6 Smart Family updates you should know about
The latest Verizon Smart Family update makes it easier to use parental controls—and adds new features that can make the tool even more useful.
Here are the top six updates you’ll find in the Smart Family redesign.
1. You can see all family members in one map.
If you have the Verizon Smart Family Premium subscription, you can now see everyone’s location on the same map. Scroll down the main dashboard to get a quick overview of how your kids used their phones that day, including how much time they spent on social media, whether their screen-time went up and how many texts they sent.
2. Open the new livestreaming map when your child is on the go.
Tapping the Live Location button when a child is moving opens a new livestreaming map in Verizon Smart Family that shows your child’s location, even if they’re driving or riding in a friend’s car. And if you’re picking up your son from a new school or a place you don’t know that well, you can turn on a satellite map view to get a better look at the area.
3. It’s easier to change content filters for several profiles.
Thanks to the update, you can quickly add filters to each child’s profile from one screen, and besides easily adding content filters, you can block websites and apps. For example, block Snapchat for one child, and quickly tap to block Instagram on another—all from the Verizon Smart Family app.
4. There’s a new category on the Block list: dating apps.
You can choose to block specific apps like Tinder, Bumble or Grindr, or block the entire dating category from their phones.
5. Automatically apply the same content filters to their Verizon tablet.
You can now add a Verizon Android tablet to a child’s profile and start tracking screen time and device use. Even better: The filters you assigned to their phone automatically sync to the tablet. So if you block gambling apps on their phone, they can’t use them on their tablet either.
6. You can restrict their phone use or get notified when they use it.
Now you can also choose to either restrict calls, texts and data or get notified when they use it. This way they can still use the phone in an emergency, but you’ll get a notification if they start using the phone when they’re supposed to be babysitting or cutting the grass.
Verizon Smart Family still has all the parental controls you rely on, and still tracks driver insights like speeding, hard braking and sharp turns if there’s a new driver in the household. The latest updates make it easier to manage more than one phone—and more than one kid—in your life.
Try Smart Family Premium for 30 days—on us.
