The One Spy Review

This review was last updated on: 10/05/2016

TheOneSpy may have been one of the most impressive services we’ve tested to date. On top of being packed with useful features, I really liked the dashboard interface which is simple to understand and puts all the information you need at the tips of your fingers. Whether you’re looking for a way to monitor your child’s device, or hoping to keep tabs on an employee with a company phone; TheOneSpy is definitely one of your best options to ensure you’re able to paint the clearest picture possible of what’s going on. While other services only give you a cursory view, TheOneSpy provides ample data to make sure there is no misinterpretation of the situation.

Features

TheOneSpy is extremely feature rich and has an easy to navigate dashboard from which you can check what’s going on, on the target device, in real time. Along with all the standard options like viewing images, SMS messages, or Call logs; TheOneSpy includes a ton of advanced features like real time GPS Tracking with the location displayed on Google Maps, Mic Bugging (which allows you to listen in on the device’s surroundings), monitoring of many popular social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messgener, Viber, Skype; and can even allow you to listen to actual voice calls which are all recorded by default. You’re also able to remotely send SMS messages from the target device! This can be especially useful if you want to coax some information out of someone or test your suspicions about a certain unknown number.

One of the coolest features in my opinion is the ability to remotely send commands to the device which can accomplish any number of feats like recording the device’s surroundings, or even deleting TheOneSpy all together without anyone ever being the wiser. This is achieved by sending a simple command via SMS to the target device; for example sending “..dead” to the target device is the command to delete TheOneSpy. Don’t forget the two periods at the beginning!

Any activity that takes place on the event is referred to as an “Event”. Events can be tracked and saved even when the target device isn’t able to connect to the internet, if for example it’s out of cellphone range, or in airplane mode. In that case, all events are stored on the device until an internet connection is re-established, at which point it is able to upload all outstanding events. By default, events are uploaded in real time to your dashboard but it is possible to adjust the settings so that events are sent after short delays ranging from every 15 minutes, to every 24 hours, rather than in real time. The advantage there is that real time even tracking can be a drain on battery life, which can in turn cause the user to be suspicious about the sudden uptick in battery usage. As such, we suggest you set the event upload to a reasonable delay like every 15 – 30 minutes to ensure battery life is not compromised. The standard package allows for 500gb of stored data on your dashboard but this is expandable if you find that it doesn’t adequately meet your needs. All data sent by TheOneSpy is encrypted via AES/PKI Encryption and the website itself is secured by the HTTPS protocol, preventing any man in the middle attacks on your personal data.

Other useful, though less conventional uses mentioned on TheOneSpy blog include using a target device as a baby monitor or nanny-cam, monitoring elderly relatives, and there’s even a story about a US Serviceman who installed this on his own device so his family could be updated on his safety in real time while he was deployed abroad.

The one gripe that I had throughout the whole experience is when I found out that the service didn’t actually offer multi device support as is implied on the website. Instead, what you’re able to do is switch monitoring from one device to another. This involves updating your account info to enable tracking on the new device and requires you, obviously, to re-install the application on the new target device. If, on the other hand, what you’re hoping to achieve is to monitor multiple people with a single account, you will be forced to purchase a separate license for each person you’re hoping to monitor. If you have a large family, it can quickly become a very expensive proposition to begin tracking all of your children.

Feature List:

Pros:

Voice Calls

• Record Calls and listen later!
• Call History

SMS

• View, send or receive SMS messages through the target device
• iMessages
• Pin Messages

Multimedia

• View all media taken via the devices camera
• Any media received via MMS
• Full access to all photo albums saved on the device

Internet Activities

• View browser history
• View all bookmarks
• Limit access to certain sites via Parental Control

Remote Access

• View a list of all installed apps
• Send a list of convenient commands to the device remotely through the dashboard
  • Ex: Delete TheOneSpy
  • Pause / Resume Monitoring
  • Record audio of the device’s surroundings or even listen live

Bugging

• Listen to phone surroundings
• Activate the camera to take videos or pictures of the device’s surroundings

Calendar

• Look at all calendar entries

Track Their Location

• Current GPS location
• Look at location history
• Find out travel routes

Read Emails

• Read sent/receive emails
• Read Gmail
• View email contacts list

Notifications

• Alerts on SIM change
• Prohibited Location Entry Alert
• Geo Fence Alert

Supported Multimedia Formats

• Videos: MP4, M4v, AVI WMV, 3GP, 3G2, CGM, SVG, ODG, EPS, PDF, SWF, WMF, XPS, EMF, EMF+, EMZ, ASF,
• Images: JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, RAW, EXIF, TIFF, PPM, ECW, PGM, PBM, PNM,
• Audio: MP3, MP4, WAV, WMA, MIDI, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, QCP, RA, AMR, AMR_WM, PCM, AIFF, BWF, au

Cons:

• iPhones must be jailbroken
• Can be expensive if taking the Monthly package
• Doesn’t truly support multiple devices on one license as you are lead to believe on the website.

Compatibility

iPhone

The one hiccup for iPhone users may be the fact that the iPhone needs to be jailbroken. If you’re not particularly tech savvy this can prove to be a daunting task but it is actually relatively simple to achieve if you follow the instructions precisely. You can check out our iPhone Jailbreaking guide for more info. That also means that you’ll need to physically posses the device any time you want to update the app as it is not able to do so automatically or remotely.

Frankly, this product is well worth the extra effort as Jailbreak free alternatives are simply not as effective, and don’t offer the same level of monitoring as a product like TheOneSpy can achieve. All of the coolest features like the Mic Bug feature, real time location tracking, call recording, and the like are simply not possible unless the device is Jailbroken. The iPhone will need to be restarted to finalize the installation process.

Supported iOS Versions: iOS 4, iOS 5, iOS 6, iOS 7.0, iOS 8.0

Supported iModels:

iPhone: iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G

iPads: iPad Air, iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad 2

Android

Android users on the other hand need not worry too much about whether the device is rooted or not. According to TheOneSpy’s website, non rooted devices shouldn’t suffer from any limitations though they do mention that rooted devices are “preferred”. I’m not exactly sure why that would be but in my experience having root access definitely affords a higher level of control over the device. My intuition says that the advanced features would definitely benefit from having root access and if it’s at all feasible, I would recommend the device be rooted to ensure full compatibility. Note that if you want to enable the feature which will prevent the Super User Notifacation to be displayed while TheOneSpy is running, you will need to perform a restart following the installation. You should definitely do this! A knowledgeable user will notice that SU is running and will be able to track down the app in question.

TheOneSpy is available on all versions of Android from OS 1.5 all the way to 6.0.1. It’s all compatible with all device manufacturers and carriers.

BlackBerry

Supports the following BlackBerry models running OS versions 5.0 to 6.x.

Supported models: Blackberry Bold, Curve, Pearl, Storm, Storm 2, Torch, Tour, Bold, Bold2

Stealth

Even the most feature rich product simply won’t be much use if the end user knows they’re being monitored. While it tends to leave us feeling morally compromised, it’s a simple fact that monitoring cannot be as effective unless it’s hidden. People are incredibly resourceful, and can always find ways to game the system. Luckily, TheOneSpy is completely hidden from all app lists, and doesn’t produce any kind of notifications, messages, or indications of any kind that it is running. Furthermore, if you’re really in a bind, TheOneSpy allows you to delete the application remotely, leaving no traces whatsoever that it was ever there.

Support

One thing that really jumped out at me about TheOneSpy is how incredibly detailed the FAQ is, almost obsessively so. This guide seriously covers pretty much any questions you could possible have about the software from how to install, to how to view info, trouble shooting, and just about anything else you may need. If you do find yourself overwhelmed for some reason or another, the also offer 24/7 support where you can speak to a real person who will help you resolve any issues you may have. We found support staff to be very helpful when we tested them by asking them to help us with the Jailbreak process, something that other companies don’t typically do for fear of taking on added liability.

Price / Value

At first glance TheOneSpy seems to be a little bit too pricey to appeal to the lower budget users. While this may be true if you’re looking at the monthly plan, on closer inspection you’ll notice that there are substantial savings to be had if you’re able to absorb the up front cost of a yearly membership. For example, the most expensive plan on Android can run upwards of $50 per month if you’re paying on month by month basis; but that monthly cost is brought down to just over $20 per month on the yearly package. That represents savings of 58%! Similarly, the iPhone plan can be brought down from $18 per month to just over $11 per month. At just $11 this product is truly a steal as that is similar in price to other alternatives which have far less features, and are more difficult to use overall. If you check our photo gallery a little lower down the page we’ve added comparison charts which show you the different price levels, along with what level of service each price bracket provides you.

In Conclusion

TheOneSpy was hands down one of the most useful, reliable, and overall impressive products we’ve had the pleasure of testing. While the initial price may seem daunting at first we highly recommend users opt for the yearly price point, if they can afford the upfront cost, which can help you save almost 60% on the listed price! Overall, this is pretty much an ideal solution for any employer or parent in the market for some peace of mind.