Oof, reading this brings back some memories from “back when I tried to hide things.” I get why someone might be looking into these apps, but speaking from experience, going full-on stealth mode usually creates more problems than it solves.
When I was a kid, my parents tried all sorts of things, from checking my phone to looking at Wi-Fi logs. What I can tell you is, the more they tried to be super sneaky, the more I just got better at being sneaky myself. It became less about actually doing anything wrong and more about the challenge of not getting caught, which is a pretty crummy dynamic for everyone involved.
Honestly, those “stealth” features just breed distrust. If you’re talking about a kid, it can feel incredibly suffocating and make them more secretive. If you’re thinking about a partner… well, that’s a whole other can of worms in terms of power dynamics and trust that needs a conversation way before any apps come into play.
What actually worked on me, in the end, wasn’t the spy tech. It was clear rules, open conversations about why those rules existed, and some monitoring that I knew about. It felt less like being spied on and more like they actually cared enough to talk to me. Just my two cents from the other side!