I have used OurPact Premium for over 8 years on three of my boys devices. My oldest son sure hated it. I was able to prevent him from having access to Snapchat and TikTok till he graduated high school. If he could find a way around the controls, I’m sure he would have but he couldn’t change anything. I also use OurPact with Apples family security. Not sure if I need too but I like using both. I have praised OurPact for years and tell anyone that needs a service like this to get it. But…. The reason for not giving 5 stars is the current Log in issue and being signed out. I homeschool my two pre-teens so they are home with me all day and I like to give access but take some apps away at different times of the time. We have schedules set but if they finish work early before say our 3pm “School” schedule turns off, I can’t just quickly log onto the app and grant them an hour. Or when they have lunch, I want to grant 30 min. I have to log in EVERY time. This has been going on for a month now. I have sent customer service an email and they apologized and said it’s being worked on. They suggested I save my log in info so I don’t have to type it in but for whatever reason, it doesn’t save my log in info. Face recognition would be nice to log in for something quick. If it doesn’t get fixed soon, I sadly will have to leave and find another app to use.

My son has autism and I also split time with his dad- so we wanted a way for him to have a phone and be able to communicate with us at any time, but also didn’t want the phone to be a distraction at school. We also wanted to have control over the apps that he had access to, especially the internet. That was 6 years ago- and we’ve been using Ourpact ever since. His younger sister also has it on her phone now. I didn’t have any issues downloading the apps or upgrading. It is annoying that it jumbled their apps, but the kids don’t really seem to care. I also like that it can take screenshots periodically, so I can monitor them without being right on top of them all the time. Their phones are available, but not a distraction at school or when we’re at events, etc. Timers turn off apps well before bedtime and during the school day, and we can determine how much time they get to play games and when. Also comes in handy when kids are throwing attitude or not listening and I can turn their apps off real quick :) I recommend this app to everyone, especially parents with kids who are about to get their first phone or parents who are having issues with their kids sneaking or using their phone inappropriately or excessively.

When I first got this app for my kids’ phones, it was fairly easy for me to install. I started paying for the premium account because it assured me more control over their apps. A while back, in an attempt to get more people to use their native apps, Apple made it more difficult to use OurPact, and I feel like OurPact hasn’t really recovered from that. While I still recommend this app to friends, I now do so with caveats since I actually have come to dislike using it. I bought a new phone for one of my kids and I dreaded getting it on there. Also, when I removed that child’s old device from the OurPact account, I wasn’t able to reset that phone because OurPact is still working on it somehow. Also, the fact that my kids’ apps still get scrambled every time the apps close and reopen is confusing. I feel annoyed if I have to search for an app; if I had to do it every single time I used my phone, I’d probably get rid of it. I want to help my kid learn to manage their time on their phones, not frustrate them every time they want to use their device. I’m giving it 2 stars because, although it technically does what it says it does, it’s a hassle to deal with. I’ll be doing some research… there has to be another app by now that does mostly what this does without all the hassle.