Hoverwatch Review 2023 | Is Hoverwatch the Best Spy App?

In this Hoverwatch review, we’ll break down one of the top parental control spy apps. With the age of widespread internet use upon us, monitoring apps have become indispensable for monitoring your children’s online presence. But, working parents simply don’t have the time or resources to consistently monitor their children’s online activities — Hoverwatch solves this issue with its Android, Mac, and Windows tracking software.

Hoverwatch is a parental control app that’ll give you complete peace of mind with invisible call recording, social media tracking, and contact reporting, to name a few. On the whole, you’ll know everything the target user is doing on their device — which is great for keeping an eye on your children, employees, or your spouse.

Eager to learn more? Let’s dive into our Hoverwatch review to give you everything you need to know to decide whether it’s best for your needs.

Hoverwatch Features Reviewed

Hoverwatch is jam-packed with every monitoring tool you’d possibly need or want. Here are some of the key features on offer:

Stealth mode

One of the key characteristics of a parental monitoring app is stealth. Hoverwatch puts a lot of faith into their service’s stealth abilities, and rightly so.

The app is virtually undetectable on every platform — in fact, the only way to access it on Android is with the PIN that you get at the end of the initial app installation.

The Mac and Windows versions are in the same vein. As long as you don’t specifically want the app to be visible, it’ll be hidden in the task manager, the installed applications list, and the start menu.

Call recording

One of the defining features of Hoverwatch over other parental monitoring apps on the market is the call recording feature. Although most parental monitoring apps show when an incoming or outbound call is made, Hoverwatch is one of the very few products out there that actually lets you record the call audio.

You can also download the contents of the phone calls at any time if you wish. However, call recording isn’t on by default, so if you want to use this feature, you must enable it from the dashboard settings.

Like most other parental monitoring apps, Hoverwatch records the date and time of the call, the duration of the call, as well as which contact or number was on the other end of the phone.

Track SMS

Of course, calls are not the only way kids talk to each other in the modern era. Especially for teenagers, some other chatting or texting options are far more convenient than a regular phone call.

With Hoverwatch’s SMS tracker feature, you’ll be able to track every SMS message sent or received by the target device and see the message’s contents. This feature also keeps track of the timestamps for each message sent or received, and the phone number of the conversation partner.

WhatsApp Spy

WhatsApp is another example of a chatting app that teenagers prefer over regular calls and texts. As such, the ability to track WhatsApp messages is quite key with any spy app. With this feature, you can track all messages, calls, and files along with timestamps, and contact information.

Snapchat Spy

Another popular chatting app among teenagers is Snapchat. Snapchat tracking is another point of contention that determines the quality of a spy app.

That’s because usually when someone sends a file, video, or image on Snapchat, the recipient can only see it for a set amount of time. If the recipient tries to screenshot said image or video, the sender will receive a notification about it.

All of this means that actually being able to track files sent via Snapchat is a premium feature that differentiates the good apps from the great.

With Hoverwatch, the files, images, and videos are stored on your dashboard, along with timestamps, and contact information. Plus, you even have the option to download the files or images in question.

Facebook Messenger Tracking

Facebook is still one of the biggest social media services in the world, and millions of teenagers use Facebook messenger to communicate with each other every day.

In this respect, Facebook tracking on Hoverwatch definitely doesn’t fall behind the rest. It allows you to track every message sent and received on the app, of course, alongside their timestamps, and contact information.

This feature is especially useful for business owners, as a lot of corporate support practices are done through Facebook messenger. With this feature, you can track whether your employees are upholding company standards as they work.

Instagram Tracking

Instagram’s popularity is unsurprising. Similar to Snapchat, this one trades off some of its confidentiality for a more customizable and feature-laden form.

For parental tracking, this app is exceptionally important as it’s what most teenagers use to meet and interact with potential relationship candidates.

And besides this, teenagers are prime targets for any malicious entities online, including predators, cyberbullies, catfishes, or even kidnappers. With Hoverwatch, you can monitor all direct messages (even the deleted ones) and shared links to make sure your kids aren’t being taken advantage of.

On top of this, Hoverwatch has Instagram-specific features such as viewing the Instagram gallery, likes and comments, Instagram stories, and the location information of any picture posted in any of these categories.

Other Social Media Tracking

There are so many different social media platforms available, and there are only going to be more as time goes on.

Thankfully, Hoverwatch doesn’t just include the most popular social media apps. The app supports tracking a plethora of different social media apps, including quite a few niche ones.

This includes applications like WeChat, Kik, Viber, LINE, and even privacy-based apps like Signal and Telegram. The tracking for these applications works the same way as it does with each major social media app.

Browser History Tracker

Every parental monitoring suite worth its salt lets you check in on what your children are browsing, and Hoverwatch is no exception. As we’re in the midst of the new age of the internet, browser history tracking is exceptionally important.

When it comes to monitoring your employees or protecting your loved ones from questionable content on the internet, Hoverwatch lets you check all of their browsing data.

Be it violence, drugs, viruses, or even if it’s just innocent browsing being done instead of homework, you’ll be able to see it all, with links, timestamps, and screenshots — no matter the platform the target device is using.

Track Phone Location

Hoverwatch sports a superb location tracking feature that allows you to find out where your child is, on-demand. The location tracking feature uses the Android GPS system to ensure a high level of accuracy when reporting where the target device is.

On top of this, Hoverwatch comes with a high level of customization. You can choose between cell phone tracking, GPS tracking, and internet tracking depending on how accurate you want the tracking to be.

You can also choose when you want the location to get updated — from 5 minutes to a full day.

Unlock Selfies

Another unique feature that comes with Hoverwatch is the ability to unlock selfies. This isn’t the only caveat of this feature, though. If the target device ever gets stolen, you’ll be able to get a photo of the perpetrator quite easily, which will, in turn, increase your odds of getting your device back or having justice served.

Gallery Tracking

Another feature available to this app is, of course, gallery tracking. This feature allows you to see all the images and videos present on the target Android device, along with their added dates — plus, you can download them at will.

Scheduled Screenshots

Another useful feature that Hoverwatch brings to the table is being able to take scheduled screenshots. This allows you to see exactly what’s going on with the target device at any given time, allowing you to confirm the information you’ve been given elsewhere.

This is a phenomenal feature for making sure your children are working on their homework or for live insight into what they’re up to. This feature is also off by default, so you must go to your dashboard settings to enable it.

Keylogger

Hoverwatch on Windows and Mac doesn’t include the mobile form of social media tracking. Instead, the keylogger feature basically replaces all the social media and messaging tracking features and combines them all in one.

The keylogger tracks every keystroke on the target device and tracks what application or browser the words get typed into as well. Besides this, it’ll also provide timestamps for each keystroke.

It doesn’t end there either. Hoverwatch also keeps track of the exact executable location if anything gets inputted into an application, which is great if you’re worried there’s an unauthorized app on their computer.

Sim Card Tracking

Hoverwatch doesn’t just let you track your target device with GPS, it also lets you track the SIM card when it’s inserted into the phone. This feature allows you to see whenever the target phone has its SIM card swapped out or is fiddled with in any way.

When combined with other features like unlock screenshots, Hoverwatch is very useful for monitoring your child’s phone in case it ever gets stolen. Even if the SIM card is replaced, Hoverwatch will report the new SIM card along with the IMEI code which can help track down your phone when passed along to the authorities or your phone manufacturer.

Hoverwatch’s Ease-of-Use

Features are one thing, but what about the app’s user-friendliness? From ease of use to compatibility, here’s what you need to know.

What Devices Can I Use Hoverwatch on?

Hoverwatch has an impressive set of features, but they wouldn’t be any good without coverage on a bunch of different devices. Thankfully, Hoverwatch is available on many platforms, including:

Android

Hoverwatch runs on all Android devices with Android 4.0 or later, plus all major device manufacturers for Android. Needless to say, you can be confident that Hoverwatch will cover your Android device, but there’s a free trial period on Android just to make sure.

Most importantly, Hoverwatch doesn’t require you to root your Android phone to get access to the powerful monitoring features of the Android spy app.

This means that Hoverwatch will work on a default, factory-model Android phone without any additional preparation. Many other providers offer two different Android apps — one that needs root to offer the full set of monitoring features, and a non-root version with fewer features.

However, with Hoverwatch, you don’t need to worry about the possible security vulnerabilities or warranty issues that come with rooting your phone. Everything just works without the hassle.

iOS

While Hoverwatch’s Android offering is one of the best in the business, unfortunately, there’s currently no iOS version of Hoverwatch. Most parental monitoring solutions are moving away from an iPhone app on the phone and towards an iCloud-based data-sync solution.

This involves using the backups on the iCloud to move data and files over to the monitoring app dashboard. Hoverwatch doesn’t offer this feature at the moment, but we hope in the future this feature comes to Hoverwatch.

Mac OSX

Most parental monitoring apps focus only on offering software for phones. Hoverwatch is the exception. It’s available on all modern versions of Mac OSX across both desktop Macs and MacBook laptops.

The most important part of the Hoverwatch app for Mac OSX is the keylogger, which records all pressed keys. This allows you to capture passwords, check visited websites, and monitor chats made on the device, along with anything else typed into the computer.

On top of this, Hoverwatch also regularly captures screenshots so you can see what your child or employee is up to.

Windows

Windows is still an incredibly popular operating system, but most parental monitoring apps don’t cover it. Just like the Mac OSX version, Hoverwatch on Windows covers all modern Windows operating systems regardless of whether you’re on a laptop or desktop.

For laptop users, Hoverwatch on Windows comes with all the OSX features plus the ability to capture Webcam screenshots so you can see who’s using the computer. This is great if you suspect your kid is up to something naughty while you’re at work.

To top it off, Hoverwatch is also designed for stealth, so it won’t show up in your taskbar. All this, and it captures internet browsing data straight from the browser — simply head to your Hoverwatch dashboard to view it all at your leisure.

How to Install Hoverwatch

Hoverwatch does everything it can to make the installation process as simple as possible. We’ll go through each install process in this Hoverwatch review for each platform:

Android

Installing Hoverwatch on Android phones and tablets is pretty simple, although — as with most phone spy apps — it does require you to have physical access to the phone.

While you don’t have to root the phone before installing Hoverwatch on Android, you’ll have to allow the operating system to install third-party apps from outside the Google App Store.

This might sound complex, but it’s very easy. All you have to do is:

1. Open the Settings app on your Android phone
2. Navigate to “General” and then “Security“
3. Once you’re in, enable the “Install from unknown sources” option

Now you can install the Hoverwatch app, simply:

1. Go to the Hoverwatch website and create your account
2. Pick the phone OS that you want to monitor
3. Head to the Hoverwatch website, sign in, and download the .apk install file
4. When you run the .apk file, you’ll get a pin code — write it down
5. With the pop-up that says “Please, activate Usage access”. Tap “Yes”
6. Then find and tap “Sync service”
7. Finally, turn on “Allow usage tracking”
8. Go back to the app and click “Disable battery optimization”
9. Next, accept the pop-up that reads “Activate device administrator”
10. Lastly, tap and hold “activate” on the bottom right

You don’t need to purchase a subscription plan when you sign up, but you’ll need to after a few days. More importantly, when you run the .apk file, you’ll get a very important code. Be sure to keep this safe as you’ll need it to download the app.

Now you’re all set to start monitoring your Android device with Hoverwatch and within minutes, your dashboard will begin to populate with data from the phone.

Mac

For Mac devices, it only gets easier. You’ll still need brief physical access on the target device as there’s currently no remote install option for Hoverwatch on Mac.

Once you’ve gained access, you’ll need to log into the Hoverwatch website. From there, all you have to do is download and install the Mac version of Hoverwatch.

When you run the installer, you’ll have to agree to Hoverwatch’s Terms of Service and choose between the different types of use cases. You can choose between monitoring your child, an employee, or monitoring your personal device. Once you’ve finished installing, you’re ready.

Windows

Most of the installation process is the same on Windows. Once you’re logged into the right account on Windows, you’ll need to head to Hoverwatch’s website to get a copy of the Windows version.

Create your account and purchase a Windows license, which allows you to start the download. When you install Hoverwatch, you’ll need either administrator privileges or the password for an administrator account on the computer.

After you’ve followed the prompts and read through the Hoverwatch Terms of Service, that’s it. However, take note — the only way to change the use case decision on Hoverwatch for Windows or Mac currently is to run the installer again to tweak the settings.

Hoverwatch Performance | How Fast is Hoverwatch?

Running without slowing the phone down is absolutely vital for parental monitoring apps. The better the app performance is, the fewer resources it takes up, which makes it less noticeable to the target device user.

Being stealthy is important when using parental monitoring apps because of the potential breach of trust it represents. You want the best for your kids, but if they know they’re being watched, they might hide certain inappropriate actions from you.

Therefore, app performance is one of the key metrics that let us separate the good from the bad (and the great from the sub-par) when it comes to parental monitoring apps.

In this respect, we think Hoverwatch is phenomenal. The Hoverwatch app runs superbly on any of the many platforms it’s built for. Plus, you can also choose how often you want Hoverwatch to upload data to the dashboard.

In fact, you can also set the intervals at which the app will upload data — do you want to track the location of your teen as often as possible, but don’t necessarily need to get screenshots every 5 minutes? Hoverwatch has you covered.

Granted, if the target device were to slow down significantly whenever it connects to the internet, it could arouse suspicion quite easily. Although we didn’t notice significant slowdowns during our tests, we still recommend spreading the data load across a certain period, rather than all at once.

Other than these points, the battery load seems to be quite low. At the highest update frequency, the highest consumer of battery power was the location tracking updates. Even then, this only made a difference of about 8% in terms of battery usage. So, not a big deal at all.

The speed of the Hoverwatch installation is mainly gated by your internet download speeds, as you’re required to download the .apk or app from their website.

Granted, this app is still very lightweight, so with modern-day internet speeds, your installation should be done in 5 minutes tops. The quick installation is also a plus in the stealth department, as it means the time required to have physical access to the target device is minimized.

How Secure is Hoverwatch? | Is Hoverwatch Safe?

Spy apps can raise a lot of flags, and rightfully so. There are ample unsafe monitoring apps on the market, so where does Hoverwatch’s security stand?

Hoverwatch’s Security

Hoverwatch utilizes tried-and-true encryption techniques that, over time, have become industry standard. They use these encryption schemes to keep the data on your target device, the data on your monitor device, and, of course, your personal information.

The data is encrypted using RSA-4096, a military-grade encryption solution. In essence, this ensures that all the data captured from the app is encrypted before it arrives at the Hoverwatch servers.

This way, Hoverwatch employees cannot see the contents of your private data stored on their servers because they don’t have your private key. This has the added benefit of protecting you against hackers, so even in the event of a breach of Hoverwatch’s servers, they would only be able to steal useless encrypted files.

Your private key is also stored in AES-256, which is virtually impossible to crack using brute force methods. This encryption is system-wide.

Plus, on top of all of this, the data sent back and forth from the target device to the dashboard also happens to go through encrypted TLS channels only, so it’s completely secure from anyone trying to peek at your data from the outside.

Hoverwatch’s Transparency Reputation

Where does Hoverwatch stand on privacy? Well, let’s find dive into the details of their audits, and the logging and privacy policy.

Audits

One of the key points of establishing trust between companies and their customers when it comes to handling sensitive data is third-party audits.

At this time, Hoverwatch doesn’t seem to have contacted a third-party auditor to affirm its security and privacy status. Hoverwatch, however, does clearly and transparently inform us about how their encryption works on their website.

We do hope Hoverwatch eventually presents us with a third-party audit sometime in the future since audits are such an integral part of building trust in the handling of sensitive data.

Logging

As you sign up for Hoverwatch, your email address, age, country, and IP address will be collected for the purpose of providing you with the service.

As you use the service, additional data, such as account information, device information, and website access information is also collected.

When you make a subscription plan purchase, the service can collect additional personal information about you, which includes stuff like your name, date of birth, phone number, payment information depending on your payment provider, your postal code, and your transaction history.

After your subscription is over, this information is stored for 30 calendar days, and then deleted. An anonymized version of it is used by Hoverwatch to improve its logistics, diagnostics, and their service as a whole.

This data isn’t handed out to anyone other than specific Hoverwatch partners. Exceptions are events such as a police investigation, in which case they’re required to comply with the laws of the country, or a takeover of the company by another corporation.

Privacy Policy

Hoverwatch is a USA-based startup founded in 2002. As such, the data is under USA regulation. However, their privacy policy seems to have been updated to be in accordance with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law.

The text also clearly states what rights this law gives to the user over their own personal information. This means that Hoverwatch effectively complies with GDPR, and so can be used in European countries (assuming that the use of Hoverwatch also complies with local laws).

GDPR allows you to access, rectify, delete or remove, restrict processing of, and copy or transfer your data. They also state that in the case of a failure to uphold any of these, you are allowed to complain to a supervisory authority. The privacy policy openly states what kinds of data are stored, and what they’re used for.

They also state that they do not take responsibility for other third parties that they may or may not utilize the services of. Lastly, they mention that their service is not directed towards children under 16 and that they don’t knowingly collect personal data from children under 16, in accordance with standard practices for most of the world.

Where Can I Use Hoverwatch?

Hoverwatch is a product you can use in almost any environment on the planet — as long as the target device has an internet connection, it’ll report back to the Hoverwatch servers so you can check the latest updates.

In terms of legality, there’s no need to check or ensure that they’re aware of the monitoring if the target user is your child, as long as you’re their legal guardian and they’re under 18, you can use Hoverwatch legally — this is a relief, as tracking your children is an unfortunate necessity with the modern internet.

However, if you’re using Hoverwatch to monitor an employee or an unsuspecting victim, there are some additional considerations you need to make. Importantly, these individuals need to be made aware of the monitoring and the spyware.

On the whole, tracking the information of non-consenting adults is considered wiretapping in many countries, and thus you should always check in with our country’s laws before installing Hoverwatch.

In the US, many states consider it wiretapping unless both parties are aware that a call is being recorded. In the UK, recording calls can be legal if it’s for personal use and one party is aware of the recording, but it may be illegal to publish this data.

If you’re unsure if your use of Hoverwatch is legal, check with a legal expert first.

Hoverwatch Price | How Much Does Hoverwatch Cost?

Hoverwatch offers competitive pricing compared to the rest of the parental monitoring app market. There are a couple of different pricing plans, but each one gives you all the features advertised on the Hoverwatch website.

There are no “basic” and “premium” packages, or price changes between each platform. All you need to know to pick a pricing plan is how many devices in total you decide to cover.

The “Personal” package covers a single device, while the “Professional” package covers up to five devices, and the “Business” package monitors up to twenty-five devices.

Notably, only the Professional and Business package offers the Hoverwatch Mobile Viewer, which gives you all the control of the Hoverwatch browser dashboard in a dedicated Android app.

Personal

For the Personal subscription, it’s $24.95 per month if you buy Hoverwatch on a month-by-month basis. This is already pretty cheap compared to most parental monitoring apps, but the savings only get better from there. The Hoverwatch Personal subscription goes down to $19.98 a month when you buy three months at once, for a total of $59.95. That’s a small improvement in the per month price, but if you buy twelve months of Hoverwatch personal you’re only paying $8.33 a month, or $99.95 in total. Some other apps would expect you to pay for a bulk package to get a similar per-device price, so this is absolutely a bargain for the number of features Hoverwatch offers.

Professional

When you buy Hoverwatch Professional, the base rate is $49.95 per month for a plan that covers five devices, which works out at $9.99 per month per device. This is already almost as cheap as the twelve month Personal package on a per-device basis! The three month Professional subscription costs $99.95, or $6.66 per month per device. The savings get even better when you buy the twelve month Professional package, which costs $199.95 for the year at only $3.33 per month per device. This is a great option if you’ve got several family members who each have a device or two you need to cover.

Business

For bulk monitoring solutions, you’ll probably need the Hoverwatch Business subscription. It covers up to twenty five devices, and on a per month basis this costs $149.95, or $6 per month per device. As you can see, Business users get a fantastic deal even when buying monthly. For three months of Hoverwatch Business, it costs $299.95, or $4.00 by device. Finally, the twelve month rolling subscription costs $499.95. While this is a lot to put down up front, it works out at only $1.67 per month per device, which is one of the most cost-effective packages we’ve seen for monitoring solutions.

In conclusion, buying in bulk over buying shorter duration plans presents you with a prospect of massive savings, up to 66% over the per month price. For payment methods, they accept most major credit card companies, such as Mastercard, Visa, American Express, JCB, and Maestro. Like with most online services in the current day, they also accept payments through Paypal, which should be very convenient for some. We would like to see cryptocurrency payment options in the future, but purchasing Hoverwatch is a painless process by debit or credit card.

Hoverwatch Review FAQs