So useful!
We were looking for a monitoring system for our kids’ devices (to act in conjunction with actual conversations about digital safety, of course) and decided to give BrightCanary a try. It ended up being a great choice!
I love the option to either see their exact text message conversations or just a summary of any concerning content so we can adjust monitoring based on the child or season of life. The AI summaries are surprisingly accurate, and I like the “tone” summary so I can get an overall feel for the “vibe” of a convo without actually reading all of it.
I love the option to either see their exact text message conversations or just a summary of any concerning content so we can adjust monitoring based on the child or season of life. The AI summaries are surprisingly accurate, and I like the “tone” summary so I can get an overall feel for the “vibe” of a convo without actually reading all of it.
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Terrible app that makes phone basically unusable
This app appeared to be exactly what I wanted. Text message monitoring, monitoring, searches, and AI apps, as well as alerting me to any inappropriate content. I tried doing a free one week trial for text message plus. I ended up getting charged for the entire year. I tried to ask Canary to refund me which they would not. Apple will also not refund me. This app is absolutely terrible. It does not actually show you all the text message. I’d say you probably see about half of the text messages that come in and the other ones never appear. I have gone through with Canary many times and all the settings are proper and everything is up-to-date as well as iCloud. Not only that, my child is basically unable to use their phone. The Canary keyboard, which is the one you have to use to make this useless app work is so terrible that it takes my child almost 10 minutes to type out a one sentence text message. The predictive text is terrible. All the texts come through completely misspelled. So this has not filled the need that it was promised. It’s completely messed my child’s phone up, it’s not letting me see anything that was promised. Honestly, this app just created more stress for me and my child.
I highly recommend you do not get this app. The customer service is not great. Anytime you go to them they just give you the typical rundown of how to change the settings… even if you clearly tell them that all your settings are done properly. Would be really great to get refunded on the hundred dollars I was scammed into paying for a “one week trial”
basically just had to delete the app from my phone and eat the cost. I will be recommending to all of my parent friends to never ever use this terrible app.
I highly recommend you do not get this app. The customer service is not great. Anytime you go to them they just give you the typical rundown of how to change the settings… even if you clearly tell them that all your settings are done properly. Would be really great to get refunded on the hundred dollars I was scammed into paying for a “one week trial”
basically just had to delete the app from my phone and eat the cost. I will be recommending to all of my parent friends to never ever use this terrible app.
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Great App for Busy Parents
This is a great app for text monitoring and more. I do not have the time nor the interest in reviewing every single text my children are involved in. So it’s nice to just look at the summary and flagged texts quickly.
So many bugs
I love the concept of this app and when it works it’s great but the keyboards disconnect frequently or the Apple ID signs out. It’s a constant fight to be sure my kids devices are monitored
Why?
I understand the want for this app, but it’s an invasion of privacy. I recently found out it looks at music and lyrics on Apple Music and that makes me very uncomfortable, seeing as I’m allowed to listen to music with swear words, but it still flags them. I have several other friends with this app and they repeatedly get in trouble for things that are accidental or out of their control. It also flags random content like funny videos it deems offensive/bullying. I understand the want for an app like this, but the execution is terrible. If you can’t trust your kids to come talk to you if something happens, that’s bad parenting, not an excuse to install a tracking app on their phone. Kids should have privacy and not have to worry about their parents watching their every move. What if it flags something inappropriate that’s actually nothing, but it’s while looking through your phone your parents find something private, like a crush? Sorry for the long review, but we need more reviews on here from kids with the app, not just parents. Also, almost all the good reviews are from parents, and nearly every review from a kid on here is negative, and saying they feel watched. Yeah, me too. I hate this app and I feel less safe with it. I don’t know if this is for everyone, but hopefully some adults can relate, having this app is like seeing a cop in public. You know you aren’t doing anything, but what if you accidentally do, and they see it, and you get in trouble? That’s the best way I can describe it. Anyways, don’t get this app, just talk to your kid if you’re worried. It’s literally that easy.
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The Best and Only Option
We have been using this app for our now two teenage children for the last few years. It is hands-down the best option of any that exist on the market in terms of ease of set up, functionality, and meaningful output. It is also surprisingly affordable. When we first began using the app, we had some difficulty with getting customer support for bugs and other issues as updates were rolled out. That has improved dramatically, and now not only are they responsive, but we’ve even been supported in making recommendations for new app features and kept abreast of when those rollouts were going to occur. Monitoring children’s social media usage can be arduous and overwhelming. This app allows you to customize it in a way that provides you the high-level overview of concern concerns that you want to know to keep your children safe, without the hassle of other apps or legwork of manually reviewing your child’s texts and phone activity. Highly recommended.
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Highly recommend
Great app for monitoring children’s devices, customer service has been great as well with quick and professional responses and quick resolution to any issue
Slow Support, No Text Connection
I’ve had this app at least a week and still no text connecting. “We're experiencing higher demand than normal. Please try again in 15 minutes.” I got this error all weekend. When reaching out to support through email, it was about three days for them to respond with a potential bug fix. That didn’t work, now I guess I have to wait another three days as there are no other communication options.
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So useful!
We were looking for a monitoring system for our kids’ devices (to act in conjunction with actual conversations about digital safety, of course) and decided to give BrightCanary a try. It ended up being a great choice!
I love the option to either see their exact text message conversations or just a summary of any concerning content so we can adjust monitoring based on the child or season of life. The AI summaries are surprisingly accurate, and I like the “tone” summary so I can get an overall feel for the “vibe” of a convo without actually reading all of it.
I love the option to either see their exact text message conversations or just a summary of any concerning content so we can adjust monitoring based on the child or season of life. The AI summaries are surprisingly accurate, and I like the “tone” summary so I can get an overall feel for the “vibe” of a convo without actually reading all of it.
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Response from developer
Thank you so much for the thoughtful review! We’re so glad BrightCanary has been a helpful tool for your family alongside your conversations about digital safety. We built the summaries and tone insights to help parents stay informed in a way that can flex by child and season of life, so it means a lot to hear that they’re working well for you.
Wonderful
Parents, get this app to keep your teen safe! You won’t regret it!
Super!
This app has been a great way to have conversations with our kids and keep an eye on who is texting. Love the app.
Great app!
Customer support is stellar and the app is wonderful
bad app
I dont like this app bc it messes with the haptics and you can’t even use the iPhone keyboard perks bc the bright canary keyboard is always in use and it sucks, don’t recommend!
3rd one is a charm
I have tried several apps to help monitor phone usage, and this one has by far been the best!
Worst app ever
As a 15 yr old boy, this is the worst app a parent could put on a kids phone. I’ve gotten in trouble because of this app and the reason was for sending my friend a video of me
Falling back in my chair as a joke and the app flagged it as “bullying” which I have no idea how that’s related. This app also gives you no privacy and goes through all your text messages, photos and searches which is good for younger kids who are like 5-12 years old but for anyone older then that it makes them feel like their being watched and have no privacy. Hope apps like this will stopped being allowed for teenagers and only for younger kids.
Falling back in my chair as a joke and the app flagged it as “bullying” which I have no idea how that’s related. This app also gives you no privacy and goes through all your text messages, photos and searches which is good for younger kids who are like 5-12 years old but for anyone older then that it makes them feel like their being watched and have no privacy. Hope apps like this will stopped being allowed for teenagers and only for younger kids.
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Finally, a monitoring app that actually works on iPhone!
I cannot say enough good things about BrightCanary. As a parent of two tweens, I’d basically given up on finding anything that worked on Apple devices, every other app felt like it needed an engineering degree and a home Wi-Fi setup just to get running. BrightCanary was different. The keyboard-based setup took minutes, no weird docking or syncing, and it just works across everything: texts, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Google searches, all of it. The AI summarizes my kids’ conversations and flags only the stuff that actually matters so I’m not scrolling through hundreds messages every night. The alerts come in real time, and the parent dashboard gives me a genuine sense of what my kids are into and how they’re feeling, not just a wall of data.
If you have an iPhone kid and you’ve been losing sleep over what they’re exposed to online, get this app. Worth every penny for the peace of mind alone.
If you have an iPhone kid and you’ve been losing sleep over what they’re exposed to online, get this app. Worth every penny for the peace of mind alone.
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Great monitoring option
Bright canary has been a great way to monitor my child’s phone usage without having to go through her phone every day. I appreciate it flagging concerning content in text messages.
Essential App
If you are a parent of a middle school (or younger) kid with an iPhone than u need this app. This works - the other don’t.
Terrible text delivery
Although I pay for text messaging plus, the app hardly ever works to send iMessages. I have emailed support several times and nothing ever changes. DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!
Wish it worked!
I so want to love this app! But it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. There’s constant technical issues with the text messaging feature! I got the 7 day free trial and I’ve never been able to access the text messages. I’ve emailed support several times with screenshots and I’ve only had one reply that was “disconnect and reconnect to your child’s devices”. Like.. I’ve done that. A hundred times. That’s why I’m reaching out. No response. I didn’t cancel the free trial in time (I was hoping to get a response before it expired but I waited too long and they’ve charged me the $99 for the year and I still have never been able to access the text messages and I’m still waiting on a reply. Very frustrating. I had reconnected my daughters apple account so many times that apple froze her account. Beware! I wish I would have gone with the less expensive plan before my trial ran out because the YouTube and keyboard monitor are great. But I wanted the texts and unfortunately it doesn’t work. :(
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