With the supervision app installed on your child's Android phone, your panel saves images of what appeared on their screen, with the date and time. They are individual screenshots, not a continuous video: they are useful above all for seeing content that no other feature reaches, such as messages that delete themselves. Supervision starts the day you install the app, so anything before that cannot be recovered. With a minor child in your care it is usually legal; on an adult's phone, without their consent, it is a crime.
Some content leaves no trace: it opens once and disappears, or the app keeps no history to review later. Screenshots are the way to see it, because they do not depend on the app but on what was on view. They are also the most invasive feature in the panel, and this page explains both things.
A screenshot is an image of what was on the supervised phone's screen at that moment, with the date and time, and it appears in your panel from any browser. Because it is taken on the device itself, it reaches anything that was visible: a conversation, a video, a search. The app your child is using does not need to keep a history: what is recorded is the screen, not the app.
Screenshots are taken while the phone is in use and reach your panel with the date and time. We are not going to give you a fixed figure of how many minutes pass between one and the next, because it would not be true: it depends on the screen being on, on the connection and on Android's battery saving, which suspends background tasks. And from that follows what matters: between one screenshot and the next, minutes go by that nobody recorded.
A good part of what worries mothers and fathers is not saved anywhere: messages that open only once and delete themselves, stories that last a day, a video that came up in a recommendation and is no longer there. None of that appears in a message log or a browsing history; a screenshot does, because it was on the screen. That is where it adds what the other features do not: the actual content, and not only who your child talked to or at what time.
It is worth saying before you buy, because this industry over-promises: a screenshot every so often is a sample, not a continuous recording of that screen. You will see moments, not the whole film, and something important can fall right between two screenshots. And like the rest of the supervision, it starts the day you install the app: anything before that cannot be recovered.
All 26 features are only in Platinum. Medium (29 USD, 1 month, 1 device) covers 19 of the 26; Gold (49 USD, 2 months, 2 devices) reaches 25; Platinum (99 USD, 12 months, 3 devices) includes them all. Before paying, look at the comparison on the pricing page and confirm that screenshots are in the plan you chose; the three-day free trial, with no card, is there to check it with the panel open. Installation is done only once, with your child's phone in your hands, on Android 8.0 or higher, without root.
A screenshot reaches everything that is on the screen, including what has nothing to do with the reason you started supervising: a friend's message, something about health they were looking up. It also exposes third parties who had no say in any of this. That is why we are stricter here than with location or calls: turn it on when there is a concrete risk — an unknown adult contacting them, signs of harassment, content you do not know the source of — and for as long as that risk lasts, not as background monitoring. Tell your child that the phone is supervised: with a teenager, that conversation protects more than any image. On an adult's phone, without their consent, there is no nuance: it is a crime.
It is not a continuous stream. What reaches your panel are dated images of moments when the screen was on, and between one and the next there are gaps.
No. The screenshot is taken on the device itself, so the app has to be installed there: you need the phone in your hands once, to set it up.
The app works in the background and does not show notifications that interrupt, although Android may show its own warnings depending on the version. It is not designed to hide from your child: we recommend telling them that the phone is supervised.
No. Screenshots are in Gold and Platinum; Medium covers 19 of the 26 features and does not include this one. If you came for screenshots, the minimum plan that works for you is Gold.
With a minor child in your care, in general yes, with limits that change by country and by age, and with a duty to look after what you see: never share screenshots of a minor's conversations. With an adult, without their consent, it is a crime.
Keep reading: Is it legal to monitor my child's phone? · Signs of grooming and cyberbullying · Compare the plans and what each one includes