SMART tag™ Parent App User Reviews

SMART tag™ Parent App

Secured Mobility LLC

Education

Lifestyle

Reviews Summary

Positive highlights

🙌

This app hasGreat customer service

📍

This app hasLive map tracking of bus route

🔔

This app hasUseful push notifications for bus arrival/departure

Negative highlights

❌

This app hasApp frequently crashes or fails to load data

⏱️

This app hasInaccurate bus arrival time estimates

🗺️

This app hasLack of real-time bus location tracking on map

🔒

This app hasIssues with account linking and login

🚫

This app hasInferior to previous website version

🤯

This app hasOverwhelming during peak usage times

Top reviews

Most RecentHighest RatedLowest Rated

Turn the map back on!!!

I love all the new features but turn the map back on to track the bus!! App glitches. I was watching the bus and it didn’t move for a while I started walking to the stop to get my PREK child off and the bus was pulling up. I had to RUN to the stop and yes she was early. Then the next morning I got a notification TWENTY minutes early saying “Bus ***** will be arriving anytime now” as it came through I tapped it and it said you are viewing an old notification so I took him to school. Talked to some neighbors later that said the bus did come but twenty minutes late! My other son the bus drives down the street across from us then turns around because we live on a major road. Almost daily when she drives by it shows she already passed our stop and that’s a 15-20 minute difference so if I’m not staring at the map I’m not sure how long ago she passed. I think the app is nice but give back the map so we can see for ourselves. I have it set for the bus being 20 min away and I get the notification for my youngest every single morning 6 8 or 9 minutes away!!

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Ketchupmustardpickles

3 months ago

Response from developer

We apologize for the frustration. Our team resolved this issue with a recent update. Please update your App to the latest version when you see an option. Thank you for your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at support@smart-tag.net.

Does not work

Unlike the web based version from last year that actually worked this one does not. The app is garbage. It does not send an alert when the bus is in route from the bus barn to the bus stop in the morning. Once on the bus it does not track the bus location to school as it’s supposed to. In the afternoon it doesn’t show the bus from the school to home. Almost missed it twice this week. CCISD says it’s a developer issue. The app developer says it’s a school district issue. Someone needs to fix this. Our tax dollars are paying for it and it’s not working as expected.

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hmcalla69

3 months ago

Nothing Smart about it.

App is glitchy. Cannot load my kid’s info, nothing pops up when I open so I can’t even change the pickups. Gives me the circle of death. I’ve tried restarting the app and my phone. I’ve deleted the app and re-downloaded it. Nothing. It’s a terrible app and I wish my child’s school didn’t use this. Waste of time. Emailing the school officials is a lot faster when it comes to changing pickups and it’s probably faster and better at this point.

I have screen shots of the app being blank on my end. My ex has downloaded the app and it works fine for her. Maybe the app doesn’t allow two devices to use it at the same time but we’ve ruled that out. I asked her to log out and I logged in and it’s the same. Screen is blank on my end and no info pops up.

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Pejag1

3 months ago

Response from developer

We apologize for the frustration. We know the importance for you to have accurate information about your students. Our team resolved this issue with a recent update. Please update your app to the latest version when you see an option. Thank you for your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at support@smart-tag.net.

So awful!

This app is the worst thing I’ve ever tried to use! Most of the time the screens are just blank, as if trying to load data and can’t (doesn’t matter where I am, on cell network or wifi). Have not been able to see my students profile page and the last two days, the two times I was able to get a notification to show up, I couldn’t get any gps data for the bus. To say the app is useless would be an understatement. I don’t even understand how the company would release an app this bad. Are we beta testing it? And our district will no longer let us just use the website, which was 1000 times better than this bc I could actually see where the bus was (isn’t that the whole point of the smart tag system?) I’m hoping our district transportation gets enough complaints that we can at least go back to using the website because otherwise there’s no point to having the smart tags.

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freestyle79

3 months ago

Response from developer

We're sorry for your frustration. Those issues you are experiencing are fixed in the recent updates. Please update the App to the latest version when you see the option. The parent app development was at the request of parent feedback and our districts. A lite version of the parent portal is in development and will be available this fall. A Customer Success team member will help you with the new features and notifications. Please get in touch with support@smart-tag.net.

Website was better

Thank you for the “canned response” but I have read & fully understand the directions. I have also read the FAQ page. I am fully aware that “for safety & security” blah, blah… BUT, what safety & security does it provide me, as the parent, if I cannot see where my children are? I have the alert settings on for 10 minutes (then increased to 15 minutes, now 20 minutes) but received an alert at 4 (FOUR!!) minutes that the bus will arrive…hmmm. Is this tech not properly programmed for math? We, as parents, understand that traffic, etc happens, so when the bus is late & our elementary aged children don’t have phones & I have no way of knowing where they are, how is this technology helping us? Food for thought.

WHY IS THERE NO LIVE MAP ANYMORE?!?!? Seriously, I wanted this to work and I wanted to like it better than the website, but this is so dumb and unreliable! I signed up for “alerts” 10 mins away…I get “bus will be there in 4 minutes” A map appears, then disappears. It constantly tells me that I don’t have children, then about an hour after school starts (when no one is using app), I suddenly have children again! This is terrible!!

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greasy reesey

3 months ago

Response from developer

We apologize for your experience. We know the importance for you to have accurate information about your students. Our team is working diligently to correct the capacity and resource issues causing student information to “appear missing”. Regarding the live map, based on feedback from school districts nationwide and for the safety of students and drivers, the live map location of the bus is available from the time you receive the SMART Alert arrival notification (default 20 mins) up to the time the bus leaves your home stop. The Parent App includes new features that let you choose a time setting for bus arrival notifications and each time your student loads and unloads the bus. Thank you for your patience.

Estimates are way off

My son missed the bus because I depended on this app and it’s estimated time I should’ve known better than to trust this app. It showed an estimate of 11 minutes so we took our time walking to stop only to realize the bus got there literally 3 minutes after we received notification. I wish we could track the bus on the map like we used to before they turned it to app only. Now it only tells you when and where bus picked up or dropped of child. It was extremely dependable when we could follow the bus on the map and make our own estimated time. Now it’s anyone’s guess. And the other day I got a notification that bus would arrive any minute now, 16 minutes later is when it arrived. It’s extremely difficult for myself since I have to walk in 105 degree heat with the blaring sun and extreme humidity with my 2 year old to the bus stop and be waiting 30 minutes or so since I cannot depend on this app. Please go back to letting us track the bus movements on the road map so we can make our own predictions of time since we are familiar with the area and traffic flow here. Please incorporate the gps tracking on the app for the parents, this heat we’re having in my area is extremely dangerous and I would like to limit having my daughter and self out there while we wait for siblings. Thank you.

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Sweet8LouLou

3 months ago

Response from developer

We apologize for the inconvenience. This new version allows for more custom notifications for parents in addition to the previous arrival alerts. Certain features are turned on at the discretion of the school district, including arrival notification time (default 20 min and can be longer per district) . When the driver signs into the route, the personal time parameters and notification settings may impact when the map is available. We would like to help you customize your parent settings. Please contact our customer support team for individual assistance at support@smart-tag.net.

App is not working most of times

Update: App is stable now. Looks like that major issues where fixed. To me looks like it is useful and I can track the bus and my kid. Thanks for supporting us.

I receive push notifications for any time my kids are checking in/out to the bus but if I go to the app it does not display anything. Then if I refresh the app, all the windows will continue trying to load content forever and nothing is displayed. I can’t see my profile, bus route, my kids, etc. After about 4h the app loads the information but I need to refresh because it says no activity, so it goes to the first stage in an endless loop.

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……,.,.,..

3 months ago

Response from developer

Update: We appreciate your changing your review to 4-stars and sharing on this platform. We want this app to work for you! An issue with the App performance is due to the extraordinarily high usage. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We resolved the issue and continue to monitor to ensure our system performs as designed. We are committed to providing the best experience possible to help you have peace of mind. Thank you for your patience

Bus route

I appreciate the notifications to let me know when to expect when the bus will arrive or depart. I would like to see the bus route as well. Real time where the bus is at I used to be able to see this on the website before it was an app. It gives a piece of mind if there is a delay or breakdown.

PetiteClouds

3 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. Based on feedback from school districts nationwide and for the safety of students and drivers, the live map location of the bus will only be available from the time you receive the SMART Alert arrival notification (default 20 mins) up to the time the bus leaves your home stop. The Parent App includes new features that let you choose a time setting for bus arrival notifications and each time your student loads and unloads the bus.

Not getting rider notifications

Customer support team is about as bad as the app. Contacted them today because I stopped getting notifications of when my children load and unload since the first day of school despite them having been on the bus everyday. Just wanted to see if that was an issue they were still working on. I receive a response on how to set up my app. ??? I then explain my issue again in another email and state that my app is set up already. I later receive a screenshot which shows my children’s riding activities on the first day of school and nothing else. She then tells me there’s no record of them tapping on or being entered manually- EXCEPT I WATCHED my son tap on this morning which is what prompted my email. I would just appreciate if someone read my email and responded accordingly instead of wasting my time with boilerplate responses. We’ve now spent the entire day emailing back and forth and I have less confidence in this app than I did before and I still don’t know the answer to my previous question… as a matter of fact I’m left with more questions? Like how is this the app providing any parent assurances????

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Geronimux lux

3 months ago

Response from developer

We apologize for your experience. We know the importance for you to have accurate information about your students. Our team is working diligently to correct the issue causing student information to "appear missing." A software upgrade will be released within a week. We are committed to restoring to full functionality as soon as possible. Feel free to call us for support at 512-686-2360. Thank you for your patience.

Worst Student App ever

Katy ISD has changed its app 2 years in a row, and it just got worse each time.
Bad user experience, smart alerts works randomly and send innacurate updates.
Cannot follow the bus on the app to see when it's time for me to go to the bus station. (again, sometimes it works, most of the times it doesn't).
I wonder how someone reviewed this and thought it would be a good idea to replace an existing solution.

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Frustrated_Dad_2