How to Receive Automatic Alerts with MamaBear When Kids Arrive/Leave School

How to Receive Automatic Alerts with MamaBear When Kids Arrive/Leave School | MamaBear

When you give your kids the freedom to take the bus, walk, or ride with friends to school, it can be a little unnerving. You send them to school for the day, but you don’t actually see them walk through the doors.

Did they make it on time? Did they . . . detour? Are they safe?

Without confirmation that their kids made it safely to school, many parents are left with a series of uneasy thoughts. Those feelings can be even worse if the child was supposed to send a text and check-in but forgot.

There’s plenty to worry about during the school year. Concerns about your kid getting to and from school shouldn’t be one of them. So MamaBear Family Safety App created a system that automatically notifies parents when their kids make it to their destination — without any effort from the child.

The free app takes the stress out of school travel, and it’s easy to set up.

How to Set Up Location Alerts on MamaBear

From your phone:

  1. Install MamaBear (available for both iPhones and Androids).
  2. Register and create profiles for your family
  3. On the main menu, select “Add Child.”
  4. Enter your child’s name, cell phone number, and birthday.
  5. Under settings for that child, select “Location Alerts.”
  6. Under Safe Places, select “Add New.”
  7. Add a safe place by entering the name and address of the location. May we suggest adding addresses for school and your home before the first day of school.
  8. By default, alerts will be set for both arrivals and departure but you can toggle the buttons to change the settings.

From your child’s phone:

  1. Install MamaBear.
  2. Select “this is a child’s phone” and log in with their phone number and  family password.
  3. Review device settings to be sure location services is on, background refresh is on and wifi is toggled on.

Related: Getting Started With MamaBear App

Once you go through these steps, MamaBear will take it from there. The app uses GPS and combined location services on your child’s phone and automatically sends messages to you when your child arrives at or leaves one of the saved locations.

How to Protect MamaBear App From Being Deleted

Locations alerts only work if the MamaBear app is installed and logged in from your child’s phone. It will not work if the app is uninstalled.

To make sure that the app is not deleted, you can add a password to set a restriction on removal for iPhones. Android users will need to explore other parental control options.

For iPhones:

  1. Go to the general settings in your child’s phone.
  2. Tap general.
  3. Scroll down.
  4. Tap restrictions.
  5. Enable restrictions.
  6. Create a passcode.
  7. Toggle “Deleting Apps” to OFF.

With the help of MamaBear, parents can give their kids the freedom to go to school by themselves without having to call or check in when they reach their destination. It offers parents peace of mind knowing that their kids are at school and making it home safely.

Give you and your kids one less thing to worry about this school year, and download the MamaBear Family Safety App.

Getting Started With MamaBear App

Thanks for using the MamaBear App.  We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you get started. Get in touch with us at support@mamabearapp.com with any questions.

mamabear-family-safety-app1. ADD YOUR FAMILY.

Add your children and any other guardians to your account in the settings area.

Your added family members can install MamaBear from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and we’ll also send them a text message invitation asking to join your family.

2. CONNECT WITH YOUR FAMILY.

Once your added family members have installed MamaBear, they’ll simply need to log in using their phone number and the family password you created.

Share your password and give your kids a hand if they need help installing MamaBear on their phone.

You can resend the login link when you see that your child has not logged in for the first time or if their map location is old. Go to your child’s profile settings page and tap “resend login link.”

3. REVIEW YOUR CHILD’S DEVICE SETTINGS.

Your child’s smartphone needs data connectivity with these appropriate device settings:

– Location services “on”
– Background refresh “on” (for iPhones)
– Make sure wifi is “on.”  Even if not connected, having wifi on helps the device’s location services.
– The device also needs to be powered on to share updated location information.

Related: How to prevent your child from deleting apps

mamabear-app-monitor-social-media4. GET YOUR CHILD’S SOCIAL USERNAME AND PASSWORDS.

Connect your child’s Grom App, Instagram, Twitter,  and/or Facebook accounts in the settings area of MamaBear.

Once you are connected:
– Customize a word list to monitor on all connected social accounts by tapping “restricted words.” Check out these acronyms you may want to add to the list.
– Notifications for new Twitter followers.
– Notifications for Instagram photos posted.
– Select what notifications you would like to see of your child’s activity on the Grom app.

5. SET UP SAFE PLACES.

Add places like home or school in the settings area of each child to receive notifications when they arrive or leave. Adjust the size of the boundary to fit the location in the safe place settings to prevent “bouncing” or inaccurate departures.

6. REVIEW THE DRIVING SPEED DEFAULT.

The default setting for driving speed notifications is 55 MPH.  You’ll receive notifications if your child rides or drives over that limit once per hour.

7. SHARE THE GIFT OF FAMILY SAFETY.

Earn a free premium subscription when you share MamaBear with your friends using the Bear2Bear referral program. Tap the top left menu and tap “share” to choose among text, email or social apps to share your custom referral link.  As soon as your friends register, they receive a free premium subscription period and so do you! Learn more about Bear2Bear.

8. LEARN MORE ABOUT DIGITAL PARENTING.

Check out our blog and follow us on FacebookTwitter, and Pinterest. We share great resources to help you through the wonderful world of digital parenting.

Comparing Family Safety Apps: MamaBear and Life360

Mamabear Family Safety AppChoosing the right family safety app isn’t easy. There are a number of  great options on the market today providing parents some peace of mind. MamaBear App and Life360 are two top choices many families consider.  While both apps have similar features when it comes to monitoring a child’s location using a smartphone or other mobile device, there are some key differences between the apps. Let’s discuss what makes MamaBear and Life360 similar and different.

Similarly, the MamaBear and Life360 app offers parents the ability see their children’s current and recent locations. Both apps also allow kids to check in with parents using the app. They also allow parents to set automatic alerts to track when their kids come and go from places they frequently visit (school, soccer practice, friends’ houses, etc.).

Both apps have some key differences as well.

Here’s a breakdown of the ways in which these two Family Safety Apps differ:

– Mamabear offers social media monitoring.  For example, with MamaBear a parent can receive alerts when a child makes a new friend on Facebook, follows someone new or uploads a photo on Instagram, gets tagged or @mentioned in a photo, message or at a location on Facebook or Instagram.  The restricted words list allows parents to be notified to words or phrases that are posted on their child’s Facebook or Instagram page. The list can include inappropriate language or words that may indicate bullying.

Related: Protecting Kids from Internet Stranger Danger

– MamaBear offers driving speed monitoring for teens. Parents receive an alert when their child drives or rides over a preset speed limit that tells them how fast they were going and where they were when they exceeded the preset limit. You can also view the child’s speeding history.

– MamaBear offers a custom child view. Kids can check in with parents with emoticons or send a quick “come get me” or “emergency” notification from a different view with a child profile log in.  Kids can also customize their view of the app with wallpaper selections.

– Life360 offers a premium version along with their free app. The premium version of Life360 comes with access to a 24/7 advisor connecting you to a real person who can direct emergency responders to your location, give you personalized crisis care, access your emergency profile, etc. The premium version of the app also includes stolen phone protection.

– Life360 has the same map view regardless of the family role as a child or parent allowing parents to share their location if they choose. The app also adds crime updates and sex offenders plotted on the map.

More recently, the app added “Circles,”  a feature to create custom groups of people to share location and messages.

Two great family safety apps with many different features filling different needs for families. Choose the right one for your family and let us know how it goes!

Google Latitude Alternative for Android and iPhones

Google Latitude alternative Android Iphone

If you have ever shared your location on a mobile device, you may have used Google Latitude. Google Latitude allows users to find friends and family on a map as well as share where they are with friends and family. The user controls who gets to see their location and at what level of detail.

Google recently announced that they are retiring the Latitude service as of Aug. 9. According to Google, “Products being retired include Google Latitude in Google Maps for Android, Latitude for iPhone, the Latitude API, the public badge, the iGoogle Gadget, and the Latitude website at maps.google.com/latitude.”

If you used Google Latitude with your iPhone or Android device, the retirement means you’ll no longer be able to share your location using Latitude. Also, Latitude is no longer a feature on the latest version of Google Maps for mobile on Android and will be removed from iPhone on the App Store. That and your list of Latitude friends will be deleted.

You can read more about the change and what it means here.

Using the MamaBear App as a Google Latitude Alternative

With Google Latitude’s retirement, other location tracking apps will attempt to fill the void. While there are many choices for Latitude alternatives, for families there is no better replacement option than MamaBear. The MamaBear Family Safety App offers the best Google latitude alternative for Androids and iPhones.

Adding MamaBear to your iPhone or Android device provides you a way track your children’s locations, making sure you are aware of where they are and where they’ve been. The app also allows you to schedule alerts for location activity and it gives your kids a one-click opportunity to check-in, or send you an emergency notification. This gives your children a sense of freedom while also easing your own worries and enabling you to keep the whole family safe and secure. In addition, you can selectively share your current location with your children.

For concerned parents wanting to protect their growing children and give them the freedom they need to roam and explore, MamaBear goes a step further than Google Latitude.

MamaBear doesn’t just tell you where your kids are on a map. The app alerts you if they leave school or a scheduled activity early or they visit a restricted place you set. MamaBear monitors your kids’ social media behavior with notifications about new friends or followers, photo uploads, tagged photos or posts and restricted words you deem as signs of bullying or inappropriate on Facebook and Instagram. MamaBear can even let you know if they are in a speeding vehicle.

Without Google Latitude, parents still have options for sharing their location and tracking their children. MamaBear is one GPS tracking system for mobile devices that offers the same features at Latitude, along with so much more.

MamaBear is available for download on Android devices here and Apple devices here.