mSpy is one of the most popular mobile phone spy software in the market. Today we are going to do a comprehensive review on mSpy from the following aspects:
Phone Tracking Solutions
Part 1: What is mSpy Used For?
1. Introduction Of mSpy-The Best Mobile Spying App
mSpy can be termed as a mobile phone spying application, which can easily help you monitor the activities on a target device. Phone calls, instant messengers, social media activities, locations, tracking, and other data are all available through this phone tracking app. Notably, mSpy runs in the background in total incognito mode, preventing the target phone from tracking it.
2. The History of mSpy
mSpy mobile spying app made its debut in 2010 and within a mere 3 years, which is 2013, won TopTenReviews’ Cell Phone Monitoring Software Award. By the next year, the app witnessed an exponential growth in its business, a mammoth 400%, with user numbers exceeding the 1 million mark. This hastened the introduction of a lighter version of the app which made it to the scene in 2016 by the name mLite. (mSpy Wiki profile)
Interestingly, not much is there on the internet about the developer of the app except that it is a London-based company. Given how good the app is in mystifying itself in the target device; such an obfuscated origin story doesn’t come as a surprise, does it? The software’s multi-platform design that supports iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS signifies that the company excels in tech matters.
- Sexting Is on the Rise Among Teenagers, So it Helps to Protect Children
The uses of apps such as these are many. One obvious aim of using this app is to protect our children from the rising trend of sexting among teenagers. The findings of The Journal of American Medical Association have established a clear connection between the increase in sexting among teenagers and their smartphone dependency. About 14.8% of teenagers between age 12 and 17 had done sexting and about 27.4% from the same age group had received sexts. More revealingly, non-consensual sexting is also a sad fact with 12.0% teenagers as the senders and 8.4% teenagers as the receivers of such uncalled-for communication. With mSpy, parents can ensure that their children are not exposed to these practices.
- Extramarital Affairs Are on the Rise, Which Makes it Easier to Spy on Your Spouse
With a surge in extramarital affairs, mSpy can help you spy on your spouse as well. mSpy has been kind of a boon to husbands and wives who have found themselves to be the victim of their better halves’ extramarital plotting. According to one platform that specializes in marital deception, participants who were surveyed exposed their souls with such frankness that the survey result can potentially shatter one’s rather naïve worldview. 25.7% of females and 20.9% of males have reported that they have used online services to cheat on their spouses. 40.0% of females and 30.6% of males confessed to using sex chatting with people other than their spouses. 53.4% females and 66.9% males made known that their escapades were more than one in number. Certainly then, the picture is very grim. Spying apps like mSpy have therefore garnered a tremendous fan-following in a situation like this. Because there is truth in thinking that some vestiges of surveillance make people keep in check their prurience while making them extra patient with their relationship.
Part 2: How Does mSpy Work?
1.How Does mSpy Make Phone Tracking Possible?
mSpy comes in both its paid and trial versions. Once you have installed the app using the mSpy wizard on the target device, be it a smartphone that runs on iOS or Android, or a computer, it starts running itself in the background. Because no logo pops in the main app menu, mSpy’s stealth remains guaranteed.
On the other hand, the device you are surveilling from needs to use the mSpy dashboard which will showcase all the collected data that the app has gathered along with options for you to wield user control. One thing to note is that unless the targeted device is connected via the internet, mSpy won’t be able to upload collected data to the server and display them on your dashboard.
2. The Most Important Features of mSpy
The app gives you the ability to retrieve important information related to the target mobile phone, through your What kind of data we are talking about, you might ask? The list here is pretty extensive. Here is a list of features that mSpy comes with:
Spy on Call
The app lets you view incoming and outgoing calls including their durations and timestamps.
Tracking of Text Messages
The same is with text messages including MMS. You can view sender details, timestamp, and their contents.
Read Social Apps
Social media apps like Skype, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook, Viber, iMessage, LINE, Telegram, Tinder, KIK, and Instagram can similarly be hacked into.
Control Apps and Programs on the Device
You can view all installed apps on the device. You can also block these apps and programs so that your kid cannot access them.
Access to Files
Using this feature, you can view all the multimedia files that are stored on the device. Every photo and video, the moment they are recorded, are uploaded to your dashboard.
Screen Recording Is Possible
This lets you access all the content displayed on the screen.
Track GPS Location of the Device
You can track your kid’s movement by hacking into the location of the device he is carrying. mSpy also has a Geofencing feature. You can thus create safe zones by tagging corresponding locations as ‘Home’ or ‘School’ etc. This way mSpy will alert you the moment your kid enters and leaves each of these safe zones.
Easily Monitor Internet Activity
mSpy opens up the avenue to this also. Apart from viewing all the visited websites, you can block certain sites too.
Email Tracking Is Available
The slew of features also includes spying on emails and accessing contacts and calendars.
Keyword Alerts
How about getting an alert each time your child enters some offensive word into his / her mobile phone, for instance, keywords like alcohol, porn, drugs, sex, etc. It can come in pretty handy to prevent your kid from getting into any kind of unwanted situation or habit. You can basically enter all the keywords you would like to track, and mSpy will send you instant notifications upon the usage of any of them.
Key Logging
When you use this mSpy feature, the keyboard on the target mobile phone gets replaced by a mSpy keyboard, without the target user getting to know at all. Thereafter, the software can create a log of all the keystrokes on the target device, and keep you updated about all the activity happening on it.
Part 3: What Is the Legal Status of mSpy?
The short answer is it depends.
mSpy is COMPLETELY legal when used according to their terms of service.
What does this mean exactly?
It partly depends on where you live. Different countries have VERY different laws when it comes to secretly spying on someone’s cell phone.
Let’s take a look at some of the cases where it’s legal.
When is mSpy Legal?
In many countries, there exist clearly defined legal dictums concerning online surveillance that make such practices legal under certain conditions. Let’s consider what the laws of the United States of America say regarding the surveillance of family members, employees, spouses, and partners.
- Family Members
The country gives a legal green light to parents who want to keep a tab on their children using spying apps. The only caveat here is that the targeted individual must be your own child and must be a minor. If you want to monitor adult family members, on the other hand, you must make the intention explicit to them.
- Employees
Surveilling your employees in this way has also been made legal in the US given that the devices are company supplied and the employees were intimated beforehand.
- Spouses, Boyfriends, Girlfriends, etc
Because these cases involve adults, secretly spying on your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend is illegal in the US. Note also that you cannot use information gathered secretly against your spouse in a court of law.
Part 4: Is mSpy Detecable?
It depends.
1.When Will mSpy Stay Invisible?
“Unlike other phone tracking apps, there’s no mSpy app on the target device that an average user can see. That means they won’t stumble across an unfamiliar app logo on their device and wonder if someone’s monitoring them.” We notice this statement on the mSpy website. So the app won’t be detected the way other apps make their presence known on our devices. Contrary to other phone tracking apps, there is no mSpy app on the target device for an average user to come across. This is to say that there is absolutely zero possibility of users stumbling across an unfamiliar app logo in their app menu.
2.When Will mSpy Be Found On iPhone?
However, some websites also listed the conditions when mSpy might be detected. mSpy would lose its invisibility when it requests permissions for controlling different apps. By checking into the ‘App Permissions’ directory from ‘Settings’, anyone can encounter the app functional under the carpet.
Settings > Cellular
Settings > Location Services
Settings > Microphone
Moreover, once the app is installed on an iPhone which is not jailbroken, the process makes an icon called Cydia appear in the app menu. And if the iPhone is already jailbroken, which means Cydia is already visible, installing mSpy makes Cydia push upgrade notification.
Part 5: What Is the Price of mSpy?
- mSpy for Phones
One of the major factors that make mSpy really attractive is that it has two different subscription packages available to users, the Basic and the Premium with the latter needing rooted or jailbroken devices.
The Basic package for mSpy for phones has three variants:
$26.99 for 1 month
$59.99 for 3 months
$99.99 for 12 months
The Premium subscription for phones is as follows:
$69.99 for 1 month
$119.99 for 3 months
$199.99 for 12 months
- mSpy for Computers
If you are weighing spying on computers, know that mSpy offers limited functionality when made to work in a computer ecosystem.
The Basic package, which is the only package, offered on this side of the divide, looks like this:
$26.99 for 1 month
$39.99 for 3 months
$69.99 for 12 months
Additionally, there is one special subscription package, Computer Family Kit, which allows spying on three different computers at a go. The pricing is:
$119.97 for 6 months
$167.97 for 12 months
Part 6: Where to Download mSpy?
You can get the app on mSpy.com. Head straight to the website and the rest is easy.
1.How To Download and Install mSpy on iOS Device?
If you are looking for ways to install the app on iOS, all you will need is the device’s Apple ID and a password. These are mandatory to set up the monitoring along with the device itself to access the verification code and to enable iCloud backup.
2. How To Download and Install mSpy on Android Device?
Unlike iOS, Android devices require the installation of the app directly on the phone. Immediately after purchasing the app, a step-by-step guide will help you finish the setup. Once it is done, you can start monitoring the device by logging into the dashboard. In case of difficulties at any step, mSpy’s tech support is always there to assist you.
Part 7: Reviews of mSpy from Customers
1. Review on Sitejabber
We took a look at Sitejabber, a trusted platform, to acquaint ourselves with what real consumers are saying about real products. mSpy registered 723 reviews altogether with the average consumer rating being 3.38 stars out of 5. Sitejabber accedes to mSpy the third position among Mobile Application sites, which is a well-deserved achievement as the app has attracted 31.7% positive reviews in the last 12 months.
2. Review on Trustpilot
Trustpilot, another such platform that does justice to its name, has 2596 registered reviews of mSpy with the average rating being 3.2 out of 5 stars. Out of this aggregate, the 63% positive review is really an eyecatcher.
3. Is mSpy Spyware?
Although mSpy keep advertising itself as parental control software, many people accuse it as spyware, violating people’s privacy. How To Remove mSpy From Android And iPhone is a popular topic on the internet. We think it depends on user intention.
FAQ
mSpy, in its bid to win over user trust, has a beautiful free trial version for 7 days which lets one use both the Basic features and the Premium ones. Once that period is over, you have to buy a subscription. For pricing, see the ‘How Much Does mSpy Cost?’ section.
Purchasing and installing mSpy is very easy and fast. On iOS, the process takes about 5 minutes whereas, on Android, 10 minutes is enough. Once the process is done, the app becomes functional right on the go.
Sadly no, there are other spying apps like Telenitrox that can do the job but with mSpy, you will be needing physical access to the targeted device to set it up for monitoring. This is mainly because mSpy tries to be less open to sinister intentions.
mSpy is every bit worth the money. That is because the service it provides brings great relief to worried parents. The numerous accolades the app has already received have laid to rest doubts over its functionality.
mSpy is pretty stringent when it comes to delivering the best of its expertise to its customers. You can rest assured that you will be receiving regular updates from the targeted device on your dashboard. On iOS, the interval amounts to 24 hours.
on keyboard strokes and sends alerts on certain keywords. The Bark is good only with the latter. With mSpy you can track location in real-time and use geofencing. Bark sends only location requests. mSpy can record screens, has a super stealth mode, live demo, and 24/7 support, none of which is offered by Bark. Last but not the least; mSpy has a global presence whereas Bark functions only in the USA.
Again, on the Apple Store, mSpy has an average 4.1 rating out of 5 whereas Qustodio scores a paltry 3.3. The differences are not insubstantial. mSpy’s keylogger operation is much stronger compared to Qustodio which only provides alerts on keywords. Qustodio needs a VPN to operate better which mSpy does away with. Screen recording, secrecy-wise too mSpy fares better. Qustodio lacks round-the-clock support, live demo, varieties of subscription plans, and other features that mSpy brings to the table.
Both mSpy and FlexiSPY offer ease of installation with the latter even covering a range of older iOS versions that mSpy doesn’t consider. As far as stealth, features, accuracy, and pricing are concerned, both apps are at par. Overall then, mSpy and FlexiSPY are interchangeable