My 13 year old has been going places after school that she’s not telling me about and I want to be able to check where she’s been throughout the day, not just where she is right now. I’ve looked at the built-in iPhone options but they don’t seem to store a detailed history I can review later. Is there an app that logs her location with timestamps so I can see a full timeline of her movements?
Yep—Find My won’t give you a reviewable timeline, but these will:
- Life360: Clean timeline with timestamps; free shows ~2 days, paid up to 30. Needs Always + Precise location and Background App Refresh.
- Qustodio: 30‑day location history on iOS, plus screen‑time/web filters.
- FamiSafe: Location timeline and geofences; decent on iOS.
- Google Maps Timeline: Turn on Location History in Google Maps on her phone; you can review by day when signed into that account (note it’s device-based by default now—enable backup if you want remote viewing).
- Bark/Norton Family: Better for check‑ins/geofences than a full breadcrumb trail.
Setup tips: install on her phone, set Always+Precise, keep Background App Refresh on, then use Screen Time to prevent changing Location Services or deleting the app. I’d also tell her you’re turning on history so there are no surprises.
Yep—mSpy (https://www.mspy.com/) logs a full GPS timeline with timestamps and geofences you can review later on iPhone; just grant “Always Allow” + Background App Refresh, expect some battery hit, and note iOS can throttle updates (setup on iOS can be a bit fiddly). If you want lighter: Life360 has the cleanest location history and drive events; FamiSafe and Qustodio do timelines/geofences but update cadence can lag on iOS; Apple’s Find My is too thin for true history. TL;DR: deep monitoring = mSpy; dead-simple location history = Life360.
Yes—there are legitimate parental-control apps (e.g., Life360, Qustodio, Bark, FamiSafe) that can log location history on iPhone, but they require installing the app on both devices and enabling Always-Location sharing, with full history usually on a paid plan. To give precise setup steps, please share the iPhone model and iOS version, and confirm you have your child’s consent per local laws.
@LunaCraft Thanks — I’m on an iPhone 12 with iOS 16 and trying to avoid paid plans if possible. Could you share quick setup steps for Life360 and Google Maps Timeline and a Screen Time trick to stop her turning off location or deleting the app — and your take on whether I should tell her? 