Finding the best iPhone spy apps can be challenging, especially when you are concerned about what your kids or partner is doing on their phone. You may be worried that they are talking to someone you don’t want them to talk to.
Fortunately, there are a few ways you can monitor their iPhone activities without them knowing.
The best spy apps for iPhone let you monitor in detail all the activities of the target device, including calls, messages, and social media interactions. Apart from tracking the live location, you’ll also be able to gain remote access to the target iPhone, be it of your child, spouse, or employee, and block certain apps when required.
What are spy apps?
Spyware apps surreptitiously run on a device, most often without the device owner’s awareness. They collect a range of sensitive information such as location, texts, and calls, as well as audio and video. Some apps can even stream live audio and video. All this information is delivered to the installer via an online spyware portal.
Spyware apps are marketed directly to the general public and are relatively cheap. They are easy to install on a smartphone and require no specialized knowledge to deploy or operate. However, users need to have temporary physical access to their target’s device and the ability to install apps that are not in the pre-approved app stores.
Smartphone spyware apps that allow people to spy on each other are not only hard to notice and detect, but they also will easily leak the sensitive personal information they collect.
While publicly marketed as tools to monitor underage children and employees using their employer’s equipment, abusers also frequently use spyware apps to covertly spy on a spouse or a partner. These apps require little to no technical expertise; they offer detailed installation instructions; and only need temporary access to a device.
After installation, they covertly record the device activities — including any text messages, emails, photos, or voice calls — and allow the installer to remotely review this information through a web portal.
How do spy apps gather data?
Researchers found that spyware apps use a wide range of techniques to surreptitiously record data. For example, one app uses an invisible browser that can stream live video from the device’s camera to a spyware server. They can also record phone calls via the device’s microphone, sometimes activating the speaker function in hopes of capturing what interlocutors are saying as well.
Several apps also exploit accessibility features on smartphones, designed to read what appears on the screen for vision-impaired users. On Android, these features effectively allow spyware to record keystrokes, for example.
Researchers also found several methods the apps use to hide on the target’s device. For example, apps can specify that they do not appear in the launch bar when they initially open. App icons also masquerade as “Wi-Fi” or “Internet Service.”
Four of the spyware apps accept commands via SMS messages. Two of the apps the researchers analyzed didn’t check whether the text message came from their client and executed the commands anyway. One app could even execute a command that could remotely wipe the victim’s phone.
Top iPhone Spy Apps
KidsGuard Pro
Plenty of features, accuracy, and quick updates make KidsGuard Pro one of the best iPhone spy apps for those who can’t take even the slightest chance of keeping their loved ones at risk. As the app requires no jailbreak and access to target device data is unnoticeable, it becomes one of the best undetectable iPhone spy apps that work in stealth mode.
Access to the target person’s messages becomes necessary just because of the popularity of message apps for sending instant messages. With access to your husband’s messages, maybe you can reveal their hidden affair which you have been trying to find for a long time.
The same goes for Call Logs. You might notice a number and name that you have never heard from your lover or child. The Contacts feature can reveal further details about that person. If there’s a photo associated with that number, you can easily see that.
If there are other numbers saved in the name of that same person, that too can be seen. Other information includes the email address of that person and their actual address. But all this information will only be available if it’s been filled in on the target device.
mSpy
mSpy comes with a free demo for all new users that makes getting started with the tool a breeze. You get a replica of the dashboard you’ll have upon registering, which helps you learn your way around the platform in advance.
mSpy covers a wide range of social media apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Hangouts, Telegram, and more. With mSpy, you can check all the messages exchanged on the above-mentioned social apps and even get a history of the call log of the targeted iPhone.
For apps like Instagram and Snapchat that have a disappearing message feature, you can use mSpy’s screen recording feature to capture the messages before they vanish. You also get uninterrupted access to photos and videos on the iPhone. This is a great way to check if your spouse, child, or employee is interacting with inappropriate content or not.
mSpy also gives you access to the complete app list on the target phone. You can check which of the downloaded apps are inappropriate for your child or spouse and delete them immediately.
This can help keep unhealthy habits away — block a dating app if you find one on your child’s phone, and identify cheating behavior if it’s your spouse you are spying on.
SpyBubble Pro
The digital age has made cheating very easy, as you don’t even have to go out to meet your illicit partner. Now you can have all those romantic conversations from the comfort of your home without your spouse knowing about it. But the same technology has also made it easier to catch a cheater using the help of the iPhone spy app SpyBubble Pro.
With the help of the keylogger, you can see all the words that your husband or wife typed on their phone. With this, you can read the messages that they must have sent over various social apps. Besides keylogger, the screenshots also help you catch a lying partner by showing what messages they have sent and to whom.
Also, you can read their SMS, even the ones that are deleted by your spouse.
Like all other iPhone spy apps on this list, this one also comes with location tracking. However, like most other apps there is no Geofencing feature on it. This means that you can see their current location but won’t get notified when they enter or leave a specific zone set by you.
Nonetheless, the location tracking on it is still capable of tracking their exact current location without jailbreaking their phone.
XNSpy
XNSpy is a dynamic spy app that lets you check on people both offline and online. For online tracking, you can get complete access to your target’s call log and messages. XNSpy also lets you monitor up to 12 different social media applications — where you can check who they talk to, how often, what pictures or videos they share, and much more.
The best part is most of these features can be accessed without rooting. For offline tracking, XNSpy will give you access to the target phone’s surroundings. You can remotely turn on the microphone or camera and record everything happening around them. This feature is handy if you’re worried that your kid might be getting bullied in school and you want to keep an eye on them.
Another benefit of using XNSpy is that it grants you remote access. You can remotely turn on surround recording or block an app that you find inappropriate. You can also use it to take screenshots on the target device, reset it, or even lock it.
Eyezy
Eyezy is one of the top-rated iPhone spy apps that monitors iPhone usage to ensure the safety of your kids and family in the online world. It provides you with all the tools that are required to keep an eye on the target person.
Starting with its Keystroke Capture feature, it includes a keylogger and screenshots with the help of which you can read everything they type on different apps and browsers. This iPhone keylogger is quite good as it tracks every typed word, as well as the app on which the word is typed. Moreover, it shows the time and date at which the keystroke was made.
Under the Social Spotlight feature, you get the opportunity to keep a close eye on your kid’s or partner’s social media and instant messaging chats. You can also see the text messages they have shared using the stock messaging app.
EyeZy also makes your life easy by sending magic alerts for inappropriate activities instead of forcing you to monitor your target 24/7. For instance, if you don’t want them to look up certain topics, you can flag those words beforehand. With this, the next time they use any flagged words you choose — whether they type it in a search box or chatbox, you’ll receive a notification immediately.
The next two important features you get with Eyezy are Phone Analyze and Pinpoint. The Phone Analyze feature allows you to keep a tab on their phone calls and contacts. You can see who they are calling and what kind of people they have in their contact list.
On the other hand, the Pinpoint feature allows you to track the exact location of the target person by either GPS or WiFi location.
Spyic
Spyic is primarily a parental control app designed for those who can’t be physically present to keep an eye on their kids. That said, given its super detailed phone tracking feature, you might use it for other purposes as well.
For instance, Spyic’s social media monitoring feature can be used to track both kids and unfaithful spouses. You can track popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Viber.
Spyic’s social media apps catalog is fairly narrower than most other iPhone spy apps. Still, on the brighter side, you can access chats, call logs, and pictures on these platforms without rooting or jailbreaking. This makes it accessible to everyone.
The chat information also comes with additional details like the timestamps or contact information so that you can put together a more comprehensive report of their phone activities. Spyic will also automatically put together a list of the most popular and frequently called contacts so that you don’t have to waste time searching for their closest people.
Another benefit of using Spyic is that it lets you track SIM locations. This is a great way to track your child or spouse’s current location or find the device in case it’s lost, even when their GPS is turned off.
uMobix
uMobix is best known for its remote control tools and ability to dig up deleted information — two of the most sought-after spy features. It specializes in zeroing in on deleted information, such as messages and calls. If your child or partner is trying to hide any controversial conversation from you, uMobix will alert you immediately.
Similarly, if you ask your kids to delete a certain contact and they try to outsmart you by simply renaming it, uMobix will alert you and show you which contacts have recently been renamed.
The app is also quite adept at sending remote commands discreetly. For example, if you don’t like the kind of apps and websites your child frequently interacts with, you can block them without even having to touch your child’s phone. The same goes for their social circle. If you don’t want them to fall into the wrong company, simply disable their messages and restrict their calls.
This feature will also help you during the exam season to help keep your child focused on the right things.
uMobix comes with a compact control panel, available on a browser as well as its very own mobile app. This is handy for working parents who want to monitor their kid’s iPhone on the go.
Cocospy
The biggest USP of Cocospy is Discord tracking. While most iPhone spy apps cover all the other popular social media apps, such as Instagram and Facebook, they often overlook Discord.
Not Cocospy.
Even if your child is using a pseudo username, you can still read all their individual and group conversations and check the exchanged media files.
Another benefit of using Cocospy is the default geofencing feature. You don’t have to track your target’s location 24/7. Instead, you can just mark a boundary on the map and get notified only when they cross this region. For example, if you’re spying on your spouse who claims to be at work, you can mark the region around their office building and get notified anytime they leave the premises.
To top it off, the Duo Messenger feature not only lets you check all their calls, chats, and media files but also lets you see what the phone sees.
Spyzzz
This is another advanced iPhone spy app that works without jailbreaking. It is a comparatively new spy app in the market but comes with some features that you don’t even get on some of the oldest spy apps.
The biggest USP of this app is that it can record every deleted call log and message, which makes it a spy app in the true sense. Apart from that, you can also see the contacts they have stored on their iPhones. It also has a quick sync time, which means that it can reflect the data recorded in the target phone in almost real-time to your Spyzzz dashboard.
You can also remotely monitor someone’s online social media profile with the help of screenshots captured by the Spyzz app on the target iPhone. Besides this, it also shows you the browser history of the target person with clickable links so that you can check the page out yourself.
Hoverwatch
Hoverwatch is the perfect spy app for multiple device monitoring. It lets you monitor up to 5 devices simultaneously from the same account. It is also compatible with all operating systems, including Mac, Windows, Android, and iPhone.
No matter what device your child or spouse is using, you can track them with Hoverwatch.
Hoverwatch also has SIM card tracking, because if your child or spouse is changing their SIM card without telling you, they may be up to something. This iPhone spy app will inform you as soon as they change their SIM card so that you can catch them red-handed. In addition to that, replacing the SIM card doesn’t alter its tracking capabilities.
Hoverwatch’s most unique feature is the automated front camera capture. Every time someone unlocks the phone screen, it’ll silently take a photo of the user. This feature can help you nab the perpetrator in case a family member’s phone is stolen.
Also, if you suspect your partner of cheating on you, this feature will tell you whenever someone else is using their phone.
Is it legal to spy on someone?
It depends on the situation.
Generally, it is not legal to spy on someone without their consent or without a valid legal reason. In most jurisdictions, private citizens cannot legally conduct surveillance on another individual without their knowledge or consent.
However, it is legal to monitor your children phone’s activities to protect them from online threats. According to BBC reports “It’s absolutely legal for a parent to do this discreetly,” says TeenSafe’s chief executive Rawdon Messenger.
Also, according to the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, an employer has the right to monitor their own company-owned phone systems.
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