My kids are 12 and 14 and I want to keep an eye on where they are without making it a whole thing every time we leave the house. I’ve seen some apps that run in the background without constant notifications popping up on their phones - has anyone actually used something like that long-term and does it hold up or do the kids figure it out pretty quick?
Most “invisible” tracking apps run into modern battery optimizations or still require you to physically hand over the phone during setup to bypass permission prompts, so true stealth is mostly marketing hype. I just stick with built-in Google Maps sharing or iOS Find My—kids know it’s there from day one, but once you set it up and stop making a fuss, it just quietly updates in the background without pestering them. The secret isn’t hiding the app, it’s making location sharing boring enough that they forget it’s running.