# Parental Control App - Grace — user reviews > 41 indexed App Store user reviews of Parental Control App by Screenity LLC, rated 3.25/5 from 73 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/parental-control-app-grace/id1587660688/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/parental-control-app-grace/id1587660688.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 34 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 5 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 26 ## Newest reviews (17 of 41) ### 3/5 — Strong potential *2024-04-12, version 1.3* Out of all the apps I have tried , this one seems to have the strongest potential to fit with our family. I’ve been looking for an app that improves on and uses apples api. I found another recently that uses it for setup but not for anything else which didn’t work for us. This one seems to have all the features and simplicity I’m looking for while being built off Apple api. My only issue is the lack of app picker on the parent device and the developers lack of response. I’m concerned this is a dead app as it has not been updated in 6 mos and the developer won’t respond. If the app gets more support, I will probably be back. For now we are going back to apples solution. ### 3/5 — Okay not great *2024-03-15, version 1.3* It’s a better user interface with more granular controls than the built in functionality. But since it’s playing nice and using the Apple APIs it’s plagued by their flakiness. I tried to enable Messages during downtime but I wasn’t able to. I’m 99% sure this isn’t the developers fault. The free app is defintely worth installing, but the premium features still need some work. Being able to turn off restrictions with a click is a godsend so I applaud them for that. ### 1/5 — Great Potential, But Hit and Miss Functionally *2024-03-05, version 1.3* We have a lot of devices among three teenagers and I've tried many of these kinds of apps. This one shows the greatest potential but it's unreliable when it comes to seeing newly installed apps or even apps that have been present for a long time. At times some apps just show as API connections in the websites list. Support has been hit or miss with early on support being very responsive but in recent times less so. This can be frustrating as a paying user. Bottom line - use this if you have the patience to tinker, restart, remove, if restrictions aren't super critical, and you have a backup means of administrating devices for kids. At first the developer was responsive but now after attempting three times for different issues I’m afraid we’ll be going back to Ourpact. ### 2/5 — Looks Promising But… *2024-02-28* Looks promising, but no updates in past 5 months (only several since initial release). The documentation around the product is lacking in specificity and breadth in my opinion. As an example, I would like to see what features are missing from Screen Time API (what can I not do, in an easy to read chart in plain language). Is there a way to still use Screen Time directly for features missing in the Screen Time API instead of Grace handling all Screen Time functionality? I assume so, but the documentation only discusses overlapping settings from what I read. I emailed support several days ago about licensing and no response. It’s hard for me to justify paying for something where the team supporting it doesn’t respond. ### 3/5 — Could be great *2024-02-15, version 1.3* This app is almost there and I’d LOVE to be done with apple’s on board screen time regulation. It has a few limitations as others have stated but my biggest gripe is that it just randomly stops working. Works reliably for weeks then suddenly my daughter is on for two hours when the app clearly indicates “limit has been reached”. Very frustrating. ### 1/5 — App won’t work and developer won’t respond *2024-01-27* Would love to actually review this but it simply will not work. I’ve reached out to the developer multiple times since November and never received a response. I’ve paid for it and they will not respond to my requests for help. Update: still no response from developers either from this review or over email. ### 3/5 — Well conceived, but not secure *2024-01-23* In many respects, this is a superior example of an app using the Screen Time API. The developers have nailed the layout, the functionality, and Shortcuts integration (wonderful on the Apple Watch). Nonetheless, I’ve had to cancel my subscription due to Grace’s lack of Passcode options: only 4-digit, and no FaceID. It’s astonishing how coordinated some teens can get in their attempts to hack 4-digits. As compared to many other Parental Control apps, Grace’s security is a critical weak point. Also, I find that pairing more than one device for a child (itself a very intuitively designed process) can make setting changes function unreliably when a paired child device is no longer available (in family’s possession) to unpair. Obviously user error, but I’ve remained stuck with how to fix it. ### 1/5 — App won’t work and developer won’t respond *2024-01-17* Would love to actually review this but it simply will not work. I’ve reached out to the developer multiple times since November and never received a response. I’ve paid for it and they will not respond to my requests for help. ### 1/5 — Why? *2023-10-26, version 1.3* Just why ### 2/5 — Not helpful *2023-10-07, version 1.3* After I installed this I noticed the screen time passcode was removed. So app limits were ignored. The fault with these screen time protections lies entirely with apple. The screen time functionality for iOS is pathetic, so disappointing. This app while nice and well meaning is limited by that fact. ### 2/5 — Blocks Ask To Buy Requests!!! *2023-09-24, version 1.3* I only give it two stars because it does do a good job with parental controls not otherwise available on the iPhone. However I had to discontinue my subscription and delete the app on all my kids’ and my devices because, after investigating for several weeks, I realized this app was the reason I stopped receiving my kids’ Ask To Buy requests. The moment I deleted all of the apps, requests started coming through again. I’m disappointed that this app caused the problem because it was nice to have multiple scheduled limitations. I will also say the app often freezes and doesn’t always keep settings saved in the schedules I set. Very bummed that I payed for a subscription before realizing this. ### 1/5 — 👎 *2023-09-17, version 1.3* All the 5 stars are the parents. ### 3/5 — Specific contact restrictions *2023-08-19, version 1.2.6* I LOVE the widgets! But with Grace the specific contact restrictions I had in place with iOS screen time are gone. It was really helpful to restrict my daughters time to chat with her friends but still allow her to call me or her dad. Is there any way to fix this? ### 3/5 — Strong Potential *2023-06-22, version 1.2.6* I’ve been using this app for about 6 months now. It has very strong potential as being one of the only apps that I’m aware of using Apple’s Screen Time API. Overall it works well but there is most definitely a bug that blocks any request from my child’s device to install an app. I have it set for both of my kids’ devices to have to request permission to install an app. With Grace installed this functionality is blocked and does not work. I have done lots of testing and as soon as I uninstall Grace this functionality works again. Also, this desperately needs to allow for multiple “controlling” devices. For example… my device is the only device that can control the Grace functions on my kids’ devices. There is no ability for my wife to also be able to control from her device. That is very limiting. Both of these issues have caused me to have to discontinue using Grace and revert back to the default Apple Screen Time. If these two issues could be addressed I feel like your product would be on its way to greatness. ### 2/5 — Great Potential, But Hit and Miss Functionally *2023-06-20* We have a lot of devices among three teenagers and I've tried many of these kinds of apps. This one shows the greatest potential but it's unreliable when it comes to seeing newly installed apps or even apps that have been present for a long time. At times some apps just show as API connections in the websites list. Support has been hit or miss with early on support being very responsive but in recent times less so. This can be frustrating as a paying user. Bottom line - use this if you have the patience to tinker, restart, remove, if restrictions aren't super critical, and you have a backup means of administrating devices for kids. **Developer response:** Please note The App Picker (a screen where you select apps) is provided by Apple, iOS itself. We’ve seen that sometimes a freshly updated or restored device needs some time to register all apps correctly in the App Picker. This is an iOS-level issue. The apps show up after a few hours. Please try to create the limits after some time. Since the App Picker is under Apple’s control, this issue can be fixed only with iOS updates. We recommend always running the latest iOS version on all your devices. For more information and guidance, please contact us at support@grace-app.com ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2023-05-01, version 1.2.4* I spent 3 hours installing and testing this app. Unfortunately, probably because it uses the screen time API, it has exactly the same deficiencies of ScreenTime, namely it cannot reliably block YouTube and Safari. Every other app usually can be successfully blocked. This has been a problem for ScreenTime for many years. Everyone can search the web with key phrase “ScreenTime does not block” and find dozens of references. The workaround usually involves enabling and disabling ScreenTime and restarting the devices dozens of times and once in a blue moon it may start working again for a few days. I got Grace specifically to try to overcome this bug if ScreenTime, only to find it has exactly the same problem! ### 1/5 — Doesn’t Work *2023-04-17, version 1.2.4* This app consistently logs off and stops working. We set all the settings up, and the next thing we know, it’s down again. We set our child up with 1.5 hours of screen time, and he’s averaging 3 hours. I want my money back. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Lowsy app *2026-05-21, version 1.3* I am trying to delete the app in child’s phone and inspite of giving the correct apple account verification it is failing to uninstall. I wrote to support mail id and there is been no response. This looks to be spam app and regret installing it. ### 1/5 — Can’t get it to let my son from use his phone. *2025-12-12, version 1.3* I have been trying to unpair this app from my phone and my son’s phone. It required my iCloud password for almost all actions and it will not let me unpair our phones. I really am hating this app. I feel like I have to cancel his phone line to stop having to deal with this. ### 1/5 — Support? *2025-03-06, version 1.3* I’ve used this app in the past and it worked great. Now I paid for a monthly subscription to test it out again and it’s not working properly at all. Reached out to the developer with no reply. Maybe if I hear back from them I’ll change my rating but so far things aren’t looking good. ### 1/5 — Enable Button Shapes to skip passcode *2025-01-26, version 1.3* If a child enables Button shapes accessibility setting, an app show a button allowing to skip the Passwords entry making it effectively useless. ### 1/5 — App won’t work and developer won’t respond *2024-11-24, version 1.3* Would love to actually review this but it simply will not work. I’ve reached out to the developer multiple times since November and never received a response. I’ve paid for it and they will not respond to my requests for help. Update: still no response from developers either from this review or over email. Update 2: a year in and my subscription is about to expire. It never worked and I did not get a single response from multiple attempts to contact developer. Stay away. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2024-10-24, version 1.3* I don’t think they are managing this app anymore. I get no reply from support. It would be a great app if it worked. I put it on my daughter’s phone and the screen time limit doesn’t work so she had unlimited time. I paid for the upgrade and would like a refund but no one will respond. I only tried it for a week. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t lock/unlock right away *2024-10-05, version 1.3* When I click lock, my daughter’s iPhone doesn’t lock right away unless I open the app on her phone. If I click unlock, it doesn’t unlock unlock unless I restart the phone. ### 1/5 — No longer an app? *2024-09-22, version 1.3* Started using grace a year ago. Had some flaws but pretty good and it seemed the developers/owners were aware and working on it. Fast forward to now. No updates. Doesn’t work - sometimes at all and sometimes partially. No longer customer support. I think this is a dead app that is just hanging out. Don’t get it. ### 1/5 — Don’t bother *2024-09-17, version 1.3* Don’t waste your time or money the app doesn’t work and when you try to contact them you get zero reply so my daughter doesn’t have a lock down and I can’t lock the phone when she doesn’t do her chors so an absolute waste of money!!! ### 1/5 — Seems Good *2024-06-04, version 1.3* Seems good at first. Support doesn’t respond at all, so the app is not worth buying in my opinion. It’s limited by what Apple provides in the Screen Time API, which I have found sparse and buggy at times. This app is an improvement on Apple Screen Time alone, but combined with zero support maybe not enough to justify purchase. If it was super helpful and had support I may consider buying Lifetime subscription. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Works great! *2023-09-03, version 1.2.6* Grace is fantastic. Easy to use and doesn’t freeze my child’s phone. Provides us with the right amount of control for our situation. Great app!! ### 5/5 — Teenage proof parental control, finally *2023-07-03, version 1.2.6* Grace parental control is very different from other parental control apps. Unlike what is currently offered this parental control works natively with the apple operating system. What does this mean? It is much harder for kids to circumvent and bypass. If your child is a teenager you will find that parental control is easily by passed and screaming matches with your teen will be frequently on the menu. The devs that created this app are very responsive and friendly and are dedicated to creating an app that manages your child’s usage of their device like no other app out there. It is straight forward set it and forget it with a handy toggle to bypass when occasions warrant it. I highly recommend you try this app out. If you do use apple screen time, take off all restrictions and leave the bare minimum on. ### 5/5 — Overall great parental app *2023-04-25, version 1.2.4* As a concerned parent, I was looking for a more comprehensive solution than the built-in parental controls offered by Apple. This app definitely exceeded my expectations as it provided me with all the tools I needed to restrict inappropriate websites while also giving my child freedom to use their phone safely. The interface was user friendly which allowed me to easily navigate the entire app. It gave detailed reports for multiple devices and allowed me to monitor my child’s activity. The block feature was accurate and blocked the inappropriate websites which I didn’t want my child seeing. Finally the app allowed me limit screen time for each app and promoted healthy usage habits. As a parent in this digital age I can 100% guarantee that this app is a must have tool if you want to protect your child from harmful content and limit the time in which they use their devices. ### 5/5 — Great app *2022-10-26, version 1.2* This is an improvement over the built in screen time controls in almost every way. ### 5/5 — Awesome parenting tool *2022-10-15, version 1.2* I use it to have more control over my kid’s screen time. I have a set up a sleep schedule and a study schedule. I am no longer the bad guy when it’s time for the kids to put down the iPads. And the app is now compatible with shortcuts, I can lock my 3 kids devices with only one tap ! Very effective to get the kids in the car when it’s time to go ! ### 5/5 — Good *2022-10-12, version 1.2* Works too well, I cannot get past these restrictions ### 5/5 — Finally found great parental controls for iPhone. *2022-10-12, version 1.1.4* The app works great. Especially I love the Lock & Pause actions to block or allow the device in a tap. It has intuitive interfac, many schedules so that I finally don’t stress out when it comes to managing my children’s screen time. ### 5/5 — Works great. *2022-09-29, version 1.1.5* It’s amazing how this app made my child’s screen time supervision so easy. I don’t need to waste hours configuring the screen time anymore. ### 5/5 — a nice app *2022-09-26, version 1.1.5* Really like I can quickly lock the phone. Much easier to use than screen time ### 5/5 — Worthy apple screen time replacement *2022-07-15, version 1.0.4* Grace is a solid version 1 screen time replacement app. Much easier to use and understand. I look forward to improvements coming especially reporting around screen usage. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-25.*