Cocospy Review 2023 | Is Cocospy the Best Spy App?

In this Cocospy review, we’ll walk you through every aspect of this popular parental and employee monitoring technology. It’s a phone-based monitoring system that keeps a watchful eye over all the activity on your child’s phone, and alerts you if there’s a potential issue for you to solve. Not only can you receive location updates and warning notifications via Cocospy, but you also get access to all the messages, calls, and media on your child’s device.

Cocospy does this in two different ways depending on if you’re an Android or iOS user. For Android, there’s a specially designed monitoring app that’s installed on the phone itself. For iOS, Cocospy uses the iCloud backup feature to sync all the data being held on the iPhone. Each method comes with a variety of monitoring features designed to keep your child safe on the internet, from social media tracking to app blocking and browser history access. We’ll look more into how each feature works in this Cocospy review and figure out whether it’s worth the price.

Cocospy Features

Call Tracking

Cocospy sits on the target phone and records whenever a phone call takes place. Each call is logged into the Cocospy control panel so you can check in on who your child’s been calling at any time. This includes the contact name associated with the call, which phone number it came from, the duration and date of the call, as well as how it was made and where it came from. Most importantly, Cocospy will update you with the most popular contacts on the phone immediately via the dashboard. This allows you to see how your child’s call habits change over time.

Track Messages

All SMS messages are tracked by Cocospy’s internal monitoring app on Android, as well as the iOS iCloud solution. You can gain massive amounts on insight into your child’s daily life by keeping an eye on their texts. If they’re being bullied, harassed, or are in over their heads, you’ll know immediately thanks to the Cocospy SMS tracker.

It also covers media files sent over SMS, including video files. Even if they’re only sending iMessages, Cocospy will still pick them up. You get all the associated metadata such as when the message was sent, who it was from, and whether it was an incoming or outgoing message.

Geofencing

Cocospy comes with a smart location tracker feature called Geofencing, which lets you set up zones on a virtual Google Maps instance. If your child should pass through this zone in real life, you will be immediately alerted to their location with email notifications.

You can monitor locations you know your child might have problems in, or keep them from leaving a certain zone, such as school during work hours. Employers can also use Cocospy to keep an eye on their workplace devices, in case they suspect an employee might be taking unauthorized leave from work during the day.

Social Media Tracking

Cocospy on Android offers you the ability to read back through your child’s Facebook messages and group chats on a whim. Once you’ve got Cocospy working on the target device, you’ll know every person your child is chatting to on Facebook and WhatsApp. Having trouble keeping up with all the different social media apps your kids are on these days? Cocospy has a solution. The Android app allows you to monitor each social media app independently, including Snapchat, Kik, LINE, and WeChat.

Stealth Mode

Cocospy offers these powerful monitoring features in a small and quiet package. In fact, Cocospy’s Stealth Mode ensures that you can keep an eye on your child without slowing down their device or leaving suspicious additional icons on the home screen.

The Android app itself is virtually undetectable, whereas the iOS method does not require any physical access to the device in most cases. There’s even a dashboard readout which highlights the most popular contacts on the device. Cocospy empowers you to keep up to date with your child’s ever changing personal relationships.

Sim Card Tracking

Cocospy takes tracking to the next level. Not only is there a GPS location tracker like many other top-tier parental monitoring suites out there, but Cocospy also comes with a SIM Card Tracker. This lets you easily find where your kids are based purely on their connection to the mobile phone network.

That means no GPS location service or Wi-Fi service is necessary to track your child’s whereabouts. What’s more, you can set Cocospy to give you instant alerts if the SIM card is changed in the target device you’re monitoring. Just like the GPS service, each SIM card location is displayed on a clear Google Maps readout to give you the most information possible.

App Blocking

Cocospy tracks each app installed on the target device and allows you to manage them from inside the Cocospy control panel. Should you find a problematic app, or even just one that’s taking up too much of their time on a school night, you can uninstall it remotely without ever having to touch the device. You can also block certain apps from being installed if you see pesky malware that keeps popping up on their phone.

Browser History

Cocospy’s monitoring also extends to the browser. Each website visited on the target device is logged by Cocospy so you can look back on which sites your child is browsing. This works even through Private Browsing modes on the phone in question.

Plus, you get a readout of their browser bookmarks so you can see which sites mean the most to your loved ones. The browser readout also tells you when they visited the site, so you can get an idea of what they’re up to late at night.

Cocospy ‘s Ease-of-Use

Cocospy is easy to install, easy to use, and easy to configure.

What Devices Can I Use Cocospy on?

Android

All major Android devices work with Cocospy’s internally developed monitoring app, as long as you’re running at least Android 4.0. Pretty much every major Android phone is going to work with Cocospy. Cocospy is designed to be a lightweight app that takes up few resources on the phone.

However, some older devices may struggle disguise the drain on battery life, especially when Cocospy is configured to update regularly. Devices with worn-out batteries are especially susceptible to this, so test out the Cocospy settings to find the right balance between battery life and update frequency.

iOS

Cocospy on iOS works very differently from the Android version. Instead of providing you an app to download, Cocospy on iOS uses the iCloud backup system to download messages and files from the target device. This way, you do not need physical acces to the device to monitor it with Cocospy.

However, you will need the iCloud login credentials in order to begin the process. Since Cocospy on iOS doesn’t use an app to monitor the target device, certain features such as keylogging and geofencing are not available on iOS. On the plus side, any iOS device that uploads to iCloud will work with Cocospy.

Mac & Windows

Cocospy does not currently offer a desktop version of the app for Windows or Mac OSX. Cocospy is primarily a mobile phone monitoring solution, although it can work on other Android devices. In the future, it’s possible that Cocospy may bring their powerful suite of monitoring tools to the desktop.

How To Install Cocospy

Cocospy has two different install methods depending on whether you’re using Android or iOS. We’ll go through the Android install process first and then talk about how the iCloud data-sync differs. Whichever way you install Cocospy, you’ll first need to head to Cocospy’s website and register an account. Once you’re done purchasing a Cocospy subscription, heading to the device dashboard will start the setup process. You name the device you’re monitoring for quick access in the future, and then the process splits based on whether you’re on Android or iOS.

Android

You will need physical access to the Android device for this step. This is assuming the phone is already rooted, which may not be the case. Rooting an Android device is the act of overwriting the default operating system with a less restrictive version of Android that allows deeper access to the phone’s internal software. Most Android phones are not rooted by default, so you may need to complete this process first.

The Cocospy setup wizard will run you through the rest of the installation process once you’ve picked your Android version and manufacturer. Before installing the app on the phone, you’ll need to go to “Settings“, then “Lock screen and security“, and enable “Unknown Sources“. This allows you to install Android apps using .apk files, instead of downloading straight from the Google Play Store. The full version of Cocospy cannot be downloaded from Google Play, and is only available directly from Cocospy’s servers.

To disable detection of Cocospy on the device, you will also need to turn off Google Play Protect. You can do this by heading to Settings, then Google, then Google Play Protect. By disabling “Improve harmful app detection” and “scan device for security threats“, Google Play will no longer identify Cocospy as a monitoring tool, so you can install it without being flagged by the operating system.

Once the preparation is complete, all that’s left to do is download the app. You can find the install link on the setup wizard page. Download it straight to the target device, or transfer the .apk install file via USB. You will also have to enter your Cocospy login credentials when the install starts.

Other than that, it’s just a case of tapping through the rest of the install wizard and choosing whether you want Cocospy to work in Stealth Mode. Stealth Mode will hide the Cocospy icon and make it completely invisible, but you should only choose this option if you have permission from the device operator.

Cocospy Performance | How Fast is Cocospy?

Accessing the control panel for the first time causes a “first time sync” with the monitored device, which causes all data from the target device to upload to Cocospy. Depending on how much data there is on the phone, this can take up to several minutes.

We noticed during our test runs that, on average, this would only take a few minutes on Android, but the far larger iCloud backups took significantly longer to sync. You can change how often the target device sends updates back to the Cocospy server, but by default this is only every 24 hours.

Cocospy can be set to report back every ten minutes, but unless you are tracking someone in real-time, this might not be necessary and could drain the battery of the device. This is especially true if you’re using the location service features, which take more battery on the device to power the GPS tracker.

The dashboard itself updates as quickly as it receives data, but if you need a current snapshot, you can hit the refresh button on the dashboard to sync with the phone. Bear in mind, this will only work if the phone is currently online.

Installing the app was a very quick process, regardless of using the iOS or Android install method. Even though the Android install has the potential to be confusing, Cocospy’s setup wizard makes it a simple task to get the app working. We also didn’t notice any lag once the app was installed, even when reporting back to Cocospy on the most regular settings.

How Secure is Cocospy? | Is Cocospy Safe?

Cocospy’s Security

Cocospy uses data encryption to keep your data safe when it’s sitting on Cocospy’s servers. Essentially, every piece of information that is collected from the target device is combined with a secret key to create a completely useless blob of random data.

When you use your decryption key, you get back the original files that were present on the phone. This way, you keep your data from the target device completely secret from everyone but yourself. If hackers do ever get in to Cocospy’s servers, all they can see are encrypted files with no way to decode them and find out what’s inside.

Cocospy keeps its security protocols a secret in order to protect their servers from attack by nosy hackers. What we do know is that the unencrypted data is never saved to the servers, and is held in RAM only. Based on all the details we could glean from their privacy policy, we suspect that Cocospy is using RSA-4096 to encrypt and decrypt your data.

This is a common high-end cryptography protocol for asymmetric encryption. While we wish Cocospy could reveal more details about how they protect your information, it’s clear that their security setup is in line with many other data-backup apps.

Cocospy’s Transparency Reputation

Audits

Many industries that work with sensitive data use external audits to demonstrate that their security claims are true. This is especially true in the VPN industry, where proving that user data is being handled securely is vital for customer trust. Although Cocospy uses secure bank-grade encryption to keep your target device data safe on their servers, an external audit would increase confidence in their security set up. While Cocospy has not yet worked with an external auditor, we hope to see an evaluation of their services in the future.

Logging

Cocospy does not show up on your billing statements, just in case you’re worried about your kids snooping through your mail or your online banking. Purchasing a Cocospy subscription does require you to enter the following information:

These details are kept internally by Cocospy to enforce the contract of payment when you purchase Cocospy. They are not handed out to any parties external to the company, with a few major exceptions. Firstly, if a legal inquiry is made into the use of Cocospy then they are obliged to hand over any details they hold to the authorities making the request. Secondly, if Cocospy should need to pursue legal action against a user of the system for fraud or harassment then these details will also be shared. Finally, if Cocospy should be acquired by another company then they will have access to your personal data with regards to the purchase contract.

Privacy Policy

Cocospy’s privacy policy is very concise, but covers the major points when it comes to data protection. No personally identifiable information is passed along to third parties, although aggregate demographic data may be sent to third party marketing agencies for research. What this means is that your data will be stripped of all obvious markers that would link it to you, such as name or IP address. This denonymised data is then pooled with all other Cocospy users and analyzed for popular trend, as well as used to fix technical issues.

Where Can I Use Cocospy?

Cocospy’s parental monitoring solution boasts worldwide coverage. Once the Cocospy app is installed, you can relax in the knowledge that the GPS location service will locate your children anywhere they can get an internet connection.

Even if you can’t check where they are through GPS, the unique SIM card location service ensures you’ll know where they are to the nearest mobile mast. These services work globally, but there’s other considerations to make about using Cocospy based on where you are.

No matter where you live, Cocospy works as a parental monitoring tool. You don’t necessarily need the permission of your child as long as you’re their legal guardian and they’re under eighteen. Installing Cocospy is easier if you discuss it with your kids first, but it’s not illegal to install it without making them aware.

Cocospy can also be used as a device monitoring tool in enterprise environments. Cocospy is particularly suited to small and medium-sized businesses who need company-wide iPhone backups, thanks to the bulk purchase options on iOS subscriptions.

For Android devices, Cocospy can help you monitor exactly where your company’s property is at all times and provide immediate alerts thanks to geofencing. However, you must first make your employees aware you’re using Cocospy on any device they’re using.

It’s not possible to use Cocospy for spying on your cheating spouse, according to the user policy. This is a situation in which you would not have the consent of the target device user. In many states in the US, this would be considered wiretapping and could be illegal.

Laws vary from country to country, for example, in the UK, monitoring devices are legislated closely to ensure the public is not being spied on. You should always check with a legal professional before using Cocospy when unsure of your country’s laws.

Cocospy Price | How Much Does Cocospy Cost?

Cocospy has a bunch of different pricing tiers depending on whether you’re monitoring Android or iOS, which features you want, how long you want to monitor for, and how many devices you want to cover. We’ll take you through each package to help you work out which one is right for your needs.

Android

Basic

The basic Android package covers the following features:

One basic Cocospy subscription covers one Android device for the base price of $49.99 per month, although currently the price is discounted down to $39.99 per month. It’s rare to see a discount on the per-month price, so take advantage of it while you can. Buying the three month package costs $59.99 in total, which works out at around $19.99 a month. The real savings are in the twelve month license, which costs $99.99 a year or $8.33 per month. The basic package gives you all the information you need to check who your child is calling, but doesn’t offer the in-depth intelligence of the premium package.

Premium

In addition to all of the features listed under the basic package, the Premium subscription also includes:

The most sought after features on here are the comprehensive Social Media app coverage, and the additional cost is relatively small. One month of the premium license subscription will cost $69.99, but as a promotional deal for first-time buyers you’ll only pay $49.99 per month, which is a saving of 29%.

The three-month license is $69.99 in total, which works out as $23.33 a month. That’s an incredible 67% reduction from the per month cost, which would be $209.99 for three months. Finally, the year-round premium subscription only costs $9.99 a month, or $119.99 in total, which is a whopping 87% discount on the original cost.

Family Pack

Family subscriptions also come with the Premium feature set, so you can monitor up to three Android devices with all of Cocospy’s social media and location coverage without breaking the bank. The one month license comes with three subscriptions, and will cost you $69.99 for one month, down from Cocospy’s usual $89.99.

For comparison, buying three subscriptions separately would cost you $149.99 a month. For three months, it’s $33.33 a month or $99.99 in total. A family subscription for three months would usually cost $269.99. Last but not least, a twelve month license will cost $199.99 in total or $16.66 a month. That’s all the way down from the usual price of $999.99 for the year.

iOS

Single Subscription

No matter which subscription you purchase, each iOS license for Cocospy comes with the same features. To be clear, the iOS version of Cocospy gives you access to:

Instead of choosing between Premium and Basic, you can choose your subscription based on how many devices you need to cover. For the single subscription, you’ll pay $49.99 a month on a monthly basis, down from the usual cost of $79.99 a month. This comes down to $26.66 a month when you buy the three month package for $79.99 in total.

This price comes down even further if you buy the twelve month package, which only costs $10.83 a month for $129.99 in total. This is an 87% saving on the original $959.99 price for a year long iOS Cocospy subscription.

Bulk Subscriptions

Cocospy offers an additional two packages for iOS, the Family pack and the Business pack. The Family Pack covers up to five devices, whereas the Business pack covers an incredible 25 devices. Each pack offers a heavy discount over buying each device subscription separately. The one month deal for the Family pack is $99.99, which works out at $20 a month per device.

That’s already comparable to the sort of savings you’d get if you were buying one iOS subscription for an entire year. For three months, it’s $199.99, or $13.99 a month per device. The real savings are in the year long package, which costs $399.99 for the year. This might sound a little pricey until you consider that’s $6.66 a month per device.

The savings get even more extreme when you buy into the Business packages, but it’s pretty unlikely you’ll need to monitor 25 separate devices unless you run a company! Or you have a large and unruly family. When you buy a one month license, it’s $399.99 in total or $16 a month per device.

For three, it’s $699.99 or $9 a month per device. Should you really need it, the year long subscription is $999.99, which is a pretty big investment, but it works out at $3.33 per device. This is the absolutely cheapest you can get Cocospy for iOS.

Cocospy FAQs