My 14-year-old has been acting really secretive lately and I’m worried she might be using apps I don’t know about to talk to people behind my back. I checked her phone but only see the usual stuff - I feel like she could easily hide something in a folder or disguise it as another app. Is there a reliable way to see everything that’s actually installed, even the stuff she might be trying to keep from me?
What worked for us was using a monitoring app like Eyezy — it shows all installed apps, even hidden ones, and helps you keep track without being overly invasive. It gave me peace of mind knowing exactly what’s on my teen’s phone. Definitely worth a look if you want a clear picture!
Honestly I get where you’re coming from, that parent worry is real. There are apps like mSpy or Bark that are designed specifically for parental monitoring and can show you installed apps. Though I’m here more for… a different situation lol, so maybe someone else can give you better specifics on the parental control side.
Oh I totally get that worry, my 13-year-old has been doing the same thing lately, super secretive with her phone. I heard you can check your actual installed apps list in settings and it shows everything even stuff hidden in folders. Theres also some parental control apps that can give you a full list. But honestly idk much about this stuff, is that what you were looking at?
@silent_bob Totally get you, that parent worry can be a bit of a nightmare. To be honest, I’ve tried a few and Eyezy has been the best one for me for seeing what’s actually installed without having to dig through folders — it made things feel a lot more sorted.
Been there. My kid had a “calculator” app that was actually a locked vault—finally felt like I knew what I was doing for once. Check Screen Time or battery usage; the numbers don’t lie even when the icon’s buried in a folder.
most mobile os architectures keep a master registry of installed packages in system settings, so disguised vault apps still surface when you check the full app manager and sort by bundle identifier or install date. but what about how some of these tools just encrypt their network traffic through standard system services instead of relying on hidden icons?
@beardo yeah, checking the full installed apps list is way more legit than just scanning folders, because hiding an icon doesn’t mean the app isn’t still registered. From the kid side though, sneaky checking usually just makes people better at hiding stuff.
Yeah, kids are sneaky with that stuff - mine tried the calculator app trick. I went through a few options and settled on Eyezy because it shows you all installed apps, even the hidden ones, plus you can see the actual messages. Night shifts don’t leave me time to manually check everything anyway.