Microsoft’s new Family Safety app, which the company introduced at its Microsoft 365 digital event back in March, is finally dropping its preview tag today. The iOS and Android apps have been available for public testing since May, and they should become an essential tool for families living in the Microsoft ecosystem.
The app will require parents to set up a family in their Microsoft account settings, where parents and kids will all have their own personal accounts. Once that’s done Microsoft’s new Family Safety app give parents more control over what their kids can do with their devices. The app can provide weekly activity reports to all family members, detailing how much time kids spent on their devices and the type of content they’ve been interacting with.
As of today, Microsoft’s Family Safety app allows parents to set app and game screen time limits, block specific apps, and enable web and search filters to block adult content on Microsoft Edge. This currently works with apps and games on Windows, Xbox, and Android, as digital safety features for iOS are still being worked on.
The app also supports Location sharing, and Microsoft emphasized that it won’t use this data for commercial purposes. “Microsoft Family Safety provides you full control around how and why data is collected and used. Unlike other location tracking apps, your family’s location data will not be sold or shared with insurance companies or data brokers,” the company said today.
Microsoft’s Family Safety app is free to use for parents who have set up a Microsoft Family, but some upcoming features such as Drive safety and location alerts will require a Microsoft 365 Family subscription. You can download the app today using the links below.
