Top 10 Must-Have Apps for Parents in 2024

Top 10 Must-Have Apps for Parents in 2024

Busy parents face a number of challenges, such as planning their children's schedules, remembering appointments and events, and ensuring that their kids complete important activities like homework and household chores. In recent decades, parents have started to face increasing challenges related to the digital world. 

Specifically, modern parents want to give their kids the advantages of having phone and Internet access while also protecting their privacy, safety, and well-being. You also want to make sure that your child's screen time is used for good. 

You can't be over your child's shoulder all of the time, especially if they're getting older. So, what can you do?

Apps can help you manage your child's schedule, keep your kids safe online, and ensure that their screen time is used wisely. Here are some of our favorite apps for parents and families in 2024 that can help you do just that.

Top 10 Must-Have Apps for Parents

Each parenting app in this article has unique benefits, from special parental controls to educational benefits or helping kids complete important tasks like household chores. Let's start with our favorite top-rated app first: Joon.

App 1: Joon 

Joon is an app for parents and kids aged 6-12+. Designed with the ADHD brain in mind, any family can benefit from using Joon. The Joon app gamifies daily tasks like homework, household chores, and personal hygiene or self-care activities. Here's how it works:

Parents download the Joon Parent App first and make a custom task list for their child. When kids finish tasks and parents approve them, kids get rewards in the Joon Pet Game that allow them to care for a virtual pet of their choice, continue playing the game, and unlock other special features and rewards. 90% of children who use Joon complete all of their tasks. Even better, many parents say that it's improved their parent-child relationship.

Rather than an individual app, Joon Pet Game is 100% separate from Joon Parent App. It's child-safe and available both in the App Store and in the Google Play Store. Kids can use Joon Pet Game on iPads, Amazon Tablets, and mobile devices, including an iPhone or Android phone.

Joon's features and benefits

• Parents can choose from 500+ pre-loaded tasks and/or behaviors or add their own custom tasks or behaviors (called "quests").
• Use Joon for one child or multiple children. To switch from one child's profile to another, go to the settings icon in the top left corner and tap "Switch Accounts."
• New features are added to Joon Pet Game every 2-4 weeks for novelty. These include but aren't limited to new mini-games, seasonal drops, virtual pets (called "doters,") and ways for family members to interact with each other.
• Screen time management features for healthy digital habits.
• Reminders and notifications for both parents and kids.

Click here to get started with Joon.

App 2: Norton Family Parental Control

Norton Family Parental Control has parental control settings that help keep kids safe online and in their daily lives. In addition to other features and benefits, you can set screen time limits and see your child's location with Norton Family Parental Control. Parents also enjoy being able to turn off their children's internet access during the school day.

Norton Family's features and benefits:

• Lock your child's device to help them take a screen time break.
• Control access to potentially harmful or inappropriate content online with web filters.
• Use geo-location features to create location boundaries and alerts.
• See your child's recent search activity.

App 3: Our Family Wizard

Our Family Wizard is a great solution for co-parents. While it's a little bit different than the other apps in this article, it has features that may help parents navigate shared custody and common challenges that may emerge while co-parenting. 

Our Family Wizard's features and benefits:

• The tone meeter feature catches language between co-parents that may escalate conflict.
• In-app features that help you connect with your child when you're apart.
• A shared calendar and color-coded schedules for co-parents.
• Verify child pick-up and drop-offs with GPS check-ins.
• Timestamps for messages between parents.

App 4: Google Family Link

Google Family Link is another combination parental control app that can help you with web filtering as well as monitoring your child's location. However, in addition to the features listed below, you can manage your child's Google account. This may be an appealing differentiating feature for some parents seeking the best parental control apps to monitor their child's device usage, especially if your child uses Gmail.

Google Family Link's features and benefits:

• Guide kids toward age-appropriate content by approving or blocking apps your child wants to download.
• Get time alerts when kids leave or arrive at a specific location (e.g., school).
• See all of your children's locations on one map.
• Set screen-time limits.

App 5: Khan Academy 

Khan Academy actually has multiple apps: Khan Academy Kids (for ages 2-8) and Khan Academy (all ages, with lessons suitable for young children through high school and beyond). Both apps are free. Like Joon, educational apps have real benefits for kids and help children make good use of their screen time.

Khan Academy's features and benefits*:

• Select your child's grade (pre-k through college and beyond) and recommended courses.
• Choose from extensive subjects, from math, reading, and science to arts and humanities, life skills, and more.
• Track progress and time spent learning.

*Benefits listed are for the regular Khan Academy app.

App 6: Duolingo

Duolingo is the #1 education app in the app store. The popular language-learning app is a top choice for us because it's something all family members can enjoy. Duolingo is appropriate for nearly all ages. However, there's also a separate app called Duolingo Kids that helps children ages 3-8 learn to read and write. Like Duolingo, Duolingo Kids is 100% free.

Duolingo's features and benefits:

• Choose from 40+ languages to learn.
• Learn from quick, bite-sized language lessons.
• A child-friendly interface with pictures and audio pronunciation.
• In addition to language learning, kids can benefit from math and music lessons taught in English.

App 7: Find My Kids: Location Tracker 

With Find My Kids, you get all of the location tracking features you'd expect, like a GPS tracker and your child's location history for the entire day. However, some unique features set it apart, too.

Find My Kids features and benefits:

• Use the family chat feature to chat with your child and send funny stickers.
• See your child's phone's charge status from your own device and get alerts when their battery is low.
• Send a loud signal to your child's phone if they're having trouble locating it.

App 8: Net Nanny

Net Nanny might be the best parental control app for your family if web filtering is the feature you're most interested in. With Net Nanny, you can block apps and see your child's web content history, among other features that support your child's in-person and online safety. 

Net Nanny features and benefits:

• Filter web content by blocking specific categories like mature content, nudity, or drugs.
• Turn off or resume internet access for kids instantly.
• See your child's physical location on a map.
• Set daily screen time limits.

App 9: Bark - Parental Controls

Sometimes called an alternative to Net Nanny, Bark has some additional features for those looking for parental control software that helps ensure their child's online safety. In addition to typical web filters, location tracking, and the ability to block apps, Bark helps protect kids from online predators and lets you add as many family members as you want to.

Bark features and benefits:

• Set a screen time limit through schedules that allow your child to access the internet at specific times of the day only.
• Monitor your child's text messages for an extra supervised experience.
• Receive both text and email alerts. 

App 10: The Happy Child Parenting App

The Happy Child Parenting App is a unique parenting app. It's not a parental control app, and it's not for kids. Instead, The Happy Child helps parents learn about child development, loving relationships, and other concepts that can support families. Like Khan Academy, the app is 100% free.

The Happy Child features and benefits:

• Offers short lessons that help parents navigate common parenting struggles like tantrums.
• Advice on the app is evidence-based and backed by research.

Conclusion

What's the #1 app for parents? It depends on what you're looking for. Certain apps can help your family in unique ways. For example, any family can use an app like Joon to help kids in or around the 6-12 age range manage chores, routines, personal hygiene activities, homework and school assignments, and other tasks. Other apps, like a parental monitoring app, may serve a different purpose.

You might choose from one of the parental control apps in this article to track your child's location, use social media monitoring and content filtering features, or something else, and combine it with Joon. Alternatively, you might use the parental control features in the Joon app to help your child manage their daily responsibilities, keep them safe, and manage screen time all in one spot. Similarly, educational apps can help kids brush up on skills they need to know for school or other parts of life, like math and writing.

It's important to keep your kids safe online and to ensure that their screen time is used wisely. Whether you try one of the individual apps in this article or combine multiple apps, technology can support modern parents who want to protect their child's safety, privacy, and overall well-being.