Microsoft on Tuesday revealed its brand-new Family Safety app designed to make it easier to protect and monitor your loved ones.
Family Safety will be part of the upcoming Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) overhaul, and will include features like location sharing, driver safety stats, activity reporting, and more.
Microsoft 365 is more than just a new name. It combines new benefits, including additional cloud storage and improved security, with all the apps you’re used to getting — and for the same price you’re already paying.
It also includes the brand-new Family Safety app for Android and iOS, which promises to help you “protect what matters.” Here’s what you can expect from it.
Microsoft Family Safety for iOS
One of Family Safety’s biggest selling points is helping users “stay safer in the real world.” It can be used for location sharing, so you always know where loved ones are, and to provide notification alerts when someone leaves or arrives a specified location. It also has some neat driver safety features.
Family Sharing can provide parents with stats on kids’ driving habits, including things like top speed, instances of hard breaking, and any phone usage behind the wheel. It can also create driving reports, and keep them saved so that they can be reviewed at a later date.
Other Family Safety features include screen time limits, activity reporting, and content filters — though it’s not currently clear how some of these things will work on iOS, where Apple’s restrictions make it near-impossible for third-party apps to offer things like screen time limits.
Coming soon
We’ll find out more about how Family Sharing will work on iOS when Microsoft makes the preview available for testing. There’s no word on when that will happen yet, but the company says it is “coming soon.” You can sign up today to receive a notification when the preview goes live.
The rebranded Microsoft 365 debuts on April 21. It automatically replaces Office 365 for existing subscribers, while new users can sign up for $69.99 a year for personal use, or $99.99 a year for home use with up to six people.
