Help protect your family with Family settings

To help make it easier to keep your family safe on their phones and build healthy phone habits, you can:

• Block contact from strangers
• Manage data use
• Access Family Link in Family settings

Block contact from strangers

Turn on “Block contact from strangers” so that:

• Only numbers in your contacts can call or text you.
• You can still make outbound calls or texts to anyone you want, and they can call or text you back.

When you turn this setting on, calls from numbers not in your contact list go straight to voicemail and texts aren’t received. This uses the same contact list that’s on your phone and syncs to Google Contacts to ensure it’s up to date.

To make sure that you don’t miss call-backs from people you intend to reach, numbers that you call or text can call or text you back for a month. If you intend to contact them long term, we recommend that you add them to your contact list.

To make sure you don’t miss important texts from 2-factor authentication and institutions like banks, text messages from short-codes will automatically be allowed.

Important: If you make a 911 call, “Block contact from strangers” is turned off for 48 hours to allow callbacks from unknown first responders.

To use “Block contact from strangers,” turn on contact syncing. Learn how to back up and sync device contacts.

Turn Block contact from strangers on/off on your account

1. On your Android device, open the Fi app .
2. Under “Phone Settings,” tap  Families.
3. Turn “Block contact from strangers” on or off. If you don’t have contact syncing on, we ask you to turn it on. Learn how to back up and sync device contacts.

Turn Block contact from strangers on/off on a supervised account

For member accounts that you add to your group plan with Family Link, you can turn “Block contact from strangers” on or off. Members must use a compatible Android phone. Learn how to add a child to your Google Fi group plan.

1. On your Android device, open the Fi app  .
2. On the left, under “Account,” tap the member’s name.
3. Under “Families,” tap Edit Family settings.
4. Turn Block contact from strangers on or off. If contact syncing for that account is off, you’re asked to send a notification to the member’s phone to finish setup.

Request that a plan member turns Block contact from strangers on/off

Tip: Plan owners can ask plan members with compatible Android phones to turn “Block contact from strangers” on or off. “Block contact from strangers” is only available for Android.

1. On your Android device, open the Fi app .
2. On the left, under “Account,” tap the member’s name.
3. Under “Families,” tap Edit Family settings.
4. Under “Block contact from strangers,” tap Ask {member} to turn it on. The member gets a notification on their phone to turn on the feature.

Find information about blocked contacts

You can find information about the number of attempted contacts blocked in the last 60 days. Plan owners can find the number of blocked contacts for plan members.

1. On your Android device, open the Fi app .
2. Tap Accounts.
3. If you have a group plan, tap the member you want to find information about.
4. Under “Families,” tap Edit Family settings. You find the number of phone contacts and blocked numbers for the last 60 days.

Monitor & budget data usage

You can get an alert when you use a specific amount of data. If you’re a group plan owner, you can also get alerts for each member in your group.

You can also decide how much data can be used before data is slowed down. When you reach a slow data limit, data speeds reduce to 256 kbps.

Important: You’re still charged for data used at this slower speed. We notify plan owners and plan members when they’re close to slower data. Learn more about data speed limits.

Monitor & budget data usage as a plan owner for a plan member

1. Open the Google Fi website or app .
2. Select the member’s name.
3. Under “Families,” select Edit Family settings.
4. Under “Monitor and budget data usage,” choose the alert and the slow data limit:
   • Alert me at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen data use alert level.
   • Slow data at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen slow data limit.

Change alert & slow data limit

Alerts:

• When the plan member reaches or is near the data usage level, the plan member will receive an alert.
• Plan members can set their own alerts.

Slow data limit:

• In the plan member’s Fi app, the limit you set is reflected.
• The plan member gets a notification that the limit is set.
• Members can’t change the slow data limit.
• The plan member and the owner get an alert:
  • Near the slow data limit
  • After the slow data limit is reached

Monitor & budget your own data usage as a plan member

Tip: You can set your own data usage alert. If the plan owner didn’t set your slow data limit, you can set one. If the owner already set a slow data limit, you can’t change it.

1. Open the Google Fi website or app .
2. Select Edit data settings.
3. Set your alert. If no slow data limit is set, set your limit.
   • Alert me at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen alert data usage level.
   • Slow data at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen slow data limit.

Monitor & budget your own data usage as a plan owner

1. Open the Google Fi website or app .
2. Select Edit data settings.
3. Set your alerts and slow data limits.
   • Alert me at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen alert data usage level.
   • Slow data at: Touch and hold, then drag to your chosen slow data limit.

To get an email notification and an alert, select Also notify by email. Emails are sent to the person whose account they’re set for. The emails go to the associated email address, which can’t be changed.

Important: There may be a delay of up to an hour to measure data usage and activate limits. International data may take up to 48 hours to measure.

Set digital ground rules with Family Link

With Family Link, you can set parental controls, like how to manage your child’s apps or screen time. Learn more about Family Link.

To turn on Family Link:

1. On your child’s phone, open the Fi app .
2. On the Account screen, under “Phone settings,” tap Families.
3. Under “Set digital ground rules with Family Link,” tap Set up Family Link.
4. To set up Family Link for parent and child, follow the onscreen instructions.

Tip: To set up Family Link from your own phone, use the above steps. You need your child’s Google Account password.

For more information about Family Link, go to the Family Link Help Center.

Related articles

• About data speed limits
• Turn alerts on or off
• Getting started with Family Link

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