, this info can also be retrieved via closest wi-fi network.
Tracking Emails
It’s possible to track all the outgoing and incoming email messages using mSpy. All these details get uploaded in a log file, and are accessible through the mSpy dashboard. You can learn about the receiver/sender’s email address, the time as well as the content of the email. Just as in case of SMS text log and call log details, it’s possible to retrieve all this info even if the monitored user has cleared their emails.
Geo-Fencing
Considered an extremely important feature for parents, geo-fencing enables you to define certain forbidden and safe geographic zones for your children, through the monitored cell phone. There is no limit on the number of such zones you can define. The target device will automatically update you about the frequency and timings of instances when a fenced-out zone was visited / exited by the user. This information can be sent to you even via an email.
Parents all over the world actively use this feature to protect their children from potentially harmful places. Through mSpy’s geo-fencing, you can easily define safe zones around your child’s school, home and various other places s/he visits on a regular basis too.
Monitoring Installed Applications
Every application installed on the target mobile phone will get shown on the mSpy dashboard, enabling you to easily open or block access to it, for the target user. It proves to be a very effective feature in ensuring that the kids don’t use any apps which they’re not supposed to, and could be potentially harmful for them.
Monitoring Of Multiple Instant Messaging Apps
Nowadays, there are all multiple ways in which you can communicate with other mobile phone users, both through voice calls and instant messages. We are referring to popular IM apps such as Google Hangouts, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Tinder, Telegram, LINE, Viber, iMessage and Skype. mSpy enables you to track the data exchanged on all such apps, read the exchanged text messages, browse videos & pictures, and generally monitor all activities happening on the concerned app.
Keyword Alerts
How about getting an alert each time your child enters some offensive word into his / her mobile phone, for instance keywords like alcohol, porn, drugs, sex etc. It can come in pretty handy to prevent your kid from getting into any kind of unwanted situation or habit. You can basically enter all the keywords you would like to track, and mSpy will send you instant notifications upon usage of any of them.
Key Logging
When you use this mSpy feature, the keyboard on the target mobile phone gets replaced by an mSpy keyboard, without the target user getting to know at all. Thereafter, the software can create a log of all the keystrokes on the target device, and keep you updated about all the activity happening on it.
Which All Mobile Phones Or Devices Is mSpy Compatible With?
mSpy offers support for a wide variety of mobile phones and tablets including:
- iOS 7 to 9.1 for mSpy with jailbreak. In case the target iPhone has not been jailbroken, the iCloud storage will be utilized for transferring information, and the mSpy will work on any phone with iOS 7 or higher.
- Android 4 or higher; however, some of the advanced features of the app may be available only on rooted Android devices.
- Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Mac OS 10.7 Lion, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, OS X 10.11 El Capitan and OS X 10.10 Yosemite
Is Using Mspy Illegal?
No, using mSpy is not considered illegal as long as you ensure its ethical usage. The app was primarily created to help concerned parents keep an eye on their children, and to empower employers by enabling them to keep a check on their workers’ productivity. Having said that, you must ensure that your mSpy usage is aligned with any of the below-mentioned legal requirements:
- You install mSpy app on a device owned by you.
- You use mSpy to keep a track of company-owned devices, ensuring that the employees are made aware of such tracking.
- You use mSpy in the form of a parental control tool, to keep track of underage children.
How Much Does Mspy Cost?
mSpy for mobile phones
Below provided is the mSpy’s pricing structure for monitoring mobile phones:
mSpy Basic subscription
- 1 month subscription: $ 26.99
- 3 months’ subscription: $ 59.99
- 12 months’ subscription: $ 99.99
mSpy Premium subscription
- 1 month subscription: $ 69.99
- 3 months’ subscription: $ 119.99
- 12 months’ subscription: $ 199.99
mSpy for Computers
For monitoring computers, mSpy offers only the basic subscription option. It’s priced as follows:
- 1 month subscription: $ 26.99
- 3 months’ subscription: $ 39.99
- 12 months’ subscription: $ 69.99
mSpy Family Kit
The company also makes available a Family Kit, which enables you to monitor the activities on 3 devices simultaneously. It’s priced as follows:
- 6 months’ subscription: $ 119.97
- 12 months’ subscription: $ 167.97
Reasons Why Mspy Is Considered One Of The Best Apps For Monitoring Mobile Phones
- mSpy works as an affordable solution, allowing you to monitor your kid’s online or mobile phone activities for less than a $ 1 per day.
- The app works in a hidden background mode, completely invisible to the target user.
- It can be installed fairly easily, and takes less than 10 minutes for complete installation.
- You continue receiving updated information from the target device, refreshed every 5 minutes.
- mSpy is a completely reliable and secure mobile phone monitoring solution, as every bit of the retrieved data is encrypted and protected.
- You get 24/7 support in multiple languages.
Conclusion
To conclude, we would like to state that mSpy is overall an excellent parental control tool which is already helping a great multitude of parents across the world, to stay on top of their kids’ online and mobile phone activities. It has proven instrumental, time and again, in protecting children from activities like cyber bullying, sextortion, online harassment and more. If you’re a parent who is concerned about his / her children’s mobile phone activities, this app can prove to be the best investment you will ever make.
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