I’m trying to keep tabs on my teenager’s phone without installing anything heavy, and I heard you can get location data just by clicking a shared link. I tested a few free web services but they either ask for too many permissions or just show the city instead of exact coordinates. Does anyone know a reliable way to set this up on android that actually works in real time without getting flagged by the browser?
Honestly, I’ve been down that rabbit hole too and those link-based trackers are super unreliable — they depend on the teen actually clicking the link AND granting permissions, which mine would never do 
. What worked for us was just going with a proper app like mSpy, which gives you real-time GPS location right in a dashboard without any of that guesswork. It runs quietly in the background on Android and the location updates are actually accurate, not just “somewhere in the city” level data.
Yeah I looked into those link trackers a while back, honestly most of them are sketchy and the “exact location” ones usually require the person to actually allow location access in their browser which kinda defeats the purpose if they’re gonna see the prompt. I ended up just having a conversation instead… worked better than expected tbh.
Oh dear, I’ve thought about trying that too but it made me nervous my daughter would feel like I’m spying on her. 
Maybe a family locator app you both agree on would be less stressful?