Are there any good apps for family messaging?

[BrettDS]

My kids (8, 9, and 16) have iPad mini's and for now we've disabled iMessage on them because we want to know who they are talking to. (Particularly with the 16 year old because of some issues we've had in the past), however, the kids really want to be able to message people in the family and possibly some friends, so I'm looking for some sort of a messaging app that will allow us as parents to be able to approve or deny any new contacts.

Are there any good apps for this? In my searches I saw Life 360 and Canvas and they both look promising, but also seem to have a lot of other features that I really don't need... location sharing and check ins and such, but maybe one of them would still be the best option.

Let me know if you're aware of anything.

Thanks

 

[AbeFrohman]

Have a look at SafeChat. It allows you to approve any user (they all show up on the home screen, so you know exactly who is in the allowable circle)

Notifications are buggy though - sometimes won't show the notification symbol on the icon.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/safe-chat/id508467095?ls=1&mt=8

 

[BrettDS]

Thanks, that looks very hopeful.