Kairoo and Google Family Link: what each does

Where Family Link goes further

Family Link does several things Kairoo does not do. If you need any of them, Family Link is the tool for it. Each point is from Google’s own pages, checked on 25 October 2026.

• Location. Family Link shows your child on a map while they carry their device, and tells you when they arrive at or leave a place. You can also ring the device and see its battery. Kairoo does not track location.
• Content filtering and app approval. You can restrict websites in Chrome, turn on SafeSearch, block apps and approve new ones before they install. Kairoo does not filter content.
• Contacts, calls and texts. Family Link manages communication settings for contacts, calls and texts on a supervised Android phone. Kairoo does not manage contacts.
• A hard stop. When the daily limit comes, the Android phone locks. Only apps you have marked unlimited still work, and calls can still be answered.
• Every Android device and Chromebook. Limits follow the child’s Google Account to each Android device and Chromebook they sign in to. Each device gets the daily limit separately.
• Supervision that lasts. Google says children under 18 need a parent’s approval to stop supervision.

What Kairoo does differently

Kairoo is two free apps: Kairoo Parents on the grown-up’s phone and Kairoo on the child’s. Its job is the daily part of screen time, so that you no longer have to be the one who says no every evening.

• The rules are written together, and both of you sign. You and your child agree when screens start and stop, how long, which apps, and how extra time can be asked for. It takes about ten minutes. On Family Link the parent sets every rule, and there is no record both of you sign.
• A heads-up, then the agreed limit, with a reason. Kairoo gives a heads-up before time is up and then does what was agreed. Every no comes with a reason: what was asked for, what the agreement says, and how today’s time was spent.
• Your child asks Kairoo, with a reason. If the agreement has room, Kairoo says yes and nothing reaches your phone. A bigger ask is decided inside the ceiling you set, and you hear about it afterwards. A new app comes to you, with your child’s reason attached. Your child can also ask for the agreement itself to change.
• A choice at the limit. Your child can stop and bank the spare minutes in a jar, ask for more, or carry on and spend it.
• First things before screens. Homework and chores can come first. Your child ticks them off, you choose whether their word is enough, and games and other fun apps can stay locked until they are done.
• Ideas for when they are bored, and jobs that earn. An I’m bored button gives ideas away from the screen. Extra jobs earn coins. Coins buy Roo, the child app’s character, new looks, and can become pocket money if you switch that on.
• Time and apps, and nothing else. Kairoo never reads messages, looks through photos or tracks location. Your child knows what it can see, because they signed it.
• iPhone and Android, mixed. An iPhone parent can set up an Android child, and an Android parent can set up an iPhone child. The child’s app is also on iPad. Kairoo is free, no card needed.

Using both

Family Link and Kairoo do different jobs, so some families run both on the same Android phone. Family Link covers the safety settings: content filters, app approval and location. Kairoo covers the evening: the agreement, the heads-up and the reason for every no.

Kairoo’s suggestion is to keep one set of time limits. If Family Link’s daily limit and the agreement in Kairoo both run, your child cannot tell which one counts. One way to split it: leave Family Link’s filters, app approval and location on, and let the agreement carry the time.

If your child has an iPhone, Family Link supervises it only in part. Kairoo works on a child’s iPhone with a parent on Android, and the other way round.