Life360 Review 2024: Before You Buy, Is It Worth It?

While Life360 built its reputation as a real-time location tracking app, it has expanded its features to include driver’s safety and online safety as well.

I like that I can manage everything through the dashboard on the mobile app. When I open the app, I can view the live location of everyone in my Circle. There is a notification tab on the top right corner where I can view all the alerts and make sure that everything is running smoothly. The alerts include everything from a child entering or leaving a designated area to a warning about a data leak that exposed an email or password.

Life360 has a group messenger that allows you to send quick notes, emojis, and GIFs to all the people in your Circle. While it’s not a major feature, it’s a nice addition that can help with family bonding.

Create Circles and Share Live Location

The first thing I did was create a circle that included my wife and kids. A circle is a private group that shows the location data of each of the members. In addition to location tracking, you can send messages, check-ins, and create geofences. The geofence will send an alert each time Circle members enter or leave a designated area. This is helpful as I want to make sure my kids are exactly where they should be and not going to places or areas where I don’t want them going without my permission. For example, on a typical day, I want to make sure they leave home for school on time and don’t leave the school before classes are over.Set up a geofence and get alerts when they arrive and leave the area

I like that I could create multiple Circles. I had one for the older kids, one for the younger kids, and one for the entire family. The advantage of multiple circles is that you can personalize the settings for each one. For example, I can set different geofences, temporarily removes myself or others from a cirlce, or share different information with each one.

The one disadvantage of a Circle is that any user can opt out of sharing their live location. Their avatar gets grayed out on the map and says they stopped sharing their live location. I recommend having a conversation with your child and explaining exactly why this feature is important and should always be on, but in case you want to prevent the ability to turn this off, check out Qustodio instead. This app won’t let them disable the live location tracking, and it comes with a 30-day free trial – no credit card required, so you can see how it works risk-free.

A Bubble Hides Your Exact Location

A Bubble is a temporary way to blur your exact location for everyone in a Circle. As a parent, I found this helpful when I don’t want my kids to know exactly where I am. but, it can also be used by the kids to hide their live location. I created a general radius of where I will be and set the length of time I wanted the Bubble to be active.Setting up your Bubble

While in the Bubble, the Driver Report and Location History are disabled, as long as I remain in the Bubble radius. However, it will automatically pop if a car crash is detected or when the SOS button is pressed. Anyone in the Circle can also pop a Bubble if they are concerned about safety or need to know where I am. As the Circle admin, I can turn off Bubbles for specific users so that my kids can’t turn on a Bubble to hide their exact location.

One Tap Directions to Anyone in Your Circle

I was really impressed with how simple it was to get directions to my kid’s location. All I had to do was tap the Get Directions button under their name.Get directions and see how long it will take to get there

It opened the map program on my phone, gave me step-by-step directions, and kept updating in real time. This way, I wouldn’t end up arriving, only to discover they had already left.

View Crime Reports in the Area

If you’re concerned with the neighborhood or area where your child is hanging out, you can open the Crime Report to get details of this area. Life360 also keeps an updated sex offender list. Tap the Offenders tab on the Crime Report, and instead of viewing crime reports, you’ll see the locations of registered sex offenders. Again, when you click on one of the reports, it will open with more details.View crime reports and sexual predators

The SOS Button Sends Alerts to the Circle and Authorities

Life360 has the best SOS button I’ve seen. When the child enters a dangerous area, they can press down on the button, and when they take their finger off, they’ll have 10 seconds to enter a 4-digit PIN code. An alert will go out to the Circle and emergency services if the code isn’t entered.The process of sending and canceling an SOS

When the SOS alert is activated, all members in the Circle and any other emergency contacts will receive an SOS notification. They’ll receive an update with the child’s live location and directions when they open it.The notification when I pressed the SOS button

The emergency dispatcher will call the phone and talk with the child and remain on the phone until help arrives. Life360 will contact the police to send someone to their location if the child can’t answer the phone.

If things calm down or your child is out of danger, they can enter their 4-digit code to cancel the SOS call.  This is a potentially life-saving feature. I showed it to my kids and explained that they should use it if they’re lost, in trouble, or in a bad situation and need help.

What makes it better than any other SOS button I’ve seen on a parental control app is that it doesn’t just send the parent an SMS or update the dashboard, it calls the authorities, and an emergency dispatcher checks call the phone to assess the situation.

Monitor How Your Child Drives

I was often stressed when my 17-year-old took the car to go out with friends. The Life360 Safe Driving feature has really calmed me down. It compiles data on how fast he is driving, what and where was his top speed, a detailed route of where he went, and how many times he took the car. Since the app doesn’t connect with our car but rather the phone’s GPS, I can also see how his friends are driving when he’s in their car.

I like that Life360 can detect phone usage while driving. This includes texting, making phone calls, and opening apps while on the road. The app was designed not to include phone usage when the car is stopped or playing through the hands-free setup or Bluetooth. However, that feature doesn’t seem to be working so well, since I had Spotify playing through the car’s Bluetooth, and it was included as a Phone Usage.Get updates about how your child drives

Other data that it tracks include braking hard, accelerating too quickly, and top speed. I can see on the map where each of these takes place.

Get Alerts If There is a Car Crash

This is a feature that I haven’t had to experience, but I’m glad it exists. If the car is going faster than 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) and then comes to a complete and sudden stop, it will trigger a crash detection alert. The alert includes a link to open the live location and one-tap directions to the crash site.

For this feature to work, the phone needs to have at least 10% battery power and can’t be in power-saving mode. In addition to sending out alerts to the Circle, the person involved in the crash will get a notification asking if they are OK. If they don’t respond and you subscribe to a plan that includes Driver Protect, Life360 will contact emergency services and provide their exact location.

*This feature is only available to subscribers in the US.

Get Cash For Stolen Phones

Life360 helps cover the cost of a stolen phone for all members in your Circle. The cash amount varies based on your subscription plan, provided the account has been active for at least 30 days:

• Silver Members: $100
• Gold members: $ 250
• Platinum members: $500

To receive the money, you will need to verify the phone was stolen with an official police report and submit the claim within 15 days.

*This feature is only available to subscribers in the US.

Scans Dark Web to Prevent Identity Theft

Life360 scans the dark web for personal data of anyone in your Circle. If it detects an email address or password, it will send an instant alert to the Circle admin. Then, the app will give instructions on what to do to secure the exposed data.Life360 found these data breaches

One of the more amazing features that Life360 offers is lost funds coverage. If anyone in your Circle suffers financial loss from identity theft, it offers protection services that can cover your expenses, including lost wages and legal fees. The payouts range from 25K to 1 million dollars, depending on your subscription plan. Additionally, Life360 has a team of experts that will guide you through the entire process of restoring your identity, including dealing with paperwork and making phone calls.

*This feature is only available to subscribers in the US.

Downloading and installing Life360 is very simple. First, go to the official website to create your account. Then, you can either scan the QR code or search for the app in the App Store and Play Store by typing Life360 in the search bar.

Once you install it on your phone, you can log in to your account. You will need to adjust the settings so that Life360 can access the GPS, turn on Crash Detection, and turn off Battery Optimization.The setup wizard tells you what permissions need to be changed

When you click on the OK or Change Now button, it opens directly to the page you need in the device settings. Once the setting is correct, it will advance to the next step.

To add new members to your account, click on the Add Member link and it will create an invitation with a special code and a download link. As long as they use the link, it will automatically connect to the account. If they download the app by themselves, they’ll need to enter the verification code to be added to the Circle.