Verizon Smart Family™ FAQs

Verizon Smart Family is a service that gives you parental controls to help manage your kids' smartphone or Verizon Android™ tablet* use.

From a single app**, you'll be able to:

• Use content filtering
• Limit and monitor calls, texts and purchases
• Monitor web and app activity
• Supervise screen time on Android devices
• Pause the internet
• Use location tracking, pick-me-up and check-in features (Verizon Smart Family Premium)

Your Smart Family account can be used to manage all compatible devices on the same Verizon wireless account.

*iPads aren't currently supported. Tablets must have a line on your Verizon wireless account in order to be managed.
**Some features require Smart Family Companion app to be installed on the kid's device.

You can get Verizon Smart Family for your entire account for a single monthly fee.

There are 2 versions:

• Verizon Smart Family is $4.99/month per account (no location services).
• Verizon Smart Family Premium is $9.99/month per account (includes location services). The first month is on us.

Verizon Smart Family Premium is also included for free with the Just Kids plan.

You can get Verizon Smart Family if you:

• Have a standard account* with 10 or fewer lines
• Have an Android smartphone (5.0 and newer) or iOS (10.0 or newer)
• Have an Android tablet (5.0 and newer)
  

Note: If you or your children don't have Android or iPhone, you may still be able to use Verizon Smart Family with limited access to functions. Many functions require the Android or iPhone app to work properly.

To check your eligibility, go to the Add-ons and apps page in My Verizon. If Verizon Smart Family is listed there, you can sign up for it.

*Business and prepaid accounts aren't eligible.

Download the Verizon Smart Family app on your Android smartphone or iPhone, and follow the steps to subscribe to Verizon Smart Family.

Note: If you have the Just Kids plan, you’re already signed up for Verizon Smart Family.

For step-by-step instructions, refer to the Sign Up for Verizon Smart Family section of our How to Use Verizon Smart Family page or watch our setup video.

You can upgrade from Verizon Smart Family to Verizon Smart Family Premium from the Settings menu in the Verizon Smart Family app.

For step-by-step instructions, go to the Upgrade section of our How to Use Verizon Smart Family page.

Any 5G-capable device can use the Verizon Smart Family app for all parental services, besides data limits. Verizon Smart Family Premium content filters and location services will continue to function normally.

Due to technical limitations, iPad devices aren’t able to be added to your Verizon Smart Family account at this time. 

Certain features are only available if the Verizon Smart Family Companion app is installed on your child's smartphone and paired with the Verizon Smart Family app on your device.

• Without pairing, you can:
  
  • View call and text activity
  • Set time restrictions on texts, calls and data usage*
  • Set data limits*
  • Set text, call and purchase limits
  • Get access to the device's network location
  
  Note: Network location accuracy may vary up to a few miles.
  
  *For Verizon Android tablets, you can set data limits and time restrictions on data usage. Time restrictions on texts and calls don’t apply to tablets.
  
  
• You must pair to:
  
  • Set content filters
  • Monitor web and app activity
    
  • Pause internet access
  • Set time restrictions on Wi-Fi usage
  • Locate family members and set location alerts with the best location accuracy
  • Use the location check-in feature, where kids can send you their precise location when they arrive at their destination
  • Use the Pick Me Up feature that lets your child send a request for a ride to a parent line
    

If you're subscribed to Smart Family Premium, your child will receive a notification every month that their location is being shared with the parent and other account members designated by the parent.

They'll also receive notifications when they're near or have reached the data, call and text limits set by the parent.

If Web & App Activity has been enabled on the child line, your child will also receive a notification every month that their web and app activity is being shared with the parents on the account.

These notifications are legally required and can't be turned off. For Verizon Android tablets, please ensure that Smart Family notifications are enabled in your device settings.

You can unsubscribe from Verizon Smart Family through the Add-ons and apps page in My Verizon.

View instructions on how to unsubscribe

Note: With the Just Kids plan, you can't unsubscribe or downgrade from Verizon Smart Family Premium because it's included for free as part of the plan. To make changes to your subscription, you'll need to change your plan in My Verizon.

Your child will see a page with the Verizon Smart Family Companion app's pairing status.

If the Companion app is paired and the location permission is enabled for Smart Family, your child will see a map of their location, along with the Check in button and Pick me up button.

If your child agreed to allow Verizon Smart Family to collect web browsing and app activity from their device, your child will also see their online activity as it’s presented on the parent device.

If the Companion app isn't paired, the message will read: "Not active. Pair this phone from the Verizon Smart Family parent app for content filters and improved location accuracy."

Yes, with Smart Family Premium, you may choose to share your location with other parent lines or all family members on the Smart Family account.

You can turn location sharing on and off in the Settings menu of your Verizon Smart Family app or on the My Verizon website. By default, your location sharing preferences will be set to "Not shared."

No, a child can't view a parent device's call, text, or web and app activity.

However, your child will be able to view their own web and app activity as it’s presented to you.

The experience differs based on the type of phone your child has:

• Android
  • The child must enter a specific code for it to be removed from their device.
    
    Note: This code can only be retrieved from the parent device.
  • If the Companion app is removed, a text message is immediately sent to the parent and is displayed as a tamper error on the child's dashboard in the app.
• Apple
  • If the app has been removed, the controls are no longer active on the child's device.
  • Parents receive a notification within 48 hours that the app has been removed.

You can find the steps for how to pair your devices on our How to Use Verizon Smart Family page.

You can manage your Verizon Smart Family account in the Verizon Smart Family app or on the My Verizon website.

For step-by-step instructions, refer to our How to Use Verizon Smart Family page.

You can add family members to Verizon Smart Family through the Settings menu or by tapping the Add Profile button on the top bar of the Verizon Smart Family app.

Yes, you can assign roles to other lines on your account, including another parent device role in My Verizon.

All My Verizon Account Owners and Account Managers can only be assigned a parent role, and all Account Members can only be assigned a child role.

To change a family member's role in Smart Family, you'll first need to change their account role in My Verizon.

Yes. If you change the phone number of your parent device, your Verizon Smart Family account will be suspended, and you'll need to re-subscribe to the service. You'll also need to set up all of your controls again.

If your child changes their phone number, all of their controls will need to be reset.

If the child changes their device, you'll need to pair the Smart Family Companion app on your child's new device.

No, Verizon Smart Family doesn't enable you to view the content of your child's texts. Nor does it allow you to view the pictures and videos on your child's phone, or access the content of third-party messaging apps.

Notes:

• Texts to and from iMessage do not appear in the text and activity feed.
• iPhones have the ability to turn off iMessage and use SMS solely.

Verizon Smart Family does, however, allow you to:

• See incoming and outbound text and call activity from any child device on the account. 
• See the times associated with each text and call received.
• View contact rank (ranking is based on the frequency of texts and calls in a 7-day period).
• Add contacts to a watch list and get notified about texts or calls with this contact.
  
• See the number of texts and calls the child receives during school and night hours.
• Save the numbers that your child's device interacts with under unique names.
• See the names associated with each text and call received, as stored in your or your child’s contacts.

No, Verizon Smart Family doesn't show messages from third-party providers, such as Apple iMessage®.

The Screen Time section of Verizon Smart Family will show you an overview of how much time your child spent on their Android device each day. You’ll also see a breakdown of which apps they used and the amount of time they spent on each.

You can also tap View more to see an hour-by-hour screen time chart.

Note: Children receive a text message (or push notification on Verizon Android tablets) telling them that their web and app activity is being monitored. Parents should ensure that Smart Family notifications are enabled in the device settings for Android tablets.

The Screen Time feature is currently only available on Android devices. Screen time may not be available for all apps and may not reflect the actual time spent on the device or certain apps.

The Web & App Activity section of Verizon Smart Family helps you better understand how your child is spending their time online on their device.

You'll be given a graph that shows:

• General categories of content and a ratio for how much your child engages in each category
• A breakdown of which websites and apps they used within those categories

Note: Children receive a text message (or push notification on Verizon Android tablets) telling them that their web and app activity is being monitored. Parents should ensure that Smart Family notifications are enabled in the device settings for Android tablets.

You’ll be informed of any noteworthy events by push notification every day. This includes if your child:

• Visits an objectionable website*
• Uses their device during school hours
• Uses their device during nighttime hours

*You can view what categories fall under “objectionable” in the content filters section of your Smart Family app. You’ll receive these alerts even if you don’t have any content filters turned on.   

Note: You can turn off all alerts regarding noteworthy events in your settings or specific alerts you don’t wish to receive in the Noteworthy events tab under each child’s profile.

When you're in the Screen Time section of Verizon Smart Family, you can tap View More to see a relative representation of how much time your child has spent on an individual app on their Android device.

Note: Screen time may not be available for all apps and may not reflect the actual time spent on the device or certain apps.

All online activity will be available in the Web & App Activity view, including while your child is on Wi-Fi.

However, we aren't able to show your child's usage of apps that don't use internet services and run offline.

When setting up the Smart Family Companion app on your child's phone, you let us establish a VPN profile on that phone through which all internet-related activity passes. We use the VPN connection to provide you with these Smart Family features: content filters, time restrictions, and web and app activity monitoring.

When setting up the Smart Family Companion app on your child’s Android phone or tablet, you provide us with the Usage Access permission, which provides all activity performed on the device.

No, the Web & App Activity feature and Screen Time feature are only available on child lines. They can't be used for parent lines.

Only designated parent lines on your Smart Family account are able to view your child’s web and app activity and screen time.

If you no longer want to view your child's web and app activity or screen time, you can uninstall the Smart Family Companion app from your child's phone.

During a time restriction, the child won't be able to:

• Call or text people who aren't included as trusted contacts*
• Use cellular data
• Use Wi-Fi (if the child's device is paired)

Note: With the Just Kid's plan, you can only limit data with time restrictions. Restricting calling and texting to trusted contacts only is already in place and can't be changed.

*For Verizon Android tablets, only data and Wi-Fi restrictions apply.

Purchase limits are measured in dollars per month. Only purchases directly billed to your Verizon account using carrier billing are limited.

Even if you set call and text restrictions through Smart Family, your kids can download and use OTT apps or smartphone features that don't go through the Verizon wireless network. These apps and features can let your child call or message people who aren't trusted contacts.

To prevent use of these apps and features, you can:

• Use Smart Family to block the Google™ Play store, so your child can't install these services
• Use Smart Family to block certain apps from using any data (if that app is listed in our content filter options)
• Disable the feature directly on your child's device

You can set up content filters to block all websites and apps in a variety of content categories.

You can also manually block and allow websites in the content filters section of the Verizon Smart Family app.

You can't block an app manually. However, on the Smart Family app's content filter screen, you can report an app that should be blocked. We take these reports into consideration for possible future Smart Family updates.

You may also enter the URL of any online entity featuring content you don't wish for your child to view. Doing so will also block this content from any related apps.

No, you won't be notified if your child attempts to access blocked content or websites on their phone.

You can remove the content filters for a family member in the top-right corner of the content filters menu of the Verizon Smart Family app.

When Smart Family's content filters conflict with your router's content filters, your router's content filters will be given priority.

If you would like to use Smart Family's content filters instead, you'll need to disable your router's content filters.

Some apps or websites may share resources with another one, which could cause your blocking of one to impact the other.

For example, if Facebook® is blocked, you won’t be able to sign in to Spotify® using the “Sign in through Facebook” option.

We have done our best to limit these instances and continue to do so.

The top contacts category shows you which contacts your child communicates with most frequently based on the number of calls and texts. Contact rankings are updated every 4 hours.

Trusted contacts are people you want your child to be able to call and text at all times. Your child will even be able to communicate with their trusted contacts during time restrictions and after their usage limits have been reached (which could result in overage charges depending on your child's plan). You can trust up to 20 contacts.

Trusted contacts can include any of the following:

• 10-digit mobile or landline numbers
• International numbers (international calling is billable and could result in overage charges if you don't have an international plan)
• Your own number to access Voicemail (Voicemail usage is billable and could result in overage charges if your plan doesn't have unlimited minutes)

If you have the Just Kids plan:

• All mobile numbers on your Verizon wireless account are included as trusted contacts. You can add or delete trusted contacts as needed in the Verizon Smart Family app.
• Everyone except for trusted contacts is blocked from calling and texting you.
• You can block data from third-party apps through Verizon Smart Family, so your child doesn't use it to talk to people outside of their trusted contacts.
• You can disable device features, like iMessage, on your child's phone to prevent them from using it to message other iPhone users outside of their trusted contacts.

You can block up to 20 contacts from communicating with your child's device. All calls and texts to and from blocked contacts will be prevented.

You can block:

• 10-digit mobile or landline numbers
• International phone numbers
• Incoming calls from numbers listed as Private, Restricted or Unavailable
• Short codes, including 411, 1411, #411 and *411 directory assistance

To block specific phone numbers or contacts, enter the phone number as a blocked contact.

Note: You can't block 911, numbers that are within your own Verizon account, or numbers currently added to the trusted contacts list.

If you have the Just Kids plan:

• Everyone except for your trusted contacts is blocked.
• You can block data from third-party apps through Verizon Smart Family, so your child doesn't use it to talk to people outside of their trusted contacts.
• You can disable device features, like iMessage, on your child's phone to prevent them from using it to message other iPhone users outside of their trusted contacts.

If the caller has enabled Caller ID Blocking and the number is recognized by our network, a number on your blocked contacts list will still be blocked.

If you've chosen to block all Private, Restricted and Unavailable numbers on your child’s phone, any caller using Caller ID Blocking will be prohibited from contacting your child.

Go to the Caller ID Blocking FAQs to learn more.

Yes, you can sync Verizon Smart Family with your contacts and your child's contacts, such that your child's call/text activity, top contacts and individual contacts profile appears with contact names.

If a phone number is saved in both of your address books, it will be displayed as the name in your own. Otherwise, when the name is only saved on your child's device, it will be displayed with the child address book icon next to the name of the contact.

Once permission to sync with your child’s contacts is provided on your and your child's devices, contacts will be synced every 24 hours.

If you don't have the Smart Family Companion app installed and paired on the child's phone, you'll receive the network location of their phone. Network location accuracy can vary up to a few miles.

If the Smart Family Companion app is installed on your child's phone and paired with your phone, you'll get:

• A more precise location
• The ability to set up location alerts
• Access to the location check-in feature that lets your child send you a notification with their precise location
• Use the Pick Me Up feature that lets your child send a request for a ride to a parent line

Note: Verizon Android tablets must be paired with the Smart Family Companion app and Smart Family notifications enabled in device settings in order to display the precise or network location of the device.

No, your child won't know when you've located them. However, they will receive a monthly text message, or push notification if the device is a Verizon Android tablet, informing them that their location may be shared with account members.

If your child's device is paired with the Smart Family Companion app, the location results will indicate a street address and approximately how many yards away the device is from that location.

However, location accuracy depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to:

• Pairing status of Smart Family Companion app with parent device
• Child device has good connectivity to data network
• Child device has location ON and set to high accuracy
• Smart Family Companion app has permission to always access child's device location
• Smart Family Companion app has Background App Refresh turned ON (iOS devices only)

We recommend you pair with your child's Smart Family Companion app for better location accuracy.

Verizon Smart Family is designed to be used within Verizon coverage areas in the continental US and Hawaii. As such, some features may be unavailable outside of this service area.

However, if your child's device is paired with the Smart Family Companion app and is connected to Wi-Fi when it's outside the Verizon network or roaming internationally, you'll be able to see the device's location.

Data usage may apply when roaming.

If a child can't be located, the child's device may be off or the phone's GPS functionality is deactivated.

If the phone can't be located for an extended period of time, check the child's device settings to ensure:

• Child device is paired
• Child device has good connectivity to data network
• Child device has location ON and set to high accuracy
• Verizon Android tablet has push notifications for the Smart Family Companion app enabled
• Smart Family Companion app has permission to always access child's device location
• Smart Family Companion app has Background App Refresh turned ON (iOS devices only)

If the device still can't be located after 24+ hours (and the settings are accurate), please contact Verizon Customer Service at (800) 922-0204.

Location history is automatically deleted after 7 days and isn't recoverable.

Arrival / departure alerts should occur close to the time they were triggered. However, we've seen them occasionally delayed for a variety of reasons, including:

• Dropped pairing between child and parent devices
• Pairing lost or tampered on the Smart Family Companion app status
• Network connectivity

No, only eligible lines on your Verizon wireless plan can be added to your Verizon Smart Family account.