If you want a Life360 alternative for iPhone, start with what's already on your phone: Apple's free Find My app covers family location sharing and arrival alerts for many families. If you also want to manage your child's screen time, a combined app such as Skydo puts encrypted live location and parental controls in one place. This guide compares the options fairly so you can pick what fits.
Why parents look for a Life360 alternative
Life360 is one of the best-known family locator apps. It works on both iPhone and Android, shows family members on a shared map, and offers place alerts, with a free tier and paid memberships that add more features. Plans and features change, so check Life360's own site for current details.
Parents usually look elsewhere for one of these reasons:
- Everyone in the family uses iPhone, so a cross-platform app isn't needed.
- They'd prefer not to pay for location features if a free option is good enough.
- They want location and screen-time controls together, rather than one app for each.
- They care about how location data is handled and want to understand exactly who can see it.
None of these mean Life360 is a bad choice. It's about matching the tool to your family.
Option 1: Apple Find My (free)
For all-iPhone families, Find My is the natural first alternative. It's built in, free, and run by Apple.
What it can do
- Show family members' locations in the People tab.
- Send you a notification when someone arrives at or leaves a location.
- Give directions to a family member.
- Work together with Family Sharing, which also lets you manage a child's Screen Time from your phone.
How to set it up
- On your iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Family, and add your child.
- On your child's iPhone, open Find My, go to the Me tab, and turn on Share My Location.
- In the People tab on their phone, share their location with you.
- On your phone, open Find My → People → your child's name to see them.
Step-by-step detail is in how to see where your child is on iPhone.
Where it stops
- It shows where someone is, but not extras like their speed or whether they're walking or in a car.
- It's location only: no app blocking, bedtime or time limits in the same place.
- It works only between Apple devices.
Option 2: Messages Check In (free)
Check In in Messages (iOS 17 and later) is a handy partner to Find My. Your child starts a Check In when heading somewhere, and you're notified when they arrive. If they don't arrive and don't respond, you receive details such as their location and battery level. It's ideal for one-off trips, but it has to be started every time, so it isn't a full replacement for always-on sharing.
If you mainly need "tell me when they get to school", see how to get notified when your child arrives at school.
Option 3: Skydo (location plus parental controls)
Skydo is an iPhone parental-control app built on Apple's Screen Time technology, with family location built in. It's a different kind of app from Life360: rather than a family-wide social map, it's a parent-and-child tool that combines where your child is with what their phone can do.
Location features
- Live position on the parent's phone that moves smoothly while the child walks or rides, with an icon for walking or car and their speed.
- Battery level of the child's phone.
- Locate now for a fresh position, plus directions.
- Places such as home, school and practice, with a notification when the child arrives or leaves.
How Skydo handles privacy
- Location is end-to-end encrypted between the two phones, so even Skydo can't see it.
- Sharing is switched on visibly on the child's phone. Nothing is hidden from your child.
- There are no accounts: you pair the phones once with an 8-character code. No ads and no data selling.
Parental controls in the same app
- Block chosen apps, or whole categories such as social media, in a tap. iOS enforces it, so blocked apps genuinely don't open.
- Block adult websites in Safari and search.
- Daily time limit, bedtime, and School Mode for school hours.
- Change bedtime, limits or school hours from your own phone, or pause everything; changes reach your child's phone in seconds.
Honest limits
- iPhone only. It doesn't work on Android.
- It's built for parent and child, not for tracking a whole extended family or friends group.
- It must be installed and set up on the child's iPhone, which needs iOS 26.5 or later.
- It's free to download, but protection needs a Skydo Premium subscription. One subscription bought on the parent's phone also unlocks the child's phone.
Quick comparison
| Need | Find My | Skydo |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free download, Premium to switch on |
| Arrival and leave alerts | Yes | Yes, for saved places |
| Live position with speed and car or walking icon | Position only | Yes |
| App blocking and time limits | Via Screen Time settings | Built in |
| Works with Android | No | No |
Which one should you choose?
- Mixed iPhone and Android family: a cross-platform app like Life360 is likely the simplest fit.
- All-iPhone family that just wants to see locations: Find My, free and already installed.
- Parent of a child with an iPhone who wants location and screen-time rules together, with end-to-end encryption: Skydo.
You can also combine them. Plenty of families keep Find My on as a backup while using a dedicated app day to day. For a deeper look at the built-in option, read Find My vs dedicated location apps.
Whichever you pick, talk to your child about it. Location sharing works best when kids know it's on, understand why, and know it's there to help them, not to catch them out.