uMobix Review 2025: Spy App or Parental Control?

uMobix offers lots of monitoring, but we hesitate to recommend it for parental controls due to its overly invasive approach. Many sites, uMobix included, refer to this as a spy app, and we have to agree.

uMobix also lacks screen time management and there’s no way to set up alerts for disallowed content. Our experience was that uMobix was truly just for monitoring and not necessarily about parental control or children’s safety. 

uMobix review at a glance

Price	$12.49-$49.99/mo
Free trial	No
Number of kids supported	1 device per subscription
Content filtering	No
Conversation monitoring	Yes — emails, texts, and social media
Screen time management	No
Location tracking	Yes, but no geo-fencing
Activity reports	Yes, activity dashboard
Remote lock	Yes, on Android devices
Supported devices	Android phone or tablet, Chromebooks, iPhone, iPad
Learn more	Get uMobix

We last tested uMobix on March 5, 2025.

Our experience

uMobix provides an impressive range of monitoring capabilities, but the app left us with mixed feelings. While we appreciated the amount of information given about our target phone’s activity, the uMobix installation process felt invasive.

To download uMobix onto our test phone, we were prompted to scan a QR code that downloaded the uMobix profile onto our iPhone. uMobix provided step-by-step instructions on getting its monitoring set up. 

The phrasing on all the prompts as we added uMobix felt invasive. We had to enable full trust for root certificates, which allows third parties to view any private data submitted on the phone.

The alerts also left a lot to be desired. Instead of a push notification or pop-up to let us know of any new activity, the dashboard refreshes to show you a badge on the left-hand menu when there has been any new activity. 

If you're not sitting at the computer and actively monitoring from the dashboard, you won't be notified of a change in activity.

Some additional monitoring, like for social media apps, requires you to sign in with your Apple ID and password. But when we'd try to log in, we continuously received an error message that "these features are available only with iCloud credentials" and were pushed to contact customer service. 

Overall, the uMobix app was easy to use once it was installed. However, it’s more of a phone tracking app and lacks the "control" that we look for in parental controls. You can block apps, Wi-Fi networks, and, on Android, set up a general blacklist for websites.

It might be helpful to set up screen time limits for the child’s device. But for less tech-savvy parents, this might pose a significant barrier if you’re unsure how to set up parental controls on iOS or Android.

Who is uMobix best for?

• Recommended for parents who want a comprehensive understanding of their child’s device usage.

uMobix provides extensive insight into your child's phone activities. You'll be able to monitor who they're calling, their browser history, social media usage, and more. Just don't expect to receive alerts on these activities, we could only view them on the dashboard. 

uMobix could also be beneficial for tech-savvy children who have subverted all other parental control software.

uMobix prices and subscriptions

uMobix is on the higher end for parental control software, ranging from $12.49-$49.99/mo. There are three subscription plans: monthly, quarterly, and yearly, but it doesn’t offer different features by tier. 

Even with the longer-term plans, uMobix’s pricing is still higher than many of its competitors. Bark starts at $5.00/mo 

Plan	1-month plan	3-month plan	1-year plan	Learn more
Price per month	$49.99/mo	$29.99/mo (billed quarterly)	$12.49/mo (billed annually)	View plans

Not only does uMobix not offer a free trial, its refund policy is quite restrictive. The company offers a 14-day refund window, but there are several conditions to qualify for a refund. If you decide to cancel the service simply because you don’t like the product, you won’t be eligible for a refund unless you meet its specific requirements. 

For parents looking for a long-term solution, the yearly subscription offers the best value at a significantly lower cost per month.

uMobix features

When we tested the uMobix app we did find that it offered comprehensive social media monitoring, covering platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. According to uMobix it can take up to 24 hours for data to fully sync, but every app appeared under the Social tab on the dashboard.

In terms of app activity, uMobix tracks which apps are being used, how long they are open, and contacts being spoken to.

For Android users, uMobix includes a keylogger that records every keystroke on the device, capturing all typed content across apps and messages. Keyloggers are something we usually see in surveillance malware and are very invasive, so it gave us pause to see it in a parental control app.

Overall, uMobix is missing a lot of features that we would expect to see in a parental control app. For example, while it tracks the time spent on an app, it doesn’t allow you to set screen time limits. We also believe that monitoring children without their knowledge is not beneficial to teaching them good online habits.

Content monitoring

uMobix is primarily a monitoring tool. Unlike many parental control apps, it doesn't offer real-time alerts for issues like cyberbullying, self-harm, or risky app usage. Instead, parents must regularly check the dashboard for new notification badges indicating updates on their child’s activity.

It can monitor popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. We were able to see how much time we had spent on each application on both operating systems. We could remotely block social media apps and add websites to the blacklist.

We did find that there was a lack of content-specific criteria, which means that you have to sort through mountains of data manually to identify anything concerning. Again, uMobix is all or nothing when it comes to monitoring.

Social media and phone apps

uMobix supports social media tracking on over 20 popular platforms (on Androids), including real-time scanning of direct messages, images, and videos, giving parents full visibility into what their child is engaging with online. Whether your kid is using messaging apps, sharing photos, or interacting with friends on social media, uMobix captures these interactions and displays them in the dashboard.

While this level of monitoring is thorough, it doesn’t allow parents to whitelist specific apps, meaning there’s no way to customize or prioritize monitoring for safer apps while keeping a closer eye on riskier ones. This means that parents have to monitor everything equally and be proactive to make sure their kids stay safe on social media.

Text messages

Text message monitoring is available on both iOS and Android devices, though we couldn't get this feature to work on our iPhone. This allows parents to view all sent and received messages. 

However, uMobix doesn't flag inappropriate or concerning content. Parents will have to manually go through the messages to identify any potential issues. This passive approach, without content flags or alerts, makes uMobix more useful for tracking general usage rather than providing active protection.

Email

uMobix offers full access to emails on Androids. However, it doesn’t flag content or alert parents to potential concerns. Much like text messages, parents can view all sent and received emails but must manually scan through them for any issues. Supported email services include Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and ProtonMail.

For iOS devices, email monitoring is not available.

Web browsers

uMobix offers monitoring for a variety of web browsers on Androids, including Chrome, Firefox, and even niche browsers like Tor and Opera. Parents can track the websites their child visits, but there is no content-specific filtering or criteria for blocking certain types of websites.

In the dashboard, you can select browser history to review your kid's web activities. We found that it listed applications and vague descriptions of apps used along with time stamps. 

Content filtering

uMobix provides basic content filtering but only for Android devices. Parents can manually blacklist certain websites, but the app lacks the ability to filter content by category, such as inappropriate material or violent content. Additionally, there are no alerts or notifications tied to content filtering.

Parents can also block apps and Wi-Fi networks by clicking the Block button in the Applications menu.

Location tracking

uMobix provides real-time location tracking but does not offer geo-fencing capabilities. The location tracking feature works on both Android and iOS, though for us the accuracy was inconsistent, with the location sometimes off by miles.

If the app hasn’t been installed yet, parents can also request a location "check-in" by sending a link disguised as a photo. This link, once clicked, grants access to the child’s location without notifying them and updates the parent in real time.

Activity reports

uMobix generates activity data on the App activity tab. This feature is primarily available for Android devices and includes a breakdown of app usage trends. 

Reports are updated at intervals set by the parent in their settings menu from the dashboard, but shorter intervals can slow down the app’s performance. While these reports offer valuable insights, the lack of real-time notifications or alerts makes the app more of a passive tool.

uMobix customer support

Email or live chat	Yes — live chat
Phone	No
Online guides or forums	No

Customer support is available 24/7 through email and live chat. However, the live chat responses often feel generic. When we were trying to get the app downloaded, chat support sent us links to the uMobix site where we were already following directions.

When we asked for further assistance, we were asked to send an email and someone would reach out. Since the support was lacking a personal touch, it left a lot to be desired.

Top alternatives

If uMobix’s passive monitoring and lack of customizable controls don’t meet your needs, consider alternatives like Bark or Norton Family. These apps offer more sophisticated filtering, alerts, and real-time notifications, along with better support for features like screen time management.

uMobix FAQs

Bottom line: Is uMobix good?

In our opinion, uMobix is best described as a covert monitoring tool rather than a parental control app. It lacks many of the key features—like screen time management and content-specific alerts—that are standard in more robust parental control solutions. It’s a lot more invasive than we like from a parental control app.

If you feel that uMobix doesn’t meet your needs, or if you want to compare software, it’s never too late to check out the best parental control apps on the market today.