Life360 review: Family monitoring made easy

Want to keep an eye on the family? Life360 has you covered.

Life360
4 out of 5 stars
4
  • pro
    Easy to use
  • pro
    Driving safety features
  • pro
    Decent free version
Georgia Dixon
Apr 24, 2024
Icon Time To Read5 min read

SafeWise experts have years of firsthand experience testing the products we recommend. Learn how we test and review

Do you like to check in with your kid regularly? Is your child prone to losing their stuff? Do you want to be able to see if they’ve gone anywhere unusual lately? Have they recently gotten their P-plates? If you answered yes to any of those questions, Life360 may be the solution for you.

This family monitoring app works by tracking the location of each family member’s phone (or any tracked items—we’ll get into that later), thus allowing you to keep an eye on where everyone is at all times. But how is it in practice? We put Life360 to the test.

pro
Pros
pro Easy to setup and use
pro Two-way location sharing builds trust
pro Driving safety features
pro Solid Tile integration
pro Decent free version
con
Cons
con Expensive
con Constant background app refreshing drains battery life
con Driving monitoring can show false positives
con No parental control features

Life360 price

Life360 offers four plans—one free and three paid. The free version is actually quite decent and packs many of the same features as the cheapest paid version (Silver), which costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year.

That said, if you opt for a paid plan, you will get more features, more days of location history more "places" (i.e. frequently-visited places you can register to receive alerts when a family member arrives or leaves, e.g. work, school, friends' houses). It’s also worth noting that only one member of the family needs a paid plan for everyone in your “Circle” to benefit from the same features.

After a recent overhaul of its plans, we wouldn't exactly call Life360 affordable anymore. However, there are more features on offer than before, some of which may make the monthly fee worth it for your family.

Here’s a full breakdown of how the free and paid plans differ.

FreeSilverGoldPlatinum
Location history2 days7 days30 days30 days
Places with unlimited alerts2 places5 placesUnlimitedUnlimited
Crash detection Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
SOS help alert
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Data breach alerts
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Crash detection
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Family driving summary
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Individual driving reports
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Roadside assistance
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Free towing
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightMetro: 25km
Rural: 50km
Icon Yes  LightMetro: 40km
Rural: 80km
Emergency services dispatch Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Identity theft protection
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Stolen funds reimbursement
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightUS$25k
Icon Yes  LightUS$1m
Stolen phone protection Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  Light$500
Icon Yes  Light$1000
Disaster response Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Medical assistance Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Travel support Icon Tooltip  Dark
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
Icon Yes  LightYes
Cost$0$9.99/mo
OR
$79.99/yr
$16.99/mo
OR
$139.99/yr
$29.99/mo
OR
$249.99/yr

Life360 features and performance

Life360 isn’t a traditional parental control app. It lacks any of the device monitoring features found in the likes of Qustodio and Bark, opting instead for a focus on only location monitoring. However, if you’re after an app to watch over older kids and teens while still giving them some independence over their online lives, Life360 may be the perfect middle ground.

It’s easy to set up—simply get everyone in your family to download the app, and then you can invite them (and whoever else you’d like) to your Circle. For Life360’s location monitoring to work best, it does require background app refresh to be enabled, along with constant access to your phone’s location services. Unfortunately, both these prerequisites will cause your phone’s battery to drain faster than normal.

The app works by tracking their phone’s GPS location, so you can see where they are at all times, as well as where they’ve been, thanks to location history. You can even see how much battery they’ve got left on their phone.

One thing that Life360 does better than other monitoring apps is the ability for two-way location tracking. Yep, not only can you see where they are, but they can see where you are, which holds both parties accountable and builds trust. After all, it’d be hypocritical to get mad at them for ducking out of school early to go to a friend’s place if they caught you skipping work to go to Maccas!

Bell
A word on consent
Family monitoring apps like Life360 can be helpful tools, but you should never install a tracking program on your child’s phone without speaking to them first. We suggest explaining to them what the app does and why it’s important to you that your family uses it. Tell them what they can expect, and also share how they can use the app for their own benefits (e.g. checking how far you are from home, or seeing that you’ve just arrived at the supermarket and sending you a text asking you to pick up a little treat).

Both you and the rest of the family can use the app to discretely send an SOS message to your Circle (or even other emergency contacts who don’t have the Life360 app), along with a link to your location.

Life360 also tracks driving and offers safety features like crash detection and speeding detection. It can even tell if you’re using your phone while you’re driving, making it a great tool for parents of new drivers. It’s not a completely foolproof feature, however—it “detected” me using my phone while driving even though I was actually in the passenger seat.

You can also track the location of objects in the app, thanks to Life360’s acquisition (and subsequent integration) of Tile trackers in 2021. Tiles can be purchased through the app (or at just about any electronics retailer) and can then be attached to personal belongings and tracked through Life360. Tiles come in a few different shapes and sizes, including a credit card-sized Tile that can be easily slotted into your wallet, a dongle that can be attached to a backpack or set of keys, and there are even Tile stickers, which lack Bluetooth connectivity but display a QR code that, when lost, can be scanned by the person who found the item, alerting you and enabling you to arrange for its retrieval. Perfect for the kid who’s always losing their drink bottle. And lunch box. And everything else.

In April 2024, Life360 added more safety features to new higher-tier paid plans, including roadside assistance, emergency services dispatch, stolen funds reimbursement, and disaster, medical and travel assistance. 

Life360 vs other parental control apps

As we mentioned earlier, Life360 is quite unusual as far as parental control apps go, since it eschews any online or device monitoring for solely location-based monitoring. As such, we think it’s better suited to families with older kids, or even grown-ups looking for a solid personal safety app. But if you’re keen to see how it stacks up against the competition, here’s a breakdown of the best parental control apps.

Compare the best parental control apps

Parental control app
Category
Starting price
Free version?
Devices
Call/text management
Learn more
Read review
Best overallYes5 to unlimitedYes
Best budgetYesUnlimitedNo
Best freeYesUnlimitedNo
Best for web filteringYes1–20No
Best for monitoring7-day trialUnlimitedYes
(Premium plan)
Best for location monitoringYesUp to 99 usersNo

Prices are accurate as of post date. Read full disclaimer.

Life360 vs Apple Find My

You might be wondering how Life360 differs from Apple’s Find My app—after all, they both rely on tracking a person’s device location, right? The difference comes down to features. While Find My shows you the device’s current (or last recorded) location, it doesn’t update that location in real time, nor does it show you location history. Life360, on the other hand, tracks location in real time and displays up to 30 days of location history. It also offers driving monitoring and other features that Find My lacks.

The only upper hand Find My has in this battle is AirTags. Tile’s trackers are great, but in our testing, we found they were less accurate when pinpointing an item’s location compared to AirTags, which are boosted by Apple’s expansive Find My network.

Final word

Life360 is an easy-to-use, safety-focused parental monitoring app with the ability to track not just family members, but their belongings, too. As long as it’s introduced to the family in a constructive way, it can also help build trust by holding not just the kids, but the parents accountable as well. The battery drain is an issue, and those looking for more robust parental controls will need to look elsewhere, but overall, Life360 is a good option for both parents and kids.

Life360 FAQ

No, Life360 doesn’t notify you if another member of your Circle checks your location. That said, you must first give permission to other members before they can see your location.
If you’ve granted them access to your location, members of your Circle can track your phone using Life360, but no one else can see where you are without your permission.
No. Life360 is all about location tracking, meaning it lacks text and online monitoring features that can be found on other parental control apps.
In our testing, yes, Life360 will drain your phone’s battery faster than normal.

Disclaimer
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time of publish and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on the retailer’s website at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product. SafeWise Australia utilises paid affiliate links.
Georgia Dixon
Written by
Georgia Dixon
Georgia Dixon has 10 years of experience writing about all things tech, entertainment and lifestyle. She has bylines on Reviews.org, 7NEWS, Stuff.co.nz, in TechLife magazine and more. In 2023 she won Best News Writer at the Consensus IT Awards, and in 2024 she was a finalist for Best News Journalist at the Samsung IT Journalism Awards (The Lizzies). In her spare time, you'll find her playing games and daydreaming about good food, wine, and dogs.

Recent Articles