Do not update!
The app blocks screenshots now. of course, hardly anyone remembers to tag your child, so now there’s no way to get a clean download of any untagged photos!
Love this app!
This app is super easy to use and I love the updates throughout the day!
Skips around while on Timeline page!
Timeline/home page skips up and down while trying to look at the page
Terrible UI
Submitting another review as this is awful. I do not want to be on the phone every morning to enter information. You cannot use this on the iPad Horizontally. Please make an update so I can use this on an iPad.
Can barely download and can’t screenshot
Most photos can no longer be downloaded and screenshots have been disabled. So I can no longer get most photos or videos. Very frustrating.
Privacy Issues
In the newest update, I now have to give the app FULL ACCESS to my camera roll if I want to be able to download any photos of my child from the app?? I also can’t screenshot anything in the app to communicate my child’s day (sleep/feeds/teacher note) with another caregiver??
Cannot download ANY photos of our child any more
With the recent updates, we are now no longer able to download ANY photos of our child, whether she is alone in the photo or with others. We are also now unable to screenshot the photo, as the app turns black if you try to do that. I understand the privacy concerns of people downloading photos of other children, but if I can’t download ANY photo of my child, what is the point? I expect better from this very expensive daycare.
Show more
Requires full photo access (no more as of 8/17/2026)
Inappropriately requires full photo access to save pictures of your little one (including location data on all of your stored photos). Without consenting to letting Bright Horizons know my full whereabouts and digital photo history, I can’t download pictures of my children. This is an abhorrent overreach and privacy intrusion that’s exploitative
Update 8/17/2026: they have removed the need to allow full photo access, but c-suite leadership told teachers not to take pictures
Update 8/17/2026: they have removed the need to allow full photo access, but c-suite leadership told teachers not to take pictures
Show more
Why can’t I save photos of my own child?
The new photo restrictions are incredibly frustrating. Bright Horizons describes this app as a way for parents to “save special moments and memories,” yet the app now blocks screenshots and screen recordings while some photos have no download option at all.
I understand wanting to protect children’s privacy, but these photos are already being shared within a restricted app with authenticated Bright Horizons families, not posted publicly. At an absolute minimum, when a photo contains only my own child, I should be able to save it.
Parents should not have to contact teachers every time we want a copy of a photo the center has already chosen to share with us. Please restore downloading for solo photos or allow screenshots again. The current implementation is unnecessarily restrictive and makes one of the app’s most valuable features significantly worse.
I understand wanting to protect children’s privacy, but these photos are already being shared within a restricted app with authenticated Bright Horizons families, not posted publicly. At an absolute minimum, when a photo contains only my own child, I should be able to save it.
Parents should not have to contact teachers every time we want a copy of a photo the center has already chosen to share with us. Please restore downloading for solo photos or allow screenshots again. The current implementation is unnecessarily restrictive and makes one of the app’s most valuable features significantly worse.
Show more
Photo gallery access is insane
I generally did like this app until recently when the new upgrade required you to give full photo gallery access in order to download pictures of your baby. I’m not sure why Bright horizons needs access to my personal photo gallery for its entire history in order for me to save a photo of my child. It doesn’t make any sense and feels like a huge overreach in privacy.
Show more
“Full Access” to my photo album?!
Absolutely not. I don’t think MBD needs full access to MY album when all I want to do is download photos of MY child. Fix this issue.
New setting permissions are trash
I’ve been using this app for four years across two schools. And now with the latest update in order to save photos from my child’s day, I need to grant full access to all 50,000 photos on my phone? Come on now, you can accomplish this with Add New Photos Only.
Privacy Overreach
There is no reason this app should require full access to your photo library to be able to save pictures of your own child. Really sketchy.
Updated App Requires Full Access to Photo Album to Download Child’s Pictures
The app used to be decent. But they have changed the app’s photo access requirements to request full access to my photo album on my phone in order to only download my child’s photos. That is RIDICULOUS and should not be the requirement to download photos. This raises privacy concerns on my end. Especially when I am paying for the daycare’s services.
Show more
Infuriating changes
This app has always been buggy and unreliable but recent changes have made it even worse. Previously you could download pictures of your child (only if they were in a solo picture) if you had “add photos only” permissions for the app. Recently they changed so that you have to grant full access to download photos. Why does bright horizons need full access to my photo library? I can’t think of a single reason this app needs that access. Also since more people are becoming more data security focused this seems like a terrible idea in light of the aforementioned bugginess and unreliability, it’s like it’s begging for a data breach to happen. Good job! Y’all have made this app worse and made more people dissatisfied like that was the goal.
Show more
Full Photo Library Access?!
The recent update now requires full access to your photo library to be able to share or download photos of your child. Previously would have rated this app much higher but this is totally unnecessary.
Full photo access permissions are concerning
The app is fine most of the time, occasional bug that can annoying and occasionally have to force close the app. My primary concern is the recent update prompting “full access” to my iOS Photos app to save a photo. Absolutely not. This is ridiculous. You can’t even screenshot the photo of your child to get around it.
Show more
Needs access to my photos?
Why did the settings change here? Previously it only needed access to “add photos” to my library. Why does it now need access to my actual photos in order for me to save a photo down? I even tried doing “limited access” and just not selecting anything and it still won’t work. In today’s day and age of privacy there is no chance I’m giving you full access to my photo library. You only need “add photo” access. I’d just take screenshots but you disabled that so I cannot take screenshots anymore. Fix it back to at least just “add photo” access please.
Show more
Privacy Issues!
New version of app requires Full Access to my photo album in order to download photos of my kid from the app- this is completely unnecessary and a major privacy concern. I do not consent to giving any company, let alone one with PE backers who are heavily invested in AI, access to my full photo album. Considering taking my kid out of BH just over this issue!
Show more
Photo Permission Overkill
Latest update requires full access just to save photos and you can no longer take a screenshot of your child with the description of what they are doing in the photo. While I understand and support restricting the ability to save photos if they contain others, we should be able to save those of our own children. I should also not have to give full access to all my personal photos just to save photos of my child. There must be a way to be less intrusive and restrictive while still protecting the privacy of others.
Show more
