Table of contents
- Highster mobile review: Key takeaways
- What is Highster?
- Is Highster Mobile legit?
- Is Highster Mobile legal?
- Can Highster be used illegally?
- How many devices can you monitor with Highster Mobile?
- How does Highster Mobile work?
- How to use Highster Mobile
- Highster core features
- SMS messages
- GPS location
- Live control panel
- Camera access
- Log of incoming and outgoing calls
- Browser history
- Multimedia log
- Social networking logs
- Email log
- iMessages
- Contacts monitoring
- Remote uninstall
- Full list of Highster features
- Device compatibility
- 1. With iPhones
- 2. With Android
- Highster pros and cons
- What are Highster Mobile's spying features?
- Highster Mobile price
- Highster support
- What do customer reviews about Highster Mobile?
- Is Highster worth it?
Highster mobile review: Key takeaways
Overview: Highster is a monitoring app designed for parents and employers to track activities on Android and iOS devices, although bad actors can use it maliciously.
Legality: Highster Mobile is legal and emphasizes the importance of monitoring with consent and within legal boundaries, but Highster doesn’t enforce these requirements.
Performance issues: The app suffers from inconsistent performance and issues like freezing and rebooting the target device.
Discoverability: It is not completely hidden—the app icon, though disguised, is visible in the Settings window and app menu, making detection possible.
Customer support: Customer support is often unresponsive, with long delays.
Installation: Requires jailbreaking or rooting the target device, which can void its warranty.
Device compatibility: Limited to iOS and Android devices, with full features requiring jailbreaking or rooting.
Features: Offers a wide range of tracking features including text messages, GPS location, call logs, social media, and more.
Pricing: Offers three pricing plans without a free trial—one device per plan.
User feedback: Mixed reviews, with a majority negative, citing issues with functionality, customer service, refund policies, and the ethics of use.
Conclusion: Despite its comprehensive feature set, poor performance and customer support challenges make Highster a less desirable option compared to alternatives. It is also important to point out that people often use tools like Highster illegally. In these cases, anti-spyware apps like Clario AntiSpy give protection.
What is Highster?
Highster, also called Highster Mobile, is a phone and tablet monitoring app for parents and employers. It lets the user track phone activities to ensure the safety of children or the security of company phones.
Highster can “watch” the following activities:
- Text messages: Tracks all text messages, including deleted ones.
- GPS location: Provides real-time tracking of the phone's GPS location.
- Call log insights: Offers detailed information about incoming and outgoing calls, including duration and frequency.
- Social media: Monitors interactions on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
- Multimedia: Allows users to view photos and videos taken or received by the monitored device.
The app requires no technical expertise for installation and is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. It is not supported on smartphones and tablets with other operating systems.
Is Highster Mobile legit?
Highster Mobile is a legitimate tracker. It seems to take the legalities of tracking seriously and targets parents and employers working with consent.
Despite this, it has numerous problems, mainly related to performance and customer support. Moreover, installation requires you to jailbreak the target phone, which may invalidate its warranty.
Another big issue with the latest version of Highster is that you can’t hide it. The app icon, although disguised, is visible both in the Settings window and the app menu.
Is Highster Mobile legal?
Highster itself is legal. Its website clarifies that you shouldn’t use the app to spy. It also states it is the user's responsibility to ensure that they monitor in accordance with the appropriate laws.
Ethically, Highster promotes itself as a tool for online safety and productivity enhancement. It emphasizes the importance of privacy and consent adherence. That said, there is significant potential for misuse.
The legal use of tracking software like Highster requires consent. It must also serve valid purposes like employee monitoring or child safety and adhere to local privacy laws. Misuse or non-consensual spying is almost always illegal, with legislation varying slightly by jurisdiction.
Can Highster be used illegally?
There is a risk of abuse from malicious actors, but Highster Mobile isn’t running a scam. The parent company is ILF Mobile Apps.
That said, improper use is possible and most likely does occur. Wives spy on husbands (and vice versa), ex-partners may act from jealousy, and criminals of all stripes may track activity for illicit purposes. And this is made possible with an app like Highster.
If you’re uncertain how to tell if your phone is being tracked, remember that Clario AntiSpy is an easy-to-use solution for scanning your device for spy apps.
The app monitors your phone for any suspicious or threatening activity. You can then remove spyware quickly and easily.
Here’s how to use Clario’s AntiSpyware scan:
- Download Clario AntiSpy and create your account.
- Click Run deep scan.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to review detected threats and remove them.
How many devices can you monitor with Highster Mobile?
You can monitor one device per plan. To track multiple devices, you need to purchase additional plans.
There are no enterprise discounts. This may result in high costs for employers seeking to track a lot of devices.
How does Highster Mobile work?
Highster follows a relatively straightforward monitoring process.
First, a disguised app is installed and activated on the target device. This usually takes about two minutes.
The target phone sends information to Highsters’ servers, which you access through your control panel. The target phone does not need to connect to the internet.
All information should be accessible almost instantly through a user-friendly dashboard, where it can be saved or deleted.
How to use Highster Mobile
- Purchase a plan (1, 3, or 12 months).
- Open your setup instructions received by email.
- Access the target phone (you’ll need about two minutes).
- Enter the link provided by Highster into the target phone’s browser.
- Download and activate the app with your license key.
- Log into your dashboard on your desktop or mobile device.
Also, keep in mind the following points:
- You will need to jailbreak the target phone.
- If the target phone's number changes, you will not need to reinstall the app.
- You can uninstall the app remotely if needed.
- You do not need internet access for the phone to transfer information.
- Apps designed to protect iPhones from hackers and find ransomware in Android can detect Highster.
Highster core features
Highster’s main selling point is its wide set of features covering most phone activities. Let’s take a look at these in depth.
SMS messages
Highster Mobile tracks every sent and received text message, logging full content, the receiver's phone numbers, and the date and time of the message exchange, even if the user deleted the phone's logs.
You can monitor all text communications. Because information transfers in real time, this includes deleted texts.
GPS location
The GPS location tracking feature updates every ten minutes, providing location data of the target phone with a link to a map.
With GPS location, parents can monitor their children's whereabouts and employers can track the on-field activities of their employees to increase safety and productivity.
Live control panel
Highster Mobile's “Live Control Panel” gives comprehensive access to details from the target phone in real time, including logs, time triggers, and display options.
The user-friendly interface allows for interactive monitoring of all regular activities, making it attractive to everyday users.
Camera access
The “Stealth Camera” feature activates the phone's camera to take pictures and videos of the surroundings, which you can view immediately or save for later.
This adds a layer of tracking functionality, allowing users to visually capture and review the environment around the target device.
Log of incoming and outgoing calls
Highster Mobile logs every incoming and outgoing call with details like duration, time, and contact name. It even retrieves deleted call logs.
This feature provides a complete overview of the call history on the target phone, making it almost impossible for users to hide their call activities.
Browser history
All websites visited through the phone's browser are logged, helping parents and employers monitor and restrict access to inappropriate or non-productive online content.
This feature captures the complete internet browsing history, including the specific URLs of sites.
Multimedia log
Highster Mobile records all photos and videos taken or received by the target phone, offering a detailed view of the visual content stored and shared through the target device.
It seems geared primarily at parents concerned about their children's exposure to inappropriate content but also has applications for employee tracking.
Social networking logs
This feature tracks all activities on social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others.
The tracking goes beyond simple messaging. Highster Mobile captures detailed logs from the services it can access, providing a full picture of social media usage.
Email log
The email monitoring tool logs all contents of sent and received emails. It provides details of email exchanges with a very short delay, all accessible through the Highster Mobile control panel.
iMessages
Highster Mobile's iMessage monitoring captures all communication sent and received through Apple's messaging service, including the content and timing of the messages. This feature only applies to iPhones.
Contacts monitoring
Highster Mobile gives access to the target phone's contact list, calendar logs, and memo tool.
This feature is particularly helpful for parents monitoring their children's social circle and employers tracking their employees' professional contacts. In addition, it means you can follow day-to-day activities and plans logged on the phone.
Remote uninstall
The remote uninstall feature lets you remove the monitoring application from the target device via the online control panel.
This allows for a straightforward wrap-up of monitoring activities without needing direct access to the target phone.
Full list of Highster features
Here is a full rundown of all of Highster’s twenty-four features:
- Call Log: Catalog and inspect details of all calls made and received.
- Text Message Log: Archive of texts sent and received.
- GPS Logs: Retrieve details of all GPS locations visited.
- Email Log: See emails sent and received.
- Browser History Logs: Records of website visits and online searches.
- Photos Log: Access to every photo taken or viewed on the device.
- Videos Log: Access to videos watched or recorded.
- WhatsApp: Monitoring of messages, voice notes, and images shared.
- Contact Detail Log: Access the device's contact list.
- Device Diagnostics: Covers the device's operational health and status
- Continuous Tracking: Regular updates and uploads of device data.
- Mobile Monitoring: Keep tabs on the target phone directly from your mobile.
- Facebook Logs: Detailed tracking of all Facebook interactions
- Skype Logs: Monitor all activities and conversations on Skype
- Instagram Logs: Monitor Instagram posts and messages
- Remote Uninstall: Remotely remove the tracking software.
- Stealth Camera: Remotely activate the camera for live surveillance.
- Live Control Panel: Access the control panel from any device.
- Lock Target Phone: Secure the target phone remotely in case of misuse.
- Notes: Access notes made on the target phone.
- Calendar: Monitor all entries and appointments in the user's calendar.
- WeChat: Tracking of WeChat conversations and shared media.
- LineChat: Follow interactions and media exchanges on LineChat.
- Twitter: View tweets and interactions on Twitter.
Device compatibility
Highster is compatible with both iPhones and Android. You will need to jailbreak the tracked device in both cases.
1. With iPhones
You will need to access the iPhone you plan to track for around 2 minutes to install Highster. Also, you may need to jailbreak the device first.
Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPhone
2. With Android
You will need to access the Android you plan to track for around 2 minutes to install Highster. You may need to jailbreak the device first.
You must root the device to use features related to WhatsApp, Skype, Line, BBM, Facebook, Viber, Instagram, and email, the target Android.
Compatible with Samsung, Motorola, HTC, LG, Sony, Google, Huawei
Highster pros and cons
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What are Highster Mobile's spying features?
Highster Mobile's spy features include GPS tracking, which allows real-time location monitoring of the target device. Highster pitches this feature as a tool for tracking the safety of family members, especially children, or the efficiency of employees out of the office.
The platform also offers access to the target phone’s text messages, email, and social media activities, giving more or less complete oversight of communications.
Finally, Highster Mobile can operate in stealth mode, ensuring that monitoring activities remain disguised though not undetectable. This allows for discreet surveillance.
Highster should be used with consent or to protect individuals whom the law permits to track. If you feel somebody is monitoring you, you can learn how to check if your phone is hacked.
Highster Mobile price
Highster offers three pricing plans, with recurring plans paid in advance:
- 1 month for $48.99
- 3 months for $28.00/month (paid in advance)
- 12 months for $11.67/month (paid in advance)
Every plan provides access to all features, is suitable for both Android and iOS devices, and includes “Invisible Mode.”
Highster doesn’t offer a free trial. Only one phone is allowed per plan purchased.
Highster support
Highster offers email support with a 24-hour turnaround, according to its website. You will also receive a mobile number and an online form.
However, most reviewers have spoken about having negative experiences with customer support, with delays over the promised response window.
You receive initial installation instructions through an online link. And, while Highster has attempted to make installation and activation as easy as possible, you may need more technical know-how to set up the tracking app if you cannot access somebody to guide you through the process.
What do customer reviews about Highster Mobile?
Highster Mobile has received a mix of reviews on sites like Sitejabber and Trustpilot, reflecting varied customer experiences. The overall rating is poor, with many users expressing dissatisfaction.
Complaints frequently mention issues such as the software not working as advertised, customer service difficulties, and refund policy problems.
Several reviewers have labeled the service as a scam, reporting continuous charges even after cancellation and highlighting challenges in getting refunds despite the company's promises.
Negative experiences often include the software's failure to log data accurately or promptly, with some users noting that the app caused their devices to freeze or reboot.
Conversely, there are some positive reviews where customers express satisfaction with Highster Mobile's features, particularly praising its ability to track GPS location, monitor text messages, and oversee social media activity.
A few users have found the service helpful for keeping tabs on their children's online activities and ensuring the safety of their loved ones. However, these positive experiences seem to be in the minority, with the bulk of the feedback skewing negative.
Overall, the disparity in user experiences suggests inconsistencies in the app's performance and customer support quality.
Is Highster worth it?
So, is Highster worth it? In my opinion, no. There are alternatives with better performance, customer support, and pricing.
Don’t be seduced by the extensive feature set. While it looks good on paper, the reality is that many of the functionality runs poorly in practice. What’s more, if you need customer support for issues, you may find yourself waiting several days to receive a response.
Reviewers frequently cite issues with features failing to work, delays in the transfer of information, limited device compatibility, and trouble hiding the app. Some have even reported payment issues and trouble canceling subscriptions.
Our strong suggestion is to explore alternative monitoring apps instead of Highster. Specifically, look for options with more reliable performance, a better record of support, and a more robust payment service.
And if you are worried that somebody may be using Highster illegally on your device, download Clario AntiSpy. It will detect spyware and ensure your data and activity is private and protected.