Features / Texts & calls
Texts & calls
Know when a message needs a parent.
Your child gets a real messenger. You get a heads-up when a text looks like it needs a parent, and the final say on who can reach them.
Their messenger
A messenger they'll actually like.
- Messages is your child's texting app, and it does what they expect: texts, photos, GIFs and files, group chats and calls.
- They can make it their own with colors, fonts and themes.
- New chats start from the contacts you've approved. A text to anyone else waits for your yes before it's sent.
Pick you up at 5?
did u finish the project
Love you!
Screening
Checked on their phone, not on our servers.
- Every text your child sends or receives in Messages is checked on their phone.
- If one looks like something a parent should see, you get "Review: message on your child's phone".
- Messages to Review shows it with up to nine messages before it, so you see the conversation. Mark it Looks safe or Good catch, or save it as a PDF.
- Only flagged messages and those just before them, and a text to or from someone new while it waits for your approval, ever reach your phone. Your child's full history stays on theirs.
Approved contacts
You decide who can reach them.
- From day one, only people you've approved can text or call your child. Paired Parent never blocks 911, 988 or short codes.
- A text from someone new is held from your child and comes to you as "Approval needed". The notification doesn't show the message.
- Calls from someone new don't ring. They come to you as a request too.
- If your child texts someone new, it waits for your approval, then sends.
Quiet hours
Texts wait until morning.
- Set quiet hours for every night, or each day separately.
- Texts that arrive are held quietly and delivered when quiet hours end. Calls don't ring through. Picture and group messages wait too.
- The contacts you star can always reach them, and 911 and 988 are never held.
- Held texts are still checked when they arrive.
Call Logs
Calls on the record for 30 days.
- Call Logs keeps 30 days of your child's calls, even ones they delete from their phone.
What your child sees
Clear, and never secret.
- They aren't told when a message is flagged.
- A text they send to someone new waits for your approval. A text from someone new stays out of sight until you approve, and is then there in the conversation, marked as held.
- During quiet hours, a banner shows who they can still reach, and starred contacts read "Reachable Anytime".
- Deleting a message needs your PIN.
Good to know
- No screening catches everything, ours included. It can miss things, and sometimes flags a message that's fine. It's a second set of eyes, not a replacement for yours.
- Screening reads the words in texts. Photos themselves aren't checked, only their captions. Other messaging apps aren't screened.
- Texts from someone new wait until you decide, however long that takes. Approve them and nothing has been lost. Block them and they’re deleted.
- Several flagged messages in one conversation within ten minutes buzz your phone once.
- There's one quiet-hours schedule for each child's phone.
Questions about texts & calls
Can I read every message my child sends?
Paired Parent is built to tell you when a message needs a parent, not to send you every message. When screening flags one, your phone gets an alert with the conversation around it. Your child's full message history stays on their phone, where you can always pick it up and read it. More about this: Can I read every message my child sends?
How does it decide a message needs me?
Each text is checked on your child's phone. If it looks like something a parent should see, your phone gets an alert. Messages are never sent to our servers to be checked.
Will it catch everything?
No system does, ours included. Screening can miss things, and sometimes it flags a message that turns out to be fine. Think of it as a second set of eyes, not a replacement for yours. You can mark each alert as right or wrong.
Does it check WhatsApp, Snapchat or other messaging apps?
Screening covers the words in texts sent and received in Messages, your child's texting app. Photos themselves aren't checked, only their captions, and other messaging apps aren't screened. New apps wait for your yes, so you decide whether to allow them, and when. More about this: Does it check WhatsApp, Snapchat or other messaging apps?
Can my child text and call anyone?
New contacts, and calls and texts from people you haven't approved, wait for your decision. You get them as approval requests on your phone. If you approve, nothing they sent while you decided has been lost; if you block, it’s deleted.
What are quiet hours?
A schedule that holds your child's texts, overnight for example, and delivers them when it ends. Calls don't ring through. The people you star, plus 911 and 988, always get through. More about this: What are quiet hours?
Can my child delete messages?
Deleting a message on your child's phone needs your PIN.