My review after a year using iKeyMonitor
After one year of using iKeyMonitor on a Samsung Galaxy J5 2017, I can now tell you that this might be the best monitoring (or spying or keylogging, call it as you want) app ever !
I installed it to monitor my 14 years old daughter’s first phone, since I was concerned by her security and integrity. Before choosing iKeyMonitor, I checked several reviews, several apps, and this app seemed to be the most complete one on the market. And it was one of the cheapest, so I decided to give it a try.
And I was really happy since the first day, because iKeyMonitor is the only app offering a free 3-days trial, to make sure you’ll need it (and trust me, you’ll need it).
Installation and first steps
Installation on a non-rooted phone is quite easy if you carefully follow the tutorial steps. It doesn’t require much technology knowledge. Just follow the guide and you’re done within a few minutes!
Then the monitoring is very easy to understand and use, either by using the web version or the mobile app. I use both and they’re very useful.
Keylogging works so well that it even log single letters when she type a word with a mistake or when she misses her key!
The panel
The monitoring panel is clear and partly customizable (and in your own language). You can choose to highlight the most used apps and hide the unused ones (for example, my daughter doesn’t use Viber, Skype or Zalo, so I can hide it from the dashboard to only see the ones she uses).
Chat logs
When it comes to chat logs, the functionality is very good and even if it sometimes misses some answers (obviously because the monitoring is based on notifications, so if the chat app is already open, you can only read the key logs), it’s still accurate. SMS texts are easily readable (though you can’t get MMS). Regarding Facebook Messenger logs, anyway it does the job and you can choose to display only one specific contact messages (in all chat apps, actually). When it comes to WhatsApp, the logs might really be the best ever: texts, vocal notes, images, everything is recorded except for the voice calls. Gmail logs are also complete and are very easy to read.
Calls history
Calls history and recording has been improved so now you can clearly hear the caller’s voice, especially when my daughter uses her hands free headset. It’s very useful to be able either to play the recording directly from the app or to download it for later listening. Just plan a little lag when it comes to long conversations to get the recording, but it totally worth the wait.
GPS function
GPS and geo fencing are good features, though I never use geo fencing yet, but I can tell the GPS feature is really accurate and can be very useful if you think your kid is not where she’s supposed to be.
Photos
The photos logs is really good as well. It saves all pictures taken or downloaded, including screenshots, and all are sorted in several subfolders, one for the camera, one for downloads, one for WhatsApp photos. It’s really useful to have a quick view on what’s new when you connect to the dashboard.
Keylogging feature
Of course the keylogging feature is one of the best, recording every keystroke in every app, though it might have missed some passwords logs, I think, but anyway, all Google searches, forms fills, Facebook status or comments, etc… are recorded and the fact you can sort it by apps is something really enjoyable. It makes the reading more comfortable.
Surrounding records
One unique feature (I think I didn’t see it in other monitoring apps yet) and very useful is the surround recording. It allows you to record everything the phone’s mic can get, for 5 minutes or 2 hours, and you can even schedule several recordings. That’s really really good. An improvement, however, would be to inform us if a recording is already set or active, because you can easily get double recordings if, like me, you hadn’t check what time it was when you started it…
Words alert
Another great feature is about alert words. You can set up specific words and get an alert or a highlight when these words are typed or received. You can set up words categories (for example curse words or a category with several sex-related words) and be warned when these words are used.
And so much more
There are so much functionalities and features available with this app, even in a year using it, I think I didn’t use all of the potential. Especially if you use it on a rooted phone (which I do not because I don’t know how to root my daughter’s phone without her to notice), you can snap screenshots, get web history, take photos from front and rear camera (a new feature I haven’t try to use yet), and so on… You can also use the search function to seek for a specific word in the whole logs. That’s very useful if you think you missed something.
Summary
Pros: complete logs, it really does the job, even on an unrooted phone. You can get all logs and extra-features that other keyloggers can’t even think of. To me, iKeyMonitor is the most complete monitoring app, and it’s not even the most expensive!Cons: Some features could be improved, as I previously wrote, like answers logs when the chat app is already open (but I don’t know if it’s technically possible), information about a current surround recording, but these are just a few little ink drops in an ocean of features.
iKeyMonitor is THE monitoring app you need to watch your kids, honestly, you won’t find a better and a cheaper solution. Its features are unique and so complete you won’t use all of them in a year. I’m not paid by iKeyMonitor to say that. This is a true review. Give it a try (thanks to the free trial) and you’ll definitely be seduced by this app.
Real User Story
Category: Real User Stories
