Setting up
Set up at home, on their own phone.
Plug your child's phone into your computer, follow the steps on screen, and scan one code. Their photos, apps and number stay, and if setup can't finish, Paired Parent Connect offers to take Paired Parent off the phone again.
Subscribe
Choose monthly or yearly. We email your setup code with the links to download Paired Parent Connect for your computer and the Paired Parent app for your phone.
Get the phone ready
Open Paired Parent Connect and plug in your child's phone with a USB data cable. It shows you each step to take on the phone, and moves on by itself when it sees a step is done. You'll turn on one Android setting, USB debugging, so the computer can talk to the phone. If the phone is signed in to any accounts, such as Google, Samsung or a work account, you sign out first. Paired Parent Connect lists each one it finds, and you sign back in when setup is finished.
Enter your code
Type the setup code from your email. The setup takes about four minutes, and the phone restarts once by itself. Leave it plugged in until Paired Parent Connect says the phone is off.
Pair and choose a PIN
Unplug the phone, turn it on, and make sure it's connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data. It shows a code. In the app on your phone, tap Scan the code on the child phone, point your camera at it 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.
What you need
A computer and a cable, just once.
- Your child's phone: a Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel running Android 15 or newer.
- A Windows or Mac computer. A borrowed one is fine; you won't need it day to day.
- A USB cable that carries data. A cable that only charges won't work.
- Your own Android phone, running Android 11 or newer, for the Paired Parent app.
- Your child's phone charged to at least 20%, with at least 400 MB free.
What stays on the phone
Their phone, still theirs.
- Photos, apps, texts, the screen lock, the phone number and the carrier all stay.
- Accounts go back on once setup is finished. Cards in Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet may have to be added again after you sign back in.
- A phone managed by a school or employer can't be set up. If Google Family Link supervises the phone, turn that off first.
- Secure Folder, Dual Messenger and Private Space have to be removed first, so move anything you want to keep out of them. Paired Parent Connect tells you if it finds one.
- Turn off chat features in the phone's messaging app before setup. Paired Parent Connect shows you how. If the number was on an iPhone before, turn off iMessage for it too. After setup, your child texts in Messages, Paired Parent's texting app.
It checks the phone before it changes anything.
- If its check finds the phone can't be set up, Paired Parent Connect says why before it changes anything.
- If the setup can't finish, it 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.
What your child sees
A phone they'll want to use.
- Their phone says it's supervised. Nothing is hidden from them.
- A real messenger: photos, group chats, search, and colors and fonts they can make their own.
- When an app is waiting for you, it tells them. When time's up, it tells them when the app comes back.
Pick you up at 5?
did u finish the project
Love you! ❤
What you see
Alerts only when something needs you.
- A text on your child's phone that may need a parent.
- A text or call from someone you haven't approved.
- Your child arriving at or leaving a place you're watching.
- Someone repeatedly entering the wrong PIN on your child's phone.
Families come in all shapes.
Two parents
Places are shared, and each of you chooses which alerts you get.
More than one child
Add a brother or sister in the same app and swipe between them.
When they're ready
When the time comes, you can release the phone, and it becomes an ordinary phone again.