Family Link on your child's Android

A night lock, app limits, and the things that always keep working. It is all run from one free app on your own phone, and that app looks the same whichever Android your child has.

The problem

We wrote a guide to Screen Time on the iPhone, and then got the same question again and again: what about those of us on Android? The situation is exactly the same. Agreements about screens are hard to keep, for children and for adults. The apps are built by very skilled people to hold on to us, and a child who promises to put the phone down at eight is fighting uneven odds. So we went looking for the same thing on Android: something built in and free, that lets the phone carry the boundaries instead of the child's willpower.

The solution

Google Family Link. It costs nothing, and the thing to understand first is this: Family Link is an app on your phone, not a menu on your child's. So it makes no difference whether your child has a Pixel, a Galaxy or something else. The app you sit in looks the same for every parent. In guides like this one that is usually Android's weakness, everything being named differently on every phone. Here it is a strength.

The small amount of work you do on the child's own phone is where the wording moves around. The menu there is Digital Wellbeing and parental controls, and on the newest Samsung phones parental controls have moved out of it into their own entry in Settings. We will say so in the few steps where it matters.

Your child's phone needs Android 7 or later. Your own can be an Android or an iPhone. Family Link gives you a night lock, time limits, the ability to block apps outright, a school schedule, approved contacts and content filters, and you run all of it from the sofa. If you are coming from an iPhone, our Screen Time guide is the comparison; much of it is familiar, and a few things are genuinely better here.

Good to know first

We want to be honest about what Family Link does and doesn't do, so you start with the right expectations. Google is straight about the first one itself: Family Link does not block inappropriate content, it gives you filters to set.

• Family Link supervises an account, not a phone. Anything your child does signed out, in a second user profile, or on a school device with a school account sits outside it.
• Your child cannot ask for more time inside the app. On the iPhone the child taps a button and you get a request. On Android the child asks out loud, and you grant Bonus time from your phone. In app requests exist only for blocked websites and for new apps.
• App limits are set per app, one at a time. There are no categories, so no limit that automatically covers tomorrow's newly downloaded game.
• Approved contacts cover Google Messages and the Google dialler, on Android 14 or later. WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and Discord are untouched. That is where most teenagers actually talk, so contact limits cover less than they sound like they do.
• Emergency services always work. But a named emergency contact, a grandparent or the other parent or a neighbour, is only reachable if you have added them as an approved contact.
• During spring 2026 many parents reported that supervised children could not place outgoing calls at all after contact limits were switched on. We do not know whether it has been fixed. Test that your child can place a real call once you finish step 6.
• School time is still rolling out and Google publishes no country list. Look under Screen time and Schedules: if School time is there, you have it.
• Supervision does not end at 13. The account can be converted to a supervised teen account at that point, and until 18 the teen needs your approval to end supervision. Other things do change: YouTube becomes unsupervised, and contacts created through Family Link are lost when the account is updated unless they are also in Google Contacts. The age itself is set nationally: 13 in Sweden and the UK, 15 in France, so check the age where you live.

Want to try?

Allow 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how at home you are in phone menus. You need your own phone, your child's phone in your hand for a while in step 1, and your child's Google Account. We'll walk through it together, step by step.

1. 1
   Link the accounts

   Install Family Link on your own phone and sign in with your Google Account. Then you need your child's phone for a while.

   If your child is under the age of digital consent where you live, you create the account for them through Family Link. If they are over it, they hold their own account and you add supervision to that account instead.

   If someone else's Google Account is already on the child's phone, it has to go first. It lives in Settings, on the row for passwords and accounts, which Google has renamed a couple of times over the years. Remove the account, sign in with your child's, and confirm in person that you are the parent. No factory reset is needed.

   One more thing while you have the phone: if multiple user profiles are switched on, an unlocked second profile is effectively a phone with no limits. Lock it with a password, or turn user switching off.

   Back in the app, select your child at the top left. Along the bottom are three tabs: Screen time, Controls and Location. Everything below lives in those.

   Your child is selected at the top left. The three tabs along the bottom are the whole app.

   Done, next step
2. 2
   Downtime, the night lock

   If you do only one thing in this guide, do this one. Go to Screen time, then Schedules, and turn on Downtime. Under Weekly schedule pick the days and set a start time and an end time, for example 7pm to 7am on school nights. To change only tonight, use Tonight.

   Calls are always available during Downtime, and the apps you mark as Unlimited time in step 4 keep working too. Pair it with a charger in the hallway, so the phone sleeps outside the bedroom.

   On the same tab you will find Time limits with Daily limit, a total amount of screen time per day. One thing to know before you set it: the limit applies per device. Set two hours, and a child with both a phone and a tablet gets two hours on each.

   When the time runs out your child cannot unlock the device or see notifications, but can still answer calls and make an emergency call. If they need more time one evening they ask you, and you grant Bonus time under the device name on the Screen time tab.

   Downtime is the night lock. Calls stay available, even when the schedule has darkened the screen.

   Done, next step
3. 3
   App limits, and blocking outright

   Screen time, Time limits, App limits. Pick an app, tap Set limit and choose hours and minutes. One app at a time: there are no categories here, so go through the apps that actually eat the day and put a number on each one, ideally with your child sitting next to you.

   On the same screen you switch an app between Allowed and Blocked. A blocked app disappears from your child's phone. The change takes effect in about five minutes, or the next time the phone reaches the internet. System apps cannot have limits placed on them, and some apps cannot be blocked at all, because supervision or the phone itself needs them.

   If you are coming from an iPhone: there we set a limit of zero seconds, so the app is locked for the child but opens instantly with the parent's passcode. Nothing equivalent exists here. To open a blocked app you flip it back to Allowed, wait those few minutes, then block it again. That is clunkier than the iPhone, and worth knowing before you block an app you need yourself on your child's phone. Our Screen Time guide covers the iPhone version.

   Limits and blocking share one screen. A blocked app is simply gone from your child's phone.

   Done, next step
4. 4
   Unlimited time apps

   The same screen as a moment ago: Screen time, Time limits, App limits, pick the app and choose Unlimited time. This is the list of what must never run out. The school app, the transit app, maps, maybe music.

   These apps keep working during Downtime and during School time, which is exactly when everything else is dark. Keep the list short. Every app here is also an app that is open at half past ten at night. Apps that can open web pages from inside themselves deserve an extra thought, because they take your child out onto the web past the filters in step 7.

   One exception to know about: if you lock the phone by hand with Lock on the Screen time tab, the unlimited time apps go away too. An emergency lock also takes out maps and the transit app.

   This is what still works when everything else is locked. A short list, chosen on purpose.

   Done, next step
5. 5
   School time

   Screen time, Schedules, turn on School time. Under Weekly schedule set the days and the times, for example 8am to 3pm. For a gap in the middle of the day, pick a day and add a Break, lunch from 11:30 to 12:15 say, and tick Apply Monday–Friday. Delete break removes it again.

   During School time your child's phone gets a dedicated home screen with only the apps you picked under Allowed apps, and notifications are silenced. Your child can still call and text, and emergency services stay reachable.

   Two things about School time deserve honesty. It is still rolling out, and Google does not say which countries have it, so look for it under Schedules before you plan the school week around it. And the part that limits who your child can call during the school day needs Android 14 or later, while the schedule itself works from Android 7.

   The schedule, a break in the middle, and a short list of allowed apps. Emergency calls work throughout.

   Done, next step
6. 6
   Approved contacts

   Go to the Controls tab, then Contacts, calls & text, then Allowed calls & texts. You choose between Anyone, Contacts I add & limited groups, and Only contacts I add.

   Add the family first, and add the emergency contacts with them. Emergency services always work, but grandma only does if she is on the list. That is the common mistake here: you lock contacts down to keep strangers out, and lock out the one person you most want reachable.

   When your child wants to add a new number you get a notification, Your child wants to add a new contact, with Approve and Deny. They cannot call or text the number until you answer.

   Two limits to count on: this needs Android 14 or later, and it covers only Google Messages and the Google dialler. WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram are entirely unaffected.

   And do one more thing before you leave this step: place a test call from your child's phone. Parents have reported outgoing calls failing after contact limits were switched on, and it is better to find that out at the kitchen table than on a Friday night.

   Emergency contacts have to be on the list themselves. Emergency services are the only thing that always gets through.

   Done, next step
7. 7
   Content filters, purchases and location

   All of this sits under the Controls tab, and it is worth ten unhurried minutes.

   • Google Play: set the highest maturity level for Apps & games, Movies, and TV, and decide whether to restrict explicit content under Books. Google says itself that apps outside the filter can still be found through search or a direct link, so treat it as a filter, not a lock.
   • Purchases & download approvals: choose All content, and every download comes to you. You get a notification and tap Approve request or Deny, or you approve right there on your child's phone with your own password when you are standing next to each other.
   • Google Chrome and Web: Try to block explicit sites for most children, or Only allow approved sites for the youngest, where you list the sites yourself under Manage sites. The filters apply to Chrome, so block other browsers back in step 3, otherwise they are simply walked around.
   • Google Search: SafeSearch is already set to Filter and only you can change it. Nothing to do, but good to know it is there.
   • YouTube: choose Explore, Explore More or Most of YouTube.

   And one thing we would ask you to switch off: location sharing. The Location tab, then Location settings, then turn off See your child's location. We believe in blocking, not spying. Limits on the phone help a child be able to put it down, while a map showing where they are all day does something else entirely to the trust between you, and that is harder to rebuild than a schedule is to set up.

   The filters live under Controls. Location sharing lives under Location, and we leave it off.

   Done, next step
8. 8
   Samsung Kids and grayscale

   If you have a Samsung and a genuinely small child, there is Samsung Kids: a children's home screen holding only the tiles you put there. Open it under Settings, Apps, Samsung Kids, Open. On older Samsung models it sits instead as a Kids tile in the quick settings panel.

   Your child leaves the mode with the Back button, or with More options and Close Samsung Kids, and both routes need the unlock code, which is the phone's normal screen lock if it has one. The parent settings are under More options, Parental controls.

   Samsung Kids is built for the youngest children. For a teenager who needs a banking app, the transit app and the school platform, Family Link is the right tool, and Samsung's own answer for older children is Family Link too.

   We have not tested Samsung Kids ourselves, so whether a banking app, a transit app or Family Link's time limits work inside it, we do not know. Try it before you commit.

   And the bonus, the one we use most ourselves: a black and white screen in the evening. On a Samsung it is under Settings, Modes and Routines, Sleep, Other actions, and it is called Grayscale. On a Pixel it is under Digital Wellbeing, Bedtime mode, among the screen options, and it is also called Grayscale. Same result, two completely unrelated menus. A screen without colour pulls less, and everything keeps working exactly as before.

   Grayscale belongs to the phone rather than to Family Link, and it costs a minute to turn on.

   Done

Questions, or something didn't match?

Reach us through the contact form or on Instagram, @stillna.app. Tell us how it went, and especially if a menu was named something else on your phone, it helps us make the guides better. On Instagram you can also follow our journey: helping families find their digital lagom.