# Verizon Family Companion — user reviews > 261 indexed App Store user reviews of Verizon Family Companion by Verizon Wireless, rated 1.20/5 from 17,659 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/verizon-family-companion/id1352914754/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/verizon-family-companion/id1352914754.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 587 · 4★ 165 · 3★ 166 · 2★ 188 · 1★ 16,553 ## What do users think of Verizon Family Companion? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 🚀 Helps with brain-impaired individuals - 🔒 Provides security and safety for vulnerable users **Cons** - 🚫 Ruins relationships and trust between parents and children - 🔒 Extremely invasive and controlling - 🔍 Excessive monitoring and lack of privacy - 🤖 Unreliable and buggy app functionality - 📵 Severely limits communication and social life - 😔 Causes anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues - 🔋 Drains phone battery and storage - 🤯 Completely disables phone functionality **Commonly reported bugs** - Frequent connectivity issues and pairing problems - Inaccurate location tracking and app restrictions - Unexpected phone shutdowns and data loss **Most requested features** - More flexible and customizable parental controls - Better communication and transparency with users - Stronger focus on building trust rather than control ## Newest reviews (19 of 261) ### 3/5 — Room for improvement *2026-07-24, version 1.100.23* Replacing Life360- because a Verizon sales rep swore this was better. Verdict is still out on that. But Verizon developers- there is room for improvement/ increased market. In addition to my adult child who is headed to university out of state this fall and is a member on our “family” and a minor child who is on the child version, we needed to add an elderly parent who is on our Verizon account - we added them as a child because the set up seemed easier then the “member” option, the don’t need guardian access. If you could create an interface for caretakers of elderly and handicapped adults that would be great. ### 1/5 — Bro *2026-07-23, version 1.100.23* Whoever made this is absolutely insane and I bet it’s a 60 year old man with no life ### 1/5 — do not get! *2026-07-20, version 1.100.23* its horrible ### 1/5 — I hate this app *2026-07-09, version 1.99.11* These controls make me wanna kms ### 1/5 — absolutely horrible. *2026-07-01, version 1.99.11* this app limits my freedom that almost every teenager should have, gives my parents false reports, draining my battery way quicker, and makes me want to be more sneaky about things because this app is real strict about things. it just really messes with how my phone acts. yes, i might be 14 but this app is genuinely horrible. it is trying to protect you i guess but doesn’t do a good job at anything. ### 1/5 — This is bad *2026-06-29, version 1.99.11* My son cept removing it its not for apple its for Android and apple devices can just remove it from vpn delete the app ### 1/5 — This feels un legal *2026-06-21, version 1.99.11* I don’t want to be stalked by my mom on this 24/7 ### 1/5 — Terrible *2026-06-17, version 1.99.11* Worst app. It’s always lying saying I’m somewhere else calls won’t go through no more so much things are wrong. ### 1/5 — Worst app ever made. *2026-06-17, version 1.99.11* Coming from the perspective of someone who’s had strict parents her whole life, this app is absolutely crossing the line in terms of boundaries. I would rather not have a phone at all than have this god awful app. It’s done nothing good for me at all and has completely ruined my relationship and trust with my parents. I can’t google anything, text or call anyone, or even download apps without my parents seeing it. Even my friends are sick of the fact I have this app and can’t do much. It’s horrible. If you want this app to see your kids activity, just use parental phone controls. anything but this. This app is the reason I haven’t been able to tell my parents about anything anymore. If you want your kids to stop talking to you, then this is the perfect app. ### 1/5 — Horrible worst app I’ve had downloaded on my phone *2026-06-13, version 1.99.11* It literally blocks my apps and makes them stop working like what is the damn purpose of that . Not to mention the first 5 star review user is calling us one star reviewers brats cause we what some kind of unlimited internet access 🤣 like kid calm down. ### 1/5 — tung tung sahuer *2026-06-11, version 1.99.11* ts pmo just sybau ### 1/5 — Don’t download *2026-06-04, version 1.99.11* Yes I am a kid but that doesn’t change anything. My parents downloaded this app on my phone saying it’s “just for tracking” it’s not it’s so your parents can manage your WiFi and see what you do basically invade your privacy. It started off as my calls wouldn’t go through. Soon my phone would have these popups saying certain websites do not work and I would get like 5 at a time and it was very annoying. Then one day I got like a bunch and they wouldn’t go away so I somehow shut down my phone to fix it then I plugged it in and went to bed didn’t do anything else and my phone had been taken for days. I woke up and my phone was on recovery mode and I was so confused. My brothers phone had the same thing happen a week before so we pinned it down to the app since it made both of our phones glitch before. So then my brothers phone got fixed and it’s battery is completely broken it stays charged for a good 30 minutes to an hour. And my maximum compact went from an 88 to a 75 which means my phone battery drains easily. I then deleted the app and now I can’t make phone calls unless I FaceTime people which isn’t always possible. Please do not get this app and show your parents the reviews before you get it. ### 1/5 — Don’t lose your kid over an app! *2026-06-02, version 1.99.11* This is genuinely one of the worst apps ever!!! I am 18 years old and have had the app on my phone since I was in 7-8th grade. My parents are supper controlling, they give me absolutely no privacy or boundaries. This app has given them way to much control they block all apps on my phone and turn off the internet 24/7 still to this day. One thing that I have always struggled with is making friends but when middle school came around and I was able to have social media I could connect with people. But now my parents take that all away I hear my friends talking about the new trends or the funny things they post and new friends they make, but not me I spend my time inside not being able to connect with anyone. This has caused a lot of problems between me and my mom and honestly I fell this app had made our relationship worse. And to make it all worse I can’t even delete the app now even tho I’m 18 I don’t know what to do but just buy my own phone. ### 1/5 — horrible *2026-06-01, version 1.99.11* This app is absolutely horrible not because it blocks like my information and keeps me “safe” and controlled, but because it completely destroys my phone in the process ever since my parents download this app for me to be watched and be safe. My phone has been having more problems and it’s ever had like apps not working or sending false reports about how I’m on inappropriate websites when I clearly wasn’t. the worst of all it mean it destroys my phone like multiple of my apps that I love using get completely blocked it for no reason that not even my parents do or just stop things working or completely like ruin ruined my phone. I would not advise this app unless you want to damage your phone it’s not worth it just to keep your kid safe I would just get a whole different App ### 1/5 — It sucks *2026-05-31, version 1.99.11* Even when I itch my butt it alerts my dad ### 1/5 — tracks your location after deleting it *2026-05-29, version 1.99.11* so i deleted this from my phone and im still getting notifications that it’s tracking my location and i can’t stop it ### 1/5 — WORST parental control app EVER *2026-05-29, version 1.99.11* As a kid who had this app installed for a time i noticed my phone being significantly slower to process AND my cellular data was NOT working, and after deleting the app, and my mom sending me another invite, a few minutes later my phone went into recovery mode, needing another Iphone to help it get back to good status, even a point where it said ‘attempting data recovery’ as if it just deleted ALL of my information, and i was lucky to find my phone working again TWO HOURS after it initially happened. ### 1/5 — This app ruined my entire life *2026-05-25, version 1.99.11* Yeah it ruined my entire life don't download it ### 1/5 — Useless *2026-05-18, version 1.99.11* We gave our child an iPhone 8 as a first phone. We thought this would be a good way to control and manage usage and access since I have an android device. The app installs, I download and install the vpn profile and after that everything stops working. The phone became laggy. The app kept crashing. Nothing that requires internet would load. Wi-Fi completely drops and won’t connect, cellular is super slow or randomly went into SOS mode until you reboot. I can’t even complete the setup because it loses connection ever 10-15 seconds. Then I started getting notifications every 5 minutes on my phone saying that the phone was not sharing its location. If I remove the vpn profile everything works again. Would give zero stars if possible. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — how to save urself!!! *2026-08-19, version 1.101.11* If this is before downloading- I’d recommend trying to reason with you’re parent on why they need the app and try and steer towards less invasive alternatives. If they just want your location? Offer to share your location or an app that does so! They wanna see how long you are on your phone? Screen time. This only works if your parents cares about you or what you want and how you feel. IF ITS ALR DOWNLOADED.. there’s a good change they made it so you cannot delete it. The way I got around it is by resetting the phone. Make sure you save your iCloud info somewhere and KEEP UR ESIM. Then you can redownload all your apps (excluding this POS app) only thing is you’re parent will notice your location is off and stuff but I don’t know exactly how it pops up. If you have a spare device you don’t care about or use, you can download the app there and sign in!! ### 1/5 — Verizon *2026-08-18, version 1.101.11* Just doesn’t do a good job at monitoring anything it’s glitchy and when my parents unblock stuff it takes like thirty extra minutes just overall not a good app ### 1/5 — Bring Back Gizmo Hub! *2026-08-18, version 1.101.11* I am a teen that can drive and I need to be able to message my younger siblings on their watches but now I can't. Very frustrating. I really don't like the new app. ### 1/5 — Garbage *2026-08-14, version 1.101.11* Ruins everything for no reason. ### 1/5 — Glitches a lot *2026-08-05, version 1.101.11* Has to be updated every week or it’ll randomly shut down and turn off all your apps even if parents didn’t turn off app ### 1/5 — Invasive and mentally harmful *2026-08-04, version 1.101.11* This app makes me want to absolutely kms, i already have mental issues and parents need to understand the severe mental health impact this app causes beyond the constant stress of location, tracking schedule, cut offs and surveillance, which creates atmosphere, distrust, constant anxiety, and depression, the nighttime blackouts are genuinely dangerous when this app completely cuts off communication and device access at night. It creates a total isolation during the exact moment someone might be having a severe panic attack or mental breakdown having your way to reach out for support or talk to anyone we are struggling causes extreme panic and helplessness. This app doesn’t just mean Screen Time. It cuts off vital lifelines when someone is at the absolute lowest please prioritize open communication and mental health over nonstop, digital tracking, and lockouts. ### 1/5 — My WiFi sucks *2026-07-30, version 1.101.11* Whenever I even try to use my music it won’t let me. I can’t physically fall asleep without music in my ear, so I won’t fall asleep until 4 in the morning. And it’s not just old phones, this is an apple 17, and the WiFi SUCKS BUTT ### 1/5 — horrible *2026-07-27, version 1.100.23* helps no one and mostlikely sells information ### 1/5 — This app is horrible *2026-07-26, version 1.100.23* Don’t care that I’m a kid I don’t like this app ### 1/5 — How do you delete this app *2026-07-25, version 1.100.23* How ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — It’s really good, coming from a 14 year old *2026-06-11, version 1.99.11* My parents downloaded this when I was accidentally exposed to explicit things online, and even though I don’t like how it turns off my internet at night, it really does keep me safe from those things. Even if your kid deletes the app, it still tracks what you text, but it doesn’t track the app activity. I’d say it works very well and prevents your kids from seeing stuff they shouldn’t see. The kids that are complaining are just mad that they can’t have unrestricted internet access. ### 5/5 — I love chicken *2026-03-18, version 1.97.11* I love chicken ### 5/5 — Need parents to see this, 15 yr olds perspective *2025-12-21* So, I have this app because my parents are over bearing or whatever. I don’t really mind it because they have it paired with the normal apple restrictions so it’s like it’s not even there, plus they already take my phone at night and read my texts so this app is the least of my worries. However, I saw a lot of people referring to the kids who gave it zero stars as brats and stuff (many adults said this is how you know it works) but have you guys thought about how your kids are actual people, little kids absolutely need this app but 14+ is when kids start to experience life more and while you can allow them to not have social media and stuff, it doesn’t really do you any good. Because your kids will just find ways to bypass it, they’ll find ways to get sneakier and hide stuff from you, you can absolutely have this app for your children but you have to deal with the consequences of your relationship with them being strained. Imagine that you are the parent of these children complaining, imagine the resentment. Is it really worth all the trouble? Is it really worth messing up your relationship because you wanted to see a couple of your kids tests? Also I do understand that some kids are higher needs so it does depend. Anyways think really hard on how it will impact your kids because I can tell you first hand that it will hinder their ability to socialize and stuff .(btw some of the kids have valid points and some of the parents have valid points but it’s nuanced) ### 5/5 — AWSOME *2025-10-07, version 1.85.20* This is good 😎 ### 5/5 — Good app *2025-09-01, version 1.83.16* Very nice app I definitely recommend the money putting into this app. You can check in pick me up and more cool features Verizon just keep that into the good features ### 5/5 — Love this app!! *2025-08-02, version 1.82.17* I really like the new safe walk feature! ### 5/5 — Funny. *2025-05-08, version 1.77.6* I find it funny that the only people giving this app bad reviews are people that are under the age of 18 and/or otherwise know as kids. I don’t see any of these problems they are talking about this app is great. I have a 13 year old son that used to have sort of an addiction to YouTube so I was looking for a way to get it off his phone… then I found this app it lets you block specific sites and browsers without blocking the engine as a whole. Once this app was downloaded it helped me get YouTube blocked on his phone very fast in an easy kind of fashion. Thank you Verizon Kids Thank you. ### 5/5 — WOW!!! *2025-04-23, version 1.77.6* My kids don’t talk to me anymore bc of this app but it’s okay! Bc they can’t talk to anybody else!! ### 5/5 — And he saw that it was good *2025-02-03, version 1.71.8* 😂I’m writing this I’m 16 and love how it’s just angry teens with no life writing the reviews, it’s a great app for parents with insecure teens and no filter👍 ### 5/5 — Kids stop acting like you’re 5 years old *2024-12-02, version 1.69.8* Your parents just want to keep you safe so no there not trying to ruin your life I get that it may be annoying that you’re phone goes off early but you need sleep --- *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 2026-09-09.*