With the development of technology, smartphones and social media have become an important part of children’s lives. In fact, by age 11, 91% of children in the UK own a smartphone. They spend about 5 hours per day to use social media.
While the Internet offers many benefits, like easy access to education and information, it also presents serious risks, especially for children who lack the maturity to navigate these dangers. Hazards such as sextortion, online harassment, and cyberbullying are increasingly common. Using social media too much can also lead to internet addiction or reduced face-to-face interactions.
As a parent, it is crucial to keep an eye on your kid’s mobile phone activities in order to notice any strange behavior and prevent dangerous issues. mSpy is a powerful tool to check what’s going on with your child by tracking their phone activities. They’ve been on the market for 10 years and have been releasing updates every year to stay ahead of the competition. In this review, we’ll go into great depth about the functions, legality, and pricing.
mSpy is a mobile spying app that can be installed on your target device to help you observe its activities remotely. This solution provides information, such as phone calls, instant messengers, social media activities, locations, tracking, and so on. Notably, the app works in the background in a complete incognito mode, which prevents being tracked by the target phone.
Being launched in 2010, mSpy has considerably developed to be one of the most prevalent mobile spying apps across the world. It is reliable, simple to set up, and eligible for both Android and iOS mobile devices. Besides, the app gives users a deep analysis of the target cell phone’s activities.
All data acquired from the application is uploaded into the company’s cloud server, where you access via the web-based dashboard. You can navigate to the dashboard from a mobile or a computer. mSpy is an excellent solution that covers a lot of uses. Some people utilize it as parental control to keep an eye on their kid’s mobile activities. Meanwhile, others leverage it to make sure their employees use their company phones for business-related matters.
In short, mSpy Is top-tier spyware for covert monitoring and surveillance needs.
After mSpy is installed on the phone, the app runs in the background. That helps the app stay hidden on the target device.
After installation, the app can bring you everything on the target phone, such as incoming/outgoing calls, location tracking, social media usage, instant messages, and many more. mSpy gets all this information and includes them to your online dashboard to help you monitor easily.
Remember that the app uses an Internet connection (Wi-fi or 3G/4G) to upload the data to the dashboard. Hence, you need to ensure that the target phone is connected to the Internet so that you can have information.
You can get some information about the target phone from your dashboard:
You also can manage some key function by using your mSpy dashboard remotely:
From your control panel, you can decide the default behavior for the target phone. Then the app will work with these settings until you make some changes.
You might want to make sure everything is set “auto-update” so that all of the recorded data is automatically uploaded to your control panel.
As uploading all of the information on a regular basis can affect the phone’s battery life and data usage, you can show mSpy which sorts of information to send over particular connections. For example, videos are a bit large. You can request the app to only upload videos when the device is on wi-fi instead of a cellular connection.
Besides, you can set the update interval for data and location information. The lower the setting, the more often the updates will occur. It’s essential to make a balance that doesn’t affect the battery of the phone too fast. In many cases, it is recommended to update information every 30 minutes and location data every 2 minutes.
This feature enables you to see which website the monitored device visits, pages this person has bookmarked. Plus, the app can inform you when specific keywords are searched in the browser. This function can help parents to keep tabs on the content their children are watching.
Additionally, if the target phone uses Chrome, Safari, or the native Android browser, you can block some websites.
You can know all incoming and outgoing calls from the target device within your control panel. You can check call times, duration, names (if any), and the total number of calls.
In case the user of the phone removed their call log, you still get its history. That sounds amazing!
Moreover, you can decide incoming call blocking for some certain contacts or numbers and block all incoming calls in a specific time period. For instance, you don’t want your son making calls from 11 pm-7 am, you can configure this in your dashboard.
mSpy supports tracking all incoming and outgoing text messages from the monitored phone. Phone numbers, the time, and text messages will be shown in your dashboard.
Like the case of the call log, you even can view the text messages that have been deleted on the target device. Click here to learn more about this feature
With mSpy, all incoming and outgoing email messages will be displayed in a log file on the dashboard. You can know the email address of the sender/receiver, the email’s timestamp, and content. Like the call log and SMS text log, you still view all the data even if the target user clears emails.
mSpy helps you see names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical address information. Plus, you can read the calendar and schedule of the target mobile. This enables you to view scheduled meetings, all calendar entries, and any scheduled tasks.
GPS tracking is one of the most powerful features of mSpy. If you use this built-in GPS system, you can immediately track a phone’s location within 20 meters.
Furthermore, you can get a map of their location over a specific amount of time. You also can monitor the phone by using wi-fi if it cannot receive GPS signals.
The GEO fencing feature allows you to set up limited zones for the target cell phone. The number of zones you can set up is limitless. The device will automatically record the time and frequency of every zone being visited.
What’s more, you can get the phone to give you an email notification that shows you when particular zones have been entered and exited.
Parents can take advantage of this feature to protect their children from far away. They can set a “safe zone” around their house, their child’s school, and other destinations they often visit. If the child leaves one of these zones, the parents can receive a notification instantly.
There are numerous ways to communicate from a smartphone by using a wide range of social media apps. It’s not enough for you to track text messages only. mSpy helps you to spy some popular social apps, including Skype, Whatsapp, iMessage, Viber, Snapchat, Line, Telegram, Tinder, and Google Hangouts.
All of the installed applications on the target device will be shown on your dashboard. You can decide to block or open access to the app. This allows you to make sure that your kids aren’t using any apps that can be harmful to them.
The default target keyboard is replaced by a mSpy keyboard that monitors all keystrokes. You can choose the Force Keyboard button in your control panel to ask mSpy to load its keyboard all the time.
This feature is great for tracking specific language usage or logging usernames and passwords to sites. Click here to learn more about mSpy’s keylogger.
Would it be helpful for you to receive a notification whenever a particular word or phrase is used on the target device? Sex, drug, porn, alcohol, or any other keyword can be defined to enable an instant notification to you.
What you need to do is to enter all of the keywords you want to track. mSpy will search through apps, text messages, browsing history to alert you of the keyword.
mSpy’s screen recorder takes snapshots of chats, notifications, and other activities, making it perfect for tracking disappearing messages on apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat, or Instagram. Automated screenshots are triggered by activity, like a new message, capturing it before it’s deleted.
What’s even better is that mSpy labels each screenshot with the app it’s from, letting you quickly filter and find what you need without scrolling through countless images.
mSpy also monitors the Wi-Fi networks the target device connects to. You’ll see the network name, connection time, and date, helping you confirm if your child is where they say they are. A standout feature is the ability to remotely disconnect the device from Wi-Fi. If your kids are online past bedtime, you can cut off their internet access with a simple command.
With mSpy, you can remotely control the target device’s camera to capture photos or videos discreetly. This feature is useful for parents or employers who need to check the surroundings for safety or security reasons. All media captured is accessible via the mSpy dashboard for real-time insights.
To ensure your child isn’t interacting with harmful or inappropriate content, mSpy lets you monitor the media files saved on their device, including images and videos. You’ll also see timestamps showing when the files were downloaded, helping you determine if it’s a one-time event or a recurring issue. This tool can ease concerns about exposure to adult or unsafe content online.
mSpy supports a variety of mobile devices, including:
You can check your device compatibility with mSpy here.
mSpy was created to help parents to protect their children and help employers keep their workers productive. Therefore, it is absolutely legal to use the app. However, you should ensure that your intentions to use mSpy address the legal requirements below:
The price of using mSpy is very straightforward. If you want to save money, consider long-term subscriptions with more discounts.
mSpy offers all features across plans, but priority support is only included in three-month or annual subscriptions. Monthly plans still provide support but with slower response times. For 24/7 expert help, you can purchase mAssistance.
mSpy’s customer support is quick and reliable, and the chatbot can even offer discounts. While there’s no free trial, you can try mSpy with its demo right on the website.
Step 1: Create a mSpy account
Go to mSpy website and click Try Now to start creating an account
Enter your email address and follow their instructions.
Then, click Continue and decide which type of device you would like to track: iOS or Android. Choose carefully because it will affect how the system operates. If you choose the wrong device, it can cause some conflicts.
Step 2: Choose a subscription
The longer term you choose, the cheaper the monthly payment is. Think about it.
Step 3: Make payment
Enter your card number and some payment details like the image below. Once you complete it, you will need to set up the device a bit, and it’s totally different for iOS and Android. Don’t worry! We’ll explain in detail.
To install mSpy, you’ll need to turn off Play Protect on the target device. Ensure the phone is now unlocked and has a stable connection with the Internet.
Next, open the Google Play Store.
Tap on the profile picture or the three lines in the top-right corner (the interface may vary). From the menu, select “Play Protect.” Then, click the settings gear in the top-right corner. Disable the “Scan Apps With Play Protect” option to proceed with downloading mSpy.
After turning off Play Protect, you’ll receive a link. Copy and paste that link into the phone’s address bar > do the captcha security test > click Download mSpy.
In case there’s a pop-up at the bottom of your screen asking for permission, just hit Open > Settings > Allow From The Source. Then go back and press Next to keep downloading. Once the process is done, tap the Open button.
Now, it’s time to set up the mSpy app on your target device. The mSpy app includes automated installation instructions. After granting all necessary permissions, simply enter the registration code provided by the app guide and tap Complete Installation.
Once done, your mSpy account will be ready to track the target device. You can view the monitored data anytime through the control panel on your mSpy account.
There are 2 options: Access your kid’s iCloud credentials and Physical access through Wi-Fi sync. The first one would be easier to implement. Let’s get to the detailed instructions for each method.
Method 1: Access iCloud credentials
After the basic steps of creating an account, you will then need to choose the connecting method, which in this case is iCloud Sync installation.
You’ll be redirected to a new page requiring you to log into your mSpy account again. Then, enter the iCloud credentials of your child’s device.
Hit Connect. Next, check the 2 notifications from mSpy. The first is sent to the iCloud email informing you’re trying to login and the second one is sent straight to the target phone containing a 6-digit code. These notifications are for 2-factor authentication.
After providing the right code, mSpy will do the rest for you. It usually takes 10-20 minutes to process. So, be patient.
Method 2: Access via Wi-Fi sync
In case you don’t have your kid’s iCloud credentials, you can still install mSpy through Wi-Fi sync, but it’s a bit more complicated. Here’s how:
To be honest, jailbreaking is the hardest way to break into a device, so it’s not recommended. However, it’s still an option, and you are free to try. Here are the steps to jailbreak iOS.
Note: The files on your USB-stick will be removed after this!
Important Note: Using spy software without the device owner’s permission is illegal in many places. We test these apps only with the owner’s consent and in compliance with local laws.
To recommend the best spyware apps, we evaluate popular options based on:
Yes, mSpy can track a phone discreetly by running in stealth mode, hidden from app lists and notifications. However, it’s important to note that using such apps without the device owner’s consent is illegal in many countries. mSpy is best used to monitor your child’s safety or a partner’s location with their permission.
mSpy is a highly capable app, but it’s not the cheapest option. Let’s take a look at other top alternatives.
| Parental Control App | Best For | Starting Price | Outstanding Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| uMobix | Monitor calls (on Android) | $12.49/mo | SIM card swap alerts Contact block list |
| Spynger | Access deleted messages | $9.28/mo | Doesn’t require jailbreaking Remote screenshots |
| SpyBubble | Track location | $10.62/mo | Access to deleted texts Geofencing alerts |
| Phonsee | Allow remote installation via iCloud | $8.85/mo | Keylogger Screen recorder Stealth mode |
mSpy is a great parental control tool that can help parents understand their child’s online activities. mSpy also can prevent your children from being harassed or bullied online.
If you have tried this app, could you share your opinion with us in the comment section. We’re glad to hear from you.
Summer is the CMO and Digital Commerce Solution Expert with 10+ years of experience. She specializes in Magento, Shopify, ERP, CRM, AI, and Blockchain, delivering strategic solutions that transform businesses. With a deep understanding of digital commerce, she helps brands scale and stay ahead in a competitive market.
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