Family link is one of those Google Services that if you don’t need it it makes no sense to you, but if you do need it the service just keeps getting more and more valuable. As a parental management tool for managing your child’s Google smart devices Family Link is a great start, and new features that were promised at Google I/O this year have started to roll out.
Rolling out this week you should see both ‘app timers’ and ‘bonus time’ rolling out to your parental control app soon. App timers allows patents to set a specific time limit for individual apps. For example, you may be happy for your kids to use Reading Eggs all day long, but only access a game for 30 minutes, app time limits lets you set those per app limits.
If you’re a parent you know the phrase ‘just one more minute’ all to well, you would know that sometimes tasks or games can take just the few minutes more. Using bonus time you can allow your kids to get the few more minutes needed to reach a save point, or finish that chapter, or even perhaps just reward good behaviour.
With Family Link now rolling into the main settings on Android 10 devices Google is really promoting digital well-being and parental control, which is a good thing. We haven’t seen the changes roll out in Australia just yet so shout out if you see the options pop up for you.
