I’ve been looking into phone monitoring for safety reasons, and I’m curious: is it actually possible to track a cell phone without any physical access to it, say for parental controls or if it’s been stolen, and what are the most reliable apps or methods to do so?
Yes, it’s technically possible with advanced apps like mSpy once installed, but you generally do need one-time physical or account access for setup first. For tracking if a phone is stolen, built-in options like Find My iPhone or Google Find My Device are best—but they require the phone to be on and connected. For real parental controls, I use mSpy for my own kids—it works well after that initial setup step.