- Google has just upgraded its helpful family connection service to parents
- It now allows you to reduce distractions on your children’s phone during school
- Family -Link has also got a great redesign to make it easier to use
Google’s family connection allows you to manage to manage your children’s devices externally and is one of the tech giant’s most unsung tools. If you are a parent and have not used the service yet, it is now a very good time to give it a spin because it has just received three major upgrades.
The first and undoubtedly the biggest update to Family Link is a feature called ‘School Time’. This is currently helping to reduce distractions on your child’s smartwatch during school hours – and from “Next Week”, Google says it’s rolling support for this on Android phones and tablets.
This means that you will be able to dampen messages and schedule limited Android phone functionality during your child’s school time. However, this does not necessarily have to mean a complete telephone or tablet blackout during these periods – you can set a ‘pause’ in the schedules, for example if you are happy for them to browse the web during lunch or recess.
You can also choose the specific apps that are taved or limited-for example to keep school-specific available. And even when your child’s phone or tablet’s functionality is limited, they still have access to important features such as being able to call emergencies.
The other new Family Link feature, which will only be available “in the coming months”, is the ability to limit who your children are calling and sms from their Android phones. Google says you will be able to add approved contacts from the family’s link to your child’s phone, which means they will only be able to interact with the approved contacts. The disadvantage is that this only works with Google messages and Dialer apps on Android phones and not with third-party apps.
The last change to Google Family Link is a pretty significant redesign. A new screen time tab will collect all your management tools, and Google says it is also streamlining its control tab to make it easier to block specific sites or approve app downloads.
If you have more than one child, juggling more accounts should also be easier. You can now push between their profiles and manage all their devices from a single page, with the more advanced tools that have been cleared away on a separate screen.
If you are a parent on Android, try Family Link
We are big fans of Google Family Link on Techradar, and these upgrades certainly sound useful – especially the arrival of ‘school time’ on Android phones and tablets. The tool is mainly aimed at the under-13s, but you can also use it for teens (if you are prepared to tackle the inevitable friction).
When he talked about his experiences with the app, Techradar’s global editor of Chief Marc McLaren said earlier: “I wouldn’t say that Google Family Link was a better parent than me or my partner, but it was a close -up thing in a time. It works brilliantly and removes some of the stress of parental responsibility in the digital age.
“Being able to set limits on individual apps has been a massive help as my daughters have gone into their early teenage years and have finally been allowed to on Tiktok and Snapchat; without it I suppose they would both use about 20 hours a day on their feeds rather than the two hours they get, ”he said.
Family Link also has a practical location feature that shows you where your children are on a card. Of course, the entire service only works well if both the parent and the child are on Android (the ‘Parent-controlled contacts’ feature requires Android 14), so it is not so good if your family is on a mix of Android and iOS. But all in all, it’s worth exploring – and you never know your kids may like it too.
