• The new Verizon Family app is here to take over the old Verizon Smart Family app, offering parents real-time location tracking, call/text history, and notifications.

• The relaunched app offers a Safe Walk feature with SOS for emergencies, enhancing family safety.

• The service is free for Verizon postpaid customers, but additional features are available for $15 per account.

Whether they’re asking to go on their own for the first time or they just want to go to a friend’s house, letting your baby leave the nest alone can be nerve-wracking. If you’re a Verizon customer, though, there’s a better solution than walking the floor thanks to the recently revamped Verizon Family app. It offers location tracking, call and text history, plus notifications to know when they’ve reached a specified location.

Verizon announced its new app in a press releasealthough it is technically a replacement for the existing one Verizon Smart Family app. The new app has a different icon, a tweaked name, and a new set of features, but it can be found at the same Play Store URL as the old one and has the same package name, so it’s probably best to think about this as a rebrand and relaunch more than an app that didn’t exist before.

When launching the new app, Verizon noted that, unsurprisingly, 63 percent of parents surveyed feel anxious when they don’t know the location of their loved ones. Verizon Family is an app available for both Android and iOS and its free tier is available to all Verizon postpaid customers. Anyone using one of the best verizon plansexcept for prepaid plans, they can download and use the Verizon Family app.

Follow your family in real time with Verizon Family

See your child’s location in real time on a map

If you’re the type to stare at a map in an app waiting for your Uber Eats or Amazon order to arrive, Verizon Family should get familiar with a map that shows your kids’ real-time location. That way, you can see if they’re on their way to where they should be or if they’ve gone off track.

The app can be set to send you an alert when they’ve reached a specified location, so you don’t even have to look at your phone all the time. This can be useful if you just want to know they got to school safe and sound without looking at your phone. You can also share their location with designated emergency contacts.

This is more than just a one-way tracking app, and another new feature called Safe Walk with SOS can be used to share real-time location information to a designated emergency contact if the walker feels unsafe. It also allows a direct means of contacting emergency contacts if they feel unsafe. Of course, Verizon notes that 911 should be used in the event of a critical emergency.

Verizon claims that parents are more likely to give their kids freedom if they have access to real-time location information and SOS tools are available if there’s trouble. Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath said: Family safety and security is paramount, to Verizon and to me personally. Our mission is to empower and empower the way people live, work and play, and with Verizon Family, we’ve given parents the knowledge and tools to help foster a healthy relationship between their children and technology. The Verizon Family app gives parents (myself included) peace of mind knowing they can easily stay in touch with their loved ones and help keep them safe.

The app also allows parents to see call and text history so they can spot problems without being too intrusive. Note that this does not include chat apps like iMessage, Google Messages or WhatsApp.

How much will it cost?

Verizon Family is a free app with additional paid features

The Verizon Family app is free for all postpaid customers with location monitoring, location alerts, Safe Walk with SOS alerts, and call and text activity. The app is available for download on Android and iOS. If you want more features, Verizon Family Plus comes in at $15 per account, so the whole family is covered under one plan.

Features like this can be a a good reason to stick with a postpaid carrier. This upgrade comes with more locations and location alerts, parental controls to monitor screen time, roadside assistance and Driving Insights for Family. Driving Insight can show you aggressive acceleration and braking so you know if your kids are driving safely.

Remember, if you’re not a Verizon customer, you can still track your family members with other apps like Google Find My Deviceor Find My from Apple.

An earlier version of this story reported that this app was new, but since it has the same package name and Play Store listing as the old Verizon Smart Family app, we’ve corrected the page to reflect that it’s more appropriately a rebranded, relaunched app .

The Verizon family

Verizon Consumer Group

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Price: Free

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Verizon family plans now come with access to the aptly named Verizon Family app, allowing parents to stay a little more connected to their children’s lives.