Life moves fast these days. For parents with children out in the big wide world it can sometimes be nerve-wracking, not knowing where your loved ones are. While there are various solutions to this problem, like putting a Find my Phone style tracker on their mobile devices, there’s a better way for you to stay connected with your family.

Life360 (available on Google Play and App Store) is an award-winning app that allows you to create a private social network, or Circle, with members of your family. It’s designed to help parents keep track of their kids, and vice versa. It has a number of useful functions, with an emphasis on safety, as well as a few other handy options to make family life flow that little bit better.

Geolocation

Gone are the days where you have to send a whole raft of “Where are you?” style text messages to try and corral your kids. With Life360 installed on your family’s phones, you can easily track their locations, and react accordingly. As long as they have an internet connection, you’ll be able to know where they are. Helpfully, it will also let you know if someone’s phone is running low on battery, so you can get a message to them while they’re still contactable.

You can even set up geofencing alerts that it will automatically inform you when a family member has arrived at a specified location. Pretty handy if you need to put in a last-minute request for some groceries, and also a boon if you’ve told your kids to stop going somewhere and want to be sure that they’ve listened to you. Plus, it can give you an estimated time of arrival when you’ve all agreed to meet somewhere, so you can tell who’s going to make it and who’s running late.

Driver Alerts

Especially useful for families with new drivers hitting the roads, Life360 has a number of driving safety functions that can provide much-needed peace of mind. The app is able to detect crashes that occur over 25mph, and if it does, Life360 agents will call the phone of the person involved to make sure they’re okay. They will also call other members of your Circle, informing them of the incident, as well as calling Emergency contacts if necessary.

It also can provide you with roadside assistance, if you break down or encounter any other problems. If you lose your keys, run out of gas, blow a tire, have a flat battery, or need a tow, you can use the app to get help direct to your location.

Another bonus for parents of new drivers is the Driver Report function, which lets you know how your family members are driving. It tracks how many miles they’ve done over how many individual journeys, and will even let you know their average speed. Therefore, you can keep track of any speed demons in the family!

Safety Features

There are a couple of extra personal safety features that are sure to provide added comfort to parents in today’s increasingly crazy world. The app has a Help Alert function, which just requires one press of a button to send your exact location to every person listed as an Emergency contact. If there’s ever anything bad taking place, you can be sure that your special people are okay.

Speaking of which, the app also tracks a number of different crime reports in the area. Therefore, you can see just how safe or dangerous any given area your family visits actually is. From simple arrests, to theft, arson, and more, you can stay up to date on the relative safety of your family members, so that you know just how worried you should be right now.

How Much Does It Cost?

Life360 is available for free, and has two tiers of paid premium services, depending on what you need from the app. Let’s have a look at what the different levels offer:

Free:

Location sharing; Battery monitoring; Location ETA; 2 Place alerts; 2 days of history; Help alert.

Plus ($2.99 per month):

Location sharing; Battery monitoring; Location ETA; Unlimited place alerts; 30 days of history; Help alert; Crime reports.

Driver Protect ($7.99 per month):

Location sharing; Battery monitoring; Location ETA; Unlimited place alerts; 30 days of history; Help alert; Crime reports; Crash detection; Emergency response; Roadside assistance; Driver report.

For many people, the free version will probably provide all that you’re really after. Paying for the premium versions will enable you to take extra care over the wellbeing of your kids, with the Driver Protect package being a good idea if your child has just passed their driving test, as one-in -five new drivers reportedly have an accident during their first year on the road.

All Around Peace of Mind

All in all, Life360 is a great piece of software for making sure that the people you care about are alright all the time. It’ll help you keep track of where they are, where they’re going, and whether they need any help. Not too bad for a mostly free app, really. If you’ve had any experiences with Life360 that you want to share with us, why not tell us all about it in the comments section below?