When we first made pcTattletale the idea of it making videos of what they do on the computer was big.  In fact when we started way back in 2003 there just wasn’t the computing power to make it a reality.  It would be almost 10 years later until we could finally have the computer power to store all those screen shots and videos.

Today pcTattletale processes over 1,000,000 screen shots every day from all the computers running our apps.  It is quite amazing.  The videos are great.  They let you see everything your kids, spouse, or employees are doing on the computer,phone, or tablet.  You can look back over the last week, month, or year to see what they did.

But a lot of you have been asking for live realtime spying.  You want to see what is happening right now.  We went back to the drawing board and are very happy to announce that we now have true live realtime spying for pcTattletale.  The best part is you do not even need to update your apps.  It already works.

Let’s take a look at this new feature and how it works.

pcTattletale Live Realtime Spying for Android

After you put pcTattletale on their Android phone or tablet you can see videos of everything they do.  Now you can watch what they do in realtime as it happens.  Let’s say your spouse is in the living room texting “someone” on their Android phone.  You already have pcTattletale on their phone and they have no idea the app is running.  You open up pcTattletale and hit the new live monitoring button (more on that later) and you see who they are texting.  You will watch them type out the messages and read them.

What you need to know about Android is the new Live monitoring will not work if they are off a Wifi signal and using their cell phone data plan.  You can easily get around this by clicking the cell phone signal icon next to their device name in the pcTattletale dashboard.

Once you do this the next time they open their phone pcTattletale will be able to work in Live mode.  Just know that pcTattletale is now using their cell phone data plan.  If they have an unlimited data plan you have nothing to worry about.  If their plan is limited you might want to use this feature sparingly.  pcTattletale can chew through a lot of cell phone data if they are a heavy cell phone user.

TIP: You can always turn off cell phone data recording when you are done watching them

pcTattletale Realtime Live Spying for Windows PCs and Tablets

Windows PCs and Tablets work just like Android.  The only difference is we assume they are always on a Wifi signal.  This is great if your kids are in their room for hours on end and you want to see what they up to.  In the past you might sign into pcTattletale to see videos of what they did.  But I suspect now you will sign in to see what they are doing right now.

I found this to be the case myself.  With the new live monitoring feature I find myself popping into pcTattletale regularly to see what my kids are doing.  They are in their bedrooms laughing and shouting.  What the heck is going in there?  pcTattletale’s live monitoring shows me they are playing video games and having a good time.  You can also see who they are chatting with.  The best part is you can use Live Monitoring when they are using their Android cell phone.

But the people who have asked for live monitoring the most are employers.  They want to see what their employees are doing right now.  Well now you can do that.

So Suzy is at her cube.  She is supposed to be doing month end reporting.  You sign into pcTattletale and see she is almost done with it.  But you also notice she has a second browsing tab opened up on a job search website.  That might be a heads up Suzy may be leaving soon.  You can get out in front of it and start looking for her replacement…. or at least thinking about it.  Weeks later when Suzy gives you her two weeks notice but you are not blindsided by it.

How Live Realtime Spying Works

What you need to know is pcTattletale is not really making a live video.  Instead it is stitching together screen shots of their every click.  If we made it a true video stream the person you are watching would notice strange things.  Their computer would be slow and the fan would start running.  Maybe their Android device would burn through the battery in a few hours.  It is important when you are trying to spy on cell phones.  None of this is good.

Instead pcTattletale looks at the very same screen shots it uses to make the movies.  We can get those screen shots fast.  Usually with in a few seconds.  We stack them up and work them into the movie.  You need to know this because the live “movie” may seem choppy and this is why.

The screen shot above shows you the new Live Monitoring button.  Just click it and you will get a “connecting” message.  pcTattletale is very good at detecting recent activity.  If they have not been active within the last 2 minutes pcTattletale assumes they are not live.  You will get a message they are not live and to try again:

No worries.  When this happens just try it again in a few minutes.  Sometimes you will see a short delay of 15-30 seconds while pcTattletale pulls down the latest screen shots.  It is how the live monitoring works with Spy Apps.  This is normal because it take a little while for these recordings to leave their phone and go up the pcTattletale mothership.

The new Live spying is free to all pcTattletale customers.  There is no extra charge and you can start using it today.  So what are you waiting for.  Go check it out now.

Don’t have pcTattletale yet?  Try it free today.