Help
Everything you need from your setup email to your first alert.
Your order email has the links: Paired Parent Connect for your Windows or Mac computer, and the Paired Parent app for your own phone.
Open Paired Parent Connect and connect the phone with a USB data cable. Follow the steps on screen; it moves on by itself as each step is done. Sign out of the phone's accounts when it asks, and sign back in afterwards.
Type the code from your email. The setup takes about four minutes. Leave the phone plugged in until Paired Parent Connect says the phone is off.
Turn the phone on. Tap Scan the code on the child phone in your app, point the camera at the code it shows and say how old your child is, then choose the PIN that keeps the controls yours. For a child under 13, you also confirm you're an adult, through Kids Web Services, part of Epic Games.
If the setup can't finish, Paired Parent Connect offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again. Then write to us at info@pairedparent.com with your setup code, and we'll help you finish it or refund your order. The full walk-through is on Setting up.
Your child's phone (a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel running Android 15 or newer, charged to at least 20%, with at least 400 MB free), a Windows or Mac computer, a USB cable that carries data (a cable that only charges won't work), and your own Android phone for the Paired Parent app.
Paired Parent works on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones running Android 15 or newer. To check, open Settings, then About phone (on a Galaxy, then Software information), and look for Android version. An iPhone can't be the child's phone. Phones from other makers haven't been tested by us yet, but you're welcome to try: Paired Parent Connect tells you so before it starts, and we'd like to hear how it went. A phone managed by a school or employer can't be set up. We haven't tried every model ourselves, so Paired Parent Connect checks your child's phone before it changes anything and tells you in plain words if it can't be set up. If the setup can't finish, it offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again, and we'll help you finish it or refund your order. More about this: Will my child's phone work?
Paired Parent Connect walks you through it one step at a time and moves on by itself when it sees a step is done. First you get the phone ready: turning on USB debugging, signing out of the phone's accounts, and turning off a few features if the phone uses them. How long that takes depends on the phone. Then you type your setup code, and the setup itself takes about four minutes, with one restart. Last, you scan a code with your phone to pair the two.
No. Photos, apps, texts, the screen lock, the phone number and the carrier all stay. You sign out of the phone's accounts during setup and sign back in afterwards. Cards in Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet may have to be added again after you sign back in. Secure Folder, Dual Messenger and Private Space have to be removed first, so move anything you want to keep out of them before you start.
Android lets Paired Parent be set up only on a phone with no accounts signed in, whether Google, Samsung, a work account or an app's own. Paired Parent Connect lists each one it finds and waits while you sign out. When setup is finished, you sign back in, and the accounts work as before.
It's the Android setting that lets Paired Parent Connect, on your computer, talk to the phone over the cable. Paired Parent Connect shows you where to find it. On a Samsung phone you turn off Auto Blocker first, because USB debugging can't be turned on while it's on. Once the phone is paired with yours, Paired Parent blocks USB debugging, so the cable can't be used to get around it.
No. Family Link supervision has to be turned off before setup, from the Family Link app on your own phone. Paired Parent Connect tells you if the phone is still supervised.
If the setup can't finish, Paired Parent Connect offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again. Then write to us at info@pairedparent.com with your setup code, and we'll help you finish it or refund your order.
Setup needs a Windows or Mac computer, and a borrowed one is fine. After that you won't need it day to day. If the phone ever needs a repair over the cable, Paired Parent Connect does it, on any Windows or Mac computer. If you'd rather skip the computer altogether, a Galaxy A16 from us arrives with Paired Parent already set up.
Not yet. The parent app runs on Android phones today. An iPhone version is in development.
No. Setup makes Paired Parent part of how the phone is managed, not an app in the list your child can uninstall. It can't be force-stopped or have its data cleared either, and the phone can't be reset from Settings. More about this: Can my child delete Paired Parent?
Paired Parent is for a parent or legal guardian supervising a phone they provide to their own child. Every feature described here is enforced by the software on the child's phone; where a feature has limits, the page says so.
This site keeps a visitor log: the internet address the visit came from, the page asked for, and the time. Nothing on this site tracks you across other sites. What else we keep, and why, is on the Privacy page. The photographs on this site are illustrations, not photographs of real families.
Paired Parent™ is a trademark of Paired Parent LLC. Android is a trademark of Google LLC. App, site and company names appear only to show what Paired Parent works with, and belong to their owners; no endorsement is implied. © 2026 Paired Parent LLC.