How to set up Google Family Link on your Android smartphones

Google launched the Family Link app a couple of years back. The app allows parents to take control of their child’s device, track their activities, locate the phone, set usage limitations and more. With Android 10, Google has made the feature a part of the operating system and users can manage most of the Family link features right from the smartphone settings. Also, if you are using an Android smartphone with older version of Android operating system, you’ll have to download the Family Link app from Google Play Store.

Here’s how to set up Family Link for your child’s smartphone and use it.

The setup process for the Family link is straightforward. All you need to do is to create a new email account for your child and link it with your account under a family network. You can also connect multiple email accounts under a family network.

Now, take your kid’s device and set it up using the same email account. Also, make sure that the device is not synced to any other account at the time of setup as the Family Link will automatically remove them.

By now, you must have understood that the entire setup required two devices — Parent and Child. And in the setup process as a whole, we will refer the Parent device as ‚Parent‘ and child’s device as ‚Child‘.

Parent: Download the Google Family Link app from the Google Play Store

Child: Download Family Link for children & teen app

Parent: Open the app and skip the initial screen and set it up with a Google Account you want to use. Hit ‚Next‘ button when promoted to get your child’s phone. Note down the Code shown on the screen.


Child: Open Family Link app and choose ‚This Device‘ option. Choose the child’s Google Account and then enter the link code from the ‚Parent‘ device.

Here, if you have not added your child’s Google Account into your family network, the app will prompt you to add at this stage.

That’s it, your child’s smartphone is now connected via Family Link and now you can take control of the child’s device using your smartphone. From this moment, everything happens on the parent device and the child’s device will be bound with the set of rules laid by the parent device.

Now, after all this hassle, you must be wondering, what all you can do. So, let’s check how to use this feature at its full potential.

Locating Child’s smartphone and hopefully your kid

Family Link app has a specific card that allows locating the linked child’s smartphone. Tap on the ‚Turn on‘ button and the app will start showing the live location of the smartphone and apparently your kid’s location as well.

Track your child’s smartphone activities


Another useful feature is the ability to keep a check on kid’s activities on the smartphone. The card shows all the apps and games. The kid has been using and for how long they are using it. It also allows putting a pause on any particular app as well.

Parental controls
Setting tile card lets the Parent device to set some ground rules for your kid’s device such as restricting contents they access on YouTube, Google Search and Play Store. Parents can also set a limit to an app and after the limit is reached, the app goes invisible from the home screen.

Apart from this, there’s also an option to set permission for apps and games which the kids are trying to access on their smartphones.