Pinwheel Caregiver User Reviews

Firepit Inc

Top reviews

Most RecentHighest RatedLowest Rated

Outstanding product

The Pinwheel phone and companion software is the best family friendly phone available, hands down. Great features that bring sanity to the use of what has become an otherwise addictive feature of modern life… the smartphone. Worth every penny to help protect your children.

WesleyPomona

a year ago

Good idea, Disappointing for the price.

So few apps actually work on this. Then I have to submit a request to get an App approved by pinwheel. I’m the parent, I approve it. Why do we need to gather votes on whether or not to approve Ascension Bible app on my kid’s phone?

RustamJunagah

a year ago

Response from developer

We are allowing parents to opt into a different approach that will allow access to the Google Play Store and take the responsibility of reviewing apps, as we know everyone has the apps they really want and we can't review all of them quickly. If you want to get early access to this feature, please call customer care and request to be the Google Play Store Beta group. This feature will likely become available to all after we work through any issues we find with the beta group.

Easy to customize, grows with your child

I have recommended pinwheel to countless parents; 2 of our 4 children have a pinwheel so far! The app does have its bugs, but pinwheel responds very quickly to fix them. I love how easy it is to set restrictions or grant privileges with just a few clicks. I love how you can set schedules for any time of day for any length of time AND allow and disallow any/all apps PLUS set time restrictions within that. Toggling between different children is very smooth and easy. Parents can see ALL texts, even deleted ones!! There’s so many different options within the texting app-parent OR child approve contacts, image texting or not for individual contacts or all contacts, emergency contacts (contacts allowed during nothing mode), allow or disallow group texting and more!!!! The phone is so customizable that the restrictions can be released as the child demonstrates maturity. The customer support is unparalleled! I would love to be on the pinwheel team in app testing or customer service, that’s how much we have loved our experience!

Show less

G5611

a year ago

Fantastic smart phone “training wheels” for teens.

We’ve been using Pinwheel to help our 16-year-old son learn responsible use of a smart phone for two years now. It is a fantastic tool for this training period! Highly recommended!

Satisfied Pinwheel Parent

a year ago

No access to what type of phone

I called to find out what type of Samsung device my daughter has- after a ton of unnecessary questions, including the last 4 digits of my credit card I used to purchase???? I was finally told its a Samsung a14- why isn’t this information easily accessed on the app or website.

Kris1123

a year ago

Response from developer

We can take this as feedback. We typically try to keep the UI as simple as possible to help people find the information they are looking for quickly. As far as the last 4 digits of the card used during the purchase, we want to make sure we verify the person on the other side to ensure they are indeed the owner of the account. "Social Engineering" (aka impersonating users) is the most exploited source of data leaks. We take both you and your kids safety and privacy very seriously which is why we go through extra steps to confirm your identity.

Do Not Work

Not all the text comes in on the app. The location service doesn’t work. It’s a good idea in theory, but the execution and the app need a lot of work.

EngKL

a year ago

Options for oversight and freedom

My son enjoys having the freedom of having actual apps with a "real" phone (his is a Samsung), and I value having the ability to set limits and not having access to a web browser.

I would like to be able to set time limits for various apps, and I may have this ability, but I haven't looked into it enough to know for sure as of yet.

Show less

Tinabean117

a year ago

Response from developer

Thank you for the feedback and we're thrilled to hear you've been enjoying Pinwheel so far! We currently do not have a time limit function for the apps but you can continue to limit app usage to certain times of the day using our Modes. This is something we're looking into though so please watch out for our updates! For anything else, you can reach our support team via support@pinwheel.com from 7AM to 9PM CT daily.

If you have an tech issue in your child’s phone- they cannot help

Pinwheel needs to do a much better job of advising users when things go wrong on the child’s phone. The phone just stopped sending or receiving messages and calls and it took an hour for them to tell me they couldn’t help. Thoroughly disappointed.

Narrowminded and hypocritical

2 years ago

Response from developer

Hi there, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with our phone. This sounds a bit odd to me; while we do have ongoing concerns that we're working on, issues with sending/receiving messages are one of those that we actually frequently solve! We'd definitely love to look into this for you. Do you think you can reach out to Customer Care Team again and try to get the Leads Team's attention? Feel free to send us an email asking for either Toya, Gabby or Ralph. Looking forward to helping you with this!

Incredible for kids

The Pinwheel phone is incredible for kids, and this app is so helpful in managing their phone as a parent. The caregiver app lets me adjust their available apps and contacts pretty effortlessly, and I love that I can quickly check their location and text history!

techacademic

2 years ago

Response from developer

I'm happy to hear you're loving Pinwheel! Should any issues arise, or if you simply have questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our Customer Care Team via support@pinwheel.com

Buggy

I like the features but it will not auto refresh. If I want to see new texts or new contacts to approve I have to hard close and restart the app every single time.

HamIam10

2 years ago

Response from developer

Hi there, so sorry to hear about your disappointment with the app! Rest assured, I've forwarded your feedback to our Dev Team so we can take a look at it and move towards improvement. If you could send us a proper report ticket with more details, that would be extremely helpful! Shoot us an email at support@pinwheel.com.