Google Family Link Now Features Per-app Time Limits

Search engine giant Google first launched Family Link at the I/O developer conference back in 2017, which allows children to have their private Google accounts. Besides, it also helps their parents control their kids’ screen time. The management has also been expanded to cover teenagers. Additionally, there will be more new features for parents to assist them in controlling more tightly the contents their children can access to.

Family Link is by no mean a perfect software, but it now comes preinstalled on Android devices running Android 10 and up. In addition, users can also download it as a standalone application on Play Store if their devices don’t have it. The app can help users do various things such as setting their devices “bedtimes,” tracking activity per app, setting daily usage limits, viewing the location of the device on Maps and ringing it, etc.

A new highlight of this software is per-app time limits. Accordingly, parents can limit the time to use an individual app on children’s devices. The new feature allows them to restrict children from accessing video apps or games while letting their children use communication apps or educational resources. However, per-app limits feature requires much effort from the parents’ parts, which is an issue that Google should handle in its future update.

Furthermore, Google added to Family Link bonus time feature that children will really appreciate. Parents can make use of the dashboard of Family Link to offer their kids extra time to complete a game’s level or accomplish what they are working on. This is a solution for parents to deal with children who usually ask for “just five more minutes”.

Ultimately, users can now access to Family Link more easily. They can find it in Settings in Android 10-powered devices under "Digital wellbeing and parental controls".