6 Best Apps to Monitor Kids Text Messages

XNSPY is the most prominent app to monitor kids' text messages. The app has been in the industry for over 10 years. It is an extensive option that gives remote access to messages, calls, social media, location, installed apps, and multimedia of your child’s phone.

Once installed, XNSPY works in stealth mode, allowing parents to monitor their kids' SMS messages. When tested, we liked that the users can easily open the app’s dashboard from any browser and view phone text messages and social media chats of over 13 apps.

All you have to do is click on Phone Logs and tap on Text Messages. Here, you can track all the text sent and received by your child. The app provides a conversational thread layout, which made it easier for us to understand the flow of conversation during testing. The chat view displays messages to and from particular contacts along with timestamps. Clicking on a contact opens the conversation thread. You can easily scroll through the chat history and also view any shared media or links.

During testing, we also noticed that you can even track the location where the message originated with the given GPS signals. There is a search icon that helps you enter a particular contact name or number and look for messages. You can further filter the search by time frame.

XNSPY Compatibility

XNSPY is compatible with all devices running Android 4 or 11. Similarly, the app is supported on phones and tablets running iOS 6 to the latest 17. An exclusive compatibility page is present on the website. You can enter the child’s phone name or model, search, and confirm compatibility.

XNSPY Pricing

Basic: $4.99/month

Premium: $7.49/month

XNSPY Pros and Cons

Should I Buy XNSPY?

If you want the most complete way to see text messages and beyond, XNSPY is worth buying. It’s one of the most established monitoring apps and gives you full access to sent and received texts in both list and chat views, complete with timestamps, media, and filtering options. You also get additional monitoring, like calls, social apps, location, and alerts. For parents who want confident, reliable message insights, this one delivers excellent value for the price.

Eyezy is yet another app for text message monitoring and is gaining popularity quickly. What sets it apart for us isn’t just the sleek, vibrant design; it is how creatively the features are named and how well they perform as well. For example, instead of just listing text messages and social media tracking separately, Eyezy combines them under a feature called ‘Social Spotlight.’

During the testing phase, we found the dashboard to be very modern. It initially displays the overall activity of the child’s phone. Here, we were able to see a graph showing browser history, text messages, GPS locations, and WhatsApp in different colored lines. At the bottom, there were tabs for top messaging and calling contacts, as well as the most-visited websites.

Text messages are the top option in the social spotlight section. The chats are shown according to contact. You can open the conversation and see the incoming and outgoing texts. The app also provides the date and timestamps of each message. What we really liked when we tested this app was that you can even view and download the media that is shared.

Eyezy Compatibility

Eyezy operates on smartphones running Android 4 or above and on iPhones running on iOS 13 and later.

Eyezy Pricing

1-Month: $47.99/month

3-Months: $27.99/month

Eyezy Pros and Cons

Should I Buy Eyezy?

If you want a modern, easy-to-use monitoring experience, we feel like this app can be a good option. Eyezy combines SMS and social messaging into a single, visually appealing dashboard and organizes chats clearly by contact. You also get media viewing and timestamps. As per our team of experts, it’s a strong pick for parents who prefer an intuitive interface and don’t want to deal with overly technical layouts. Just note that some features, like advanced search/filters, are limited compared with other options.

FlexiSPY is another capable app and probably the veteran of all the other apps on the list. It is among the few apps that work on smartphones, tablets, and computers, which is why we have chosen it. The app also has positive reviews from critics and customers.

Being in the industry for such a long time gives FlexiSPY a few advantages, one of which is that it offers a variety of tools and options. However, our experts, while testing it, felt like the design and colors of the dashboard were not modern. The interface and navigation options are in grey. But we did like how it shows account and device info in an organized way, along with the latest messages, calls, and keylogs.

The SMS tracker is present in the Data section. You can view the chats from various contacts. However, we noticed that there is an option to monitor kids’ text messages in Group or List view. In the group view, you can see shared texts and media. In the list view, you can monitor just a single message. All the texts are saved with the corresponding date and time, which we believe makes monitoring easier and more effective.

FlexiSPY Compatibility

FlexiSPY is compatible with a wide range of devices and operating systems. There is a dedicated compatibility page. You can specify the brand name, model, variant, and Android version. The app is supported on Android 4 or higher. Similarly, you can check iPhone compatibility, supported on iOS 16 and below.

FlexiSPY Pricing

Lite: $49.95

Extreme: $419/month

FlexiSPY Pros and Cons

Should I Buy FlexiSPY?

We think that FlexiSPY is worth it if you need deeper monitoring and don’t mind paying for it. It is a veteran in this space and gives you a lot of control over text and other data, including multiple views of messages and historical logs. But it’s also expensive, the interface feels dated, and setup can be more complex than others. So, for average parental use, it may be more than you really need.

If you are looking for how to monitor kids' text messages without them knowing, we think Phonsee is a solid choice that has been in the monitoring industry for more than 10 years. The app is a trusted name for parents who want to monitor their child's text messages and other phone activity.

Phonsee presents itself as a modern app that offers almost all the monitoring features parents seek, and our testing experience confirmed this. The app gives you access to messages, calls, social media activities, browser history, and media files. You can click on the Demo tab on the website to open the dashboard, which has a nice and simple design.

The text message monitoring can be accessed from the General Features. Here, the interactions are presented in a chat-like view. We found it quite easy to view the texts, any photos or videos, and understand the timing, as they all come timestamped.

Phonsee Compatibility

Phonsee is supported on target devices running Android 4+. Conversely, the app runs on iOS devices with OS 7 or above.

Phonsee Pricing

1-Month: $42.51

3-Months: $24.79/month

Phonsee Pros and Cons

Should I Buy Phonsee?

As a straightforward message monitoring option, Phonsee has great potential. It offers reliable access to incoming and outgoing text conversations in a simple, chat-like format. It also shows shared media and timestamps, with an intuitive dashboard that we found very easy to use, even for new users. While it lacks some advanced search tools, it’s a solid choice for parents who want clear visibility into text messages without extra complexity.

The reason we picked Hoverwatch in our list is that it is a reliable text monitoring app for parents. It states itself as a ‘Free mobile tracker’ on its website, but we discovered that it is far from a free app to see a child's text messages. So, if you actually want to use the app, you will have to subscribe to the app and install it on the target device.

The personal plan of the Hoverwatch lets you monitor one device. However, with the professional plan, you can track 5 devices. There is no demo version available on the website, which disappointed us a little. So, you need to get the app and then see the dashboard design and monitoring options.

The SMS tracker app lets you see all the sent and received messages. Hoverwatch lets you filter the messages, whether incoming or outgoing, and even label them as ‘Favorite’ if you want to access them quickly. While testing, we found this additional feature to be quite helpful.

Hoverwatch Compatibility

Hovewatch is compatible with phones running Android 7 or above. However, the app is not functional on iPhones or iPads.

Hoverwatch Pricing

Personal: $29.95/month

Professional: $199.95/12-months

Hoverwatch Pros and Cons

Should I Buy Hoverwatch?

Hoverwatch lets you view sent and received SMS messages and even label important texts for quick access. It’s reliable for what it does, but it doesn’t offer advanced analytics, doesn’t work on iPhones, and has pricier plans compared with some alternatives. If all you need is fundamental message logging on a single Android device, it’s fine, but otherwise, there are better-rounded solutions.

Spyzie is another parental control app that we have chosen for our list. It may not be as popular as other apps to monitor kids' text messages but it offers almost all the basic and advanced features.

During testing, we noticed that the app’s website and dashboard design are both modern and easy to use. Once subscribed, we were able to view the target device model name and OS version. The app also showed the 5 most frequent callers, GPS location, the 5 recent messages, and a report on phone activity on the dashboard.

Once you click on Messages, you get all the SMS logs. As the interactions are in chat view, it was quite easy to go through them as we clicked on the contact to open the conversation. We were then also able to view all the shared SMS messages, which were saved with date and time information.

Spyzie Compatibility

Spyzie is functional on Android phones running on OS 4 or higher. The app works on iOS devices, but there is little information on the version the app is compatible with.

Spyzie Pricing

Basic: $39.99/month

Premium: $199.19/12-months

Spyzie Pros and Cons

Should I Buy Spyzie?

If ease of use is your priority, we think Spyzie can offer you that, as it gives you straightforward access to SMS logs in a clean interface, showing messages with timestamps and contact info, and works on both Android and some iOS devices. It doesn’t go as deep into media or search features as the top apps here, but for parents who want an uncomplicated view into text messaging, it’s a reasonable pick.

FAQs

Do message monitoring apps show multimedia like photos and videos?

Some apps allow you to view photos and videos shared via SMS, while others may only display text content. Apps that do offer this facility do so through various means like screen recordings, media monitoring, etc. Therefore, choosing an app with multimedia support, like XNSPY, is important to get a proper picture of your child's messaging activity.

Will my child know when I monitor their messages?

No, most advanced text message monitoring apps run discreetly in the background without alerts, icons, or visible activity on the phone. Upon setup, most of these apps tend to hide and not appear in the app drawer, home screen, etc. This allows parents to stay informed about their child’s messaging habits without them knowing.

Are there text monitoring tools that let you search specific messages?

Basic monitoring tools lack advanced search capabilities. However, robust solutions offer filtering options that allow parents to sort messages by contact name, phone number, or time period. These features improve navigability and make it easier to locate specific conversations without manually scrolling through message logs.