Though it is illegitimate to spy on someone and breach the privacy, there may be genuine reasons to do that.
These days children may watch violent, abusive, and pornographic content online. This results in pervert and anti-social psychology, which may lead to self- harm and child trauma. Hence parents may want to keep track of their children’s online activities. In the same way, employers might use it to monitor their employees. This helps employers for boosting employee productivity, performance evaluation, tracking the man-hours, protecting data theft, etc.
In this article, we are going into an in-depth analysis of the nine best spy apps that can serve the purpose of spying.
Best Free Hidden Spy Apps for Android
1. Spyic
Spyic helps you to monitor SMS and social media messages. You can track the instant GPS location of your target and set geofencing alerts, which are pre-programmed triggers based on device location.
Once installed on the target phone, the app runs in background in stealth mode. The memory it takes is less than 2 MB. So, the target user cannot detect suspicious behavior like battery drainage and slow down of the phone. In case of emergency, the app can be uninstalled from the target phone by a single click from the control panel.
It has an easy 5 minutes installation process which is described as follows:
- Visit the official website of Spyic and sign up for a free account. Save the username and password for the future.
- Download and install the app on the target device. Give the necessary permission to the app.
- Now log on to your account through the control panel and enjoy remote monitoring.
- On the dashboard, you will see a large number of options like social media apps and messages. Just click on them and read the content.
2. Cocospy
It has a large user community and is widely used for tracking the browser history, social media messages, call records, and GPS location. The best point is that there is no requirement of rooting the target device, which is a long and complicated technical process. Easy installation and usage without even referring to the manual give an added advantage to the operator. It is the best choice for beginners. It was earlier made as a parental app, but nowadays, it is widely used for monitoring spouses and co-workers. It has very affordable plans and is suitable for the user’s pocket.
3. Mobile-spy.com
This is another widely used spy app to monitor private messages, call records, and location. But there are security issues with this app as hackers frequently target it. It needs a complicated rooting process of the target device, which pesters the beginners who are not tech. Savvy in routing. Before you purchase this app, you can judge the performance of my online demo. Even there is an option of 7- day free trial. At the end of the 7th day, you can uninstall the app if you don’t like it.
4. Spyera
Spyera is famous for its cross-platform service that can work on multiple operating systems and allows easy cloud integration for hosting. Users can monitor the call logs, personal message, and location of the target device. But rooting is still the hassle for spying into Facebook and skype conversations. The customer support service of this app is fragile due to its inaccessible and remote team, as reported by various users.
5. Guestspy
With Guestspy, you can track all messages and browsing history of the target device. You can also direct the app to control the target phone by SMS commands. This app lags behind Spyic and Cocospy in features. The online chat system is weak, and customer support is also not very strong. Also, there have been reports of mismatch between the working of app and claims on the advertisement.
6. iKeyMonitor
Its monitoring experience is fantastic, as reported by some of the users. Install this app to both target and operator device. It has some great advanced features like call recording, keystroke detection, app screenshots, access to the surrounding sounds and phone camera. You can take a screenshot of user activities and keep a complete log. Similarly, you can hear the ambient noises near the target phone like people’s discussion, etc.
The reason why I like iKeyMonitor so much is that the app gives a free plan as well, obviously with limitations of features. 3-day free access to advanced level features is also available. The app has various trial packages like an open plan with limited features, 3- day free trial pack with some advanced features. So, you get a glimpse of the app experience. By the paid plan of a minimal amount, you can get access to all the features.
7. FlexiSPY
Unlock the advanced features without rooting. The advanced feature includes call recording, photos, videos, and ambiance noise capture from the target device remotely. Other features include SIM card change notification, keylogger, and access to call logs, etc. The keylogger feature shows all the keystrokes that were typed and is the best available keylogger as compared to other apps.
It has three different plans. The LITE plan costs $29.95 per month, a PREMIUM plan that costs $68 per month, and the EXTREME plan costs you $199 for three months. With an extreme plan, you can spy on the rooted device in many other ways. Extreme plan unlocks all the advanced and super-advanced features like call interceptions for rooted devices. Rooting is not required for call recording. You can also monitor VoIP calls and social media conversation. It has excellent support services, but this app is very costly to afford.
8. Hoverwatch
Hoverwatch has three plans- Professional ($49.95/month with tracking of 5 devices), Personal ($24.95/month with tracking of 1 device), and Business ($149.95/month with tracking of 25 devices). Its frequent screenshot feature will tell every online activity of your children like social media chats and phone calls. This app hacks the front camera, takes the screenshot, and informs the operator about the surroundings of the target phone. Its location tracking system will notify you if your child is with an unknown person. The major drawback is that the app itself provides the data with its time, so the user’s choice does not do the power to select any feature.
9. mSpy
With the help of this app gives you can access images, videos, and social media chat records on the target device. With the help of virtual geofence, you will get immediate notification if the target phone crosses that fence in real life.
There are many exciting features like website bookmark (to keep watch of websites bookmarked in target system), keylogger (to trace typing activities), and the list of wi-fi connections that target the phone has made in the past. You can access the inbox and outbox of email using mSpy.
mSpy has a basic plan that costs you around $29.99 per month and the premium plan that costs approximately $69.99 per month with some additional features. mSpy also offers an exclusive scheme of 15% discount for SpyDrill readers on all of their plans.
Conclusion
A mobile spy application is a software program that allows you to record and monitor the actions of the end-users without their knowledge. There are a large number of problems associated with spy apps like rooting. So, beginners should choose the app like Spyic and Cocospy that doesn’t require rooting. Other issues like battery drainage and memory size of the app should be carefully examined. Social media proof like customer reviews is necessary to check whether user experience is up to the mark or not.
Here are some of the essential things to consider while choosing spy apps.
- Device compatibility
- Social Media Monitoring capability
- Level of stealth
- Remote control
- Price
Is it legal to use spy software?
It is an illegal act to install spy apps and collecting user’s secret information without their consent. It is a criminal offense that may lead to even jail for one year or more. But in some cases, it can be used like parents taking care of their small children and employer tracking employee devices that contain secret information of the organization.
