ANSWERED: How to manage people with Xfinity app?

Learn how to organize devices by people and manage family settings like Active Time Limits, Active Time Details, Downtime Schedules, and Parental Controls.

For more, see how to use the Xfinity app. For tips on managing devices, see how to personalize and control your home network with Xfinity xFi.

WiFi tab

Primary and Manager users can organize connected devices by the people who use them. Once a person is created, you can access more features to manage your home network, including the ability to Pause All Devices, set a Downtime Schedule, set up Active Time Limits, turn on Active Time Details, and turn on Parental Controls for safe browsing. Members will have limited view access.

To create a person:

1. Go to the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Choose Add a person (press the plus (+) icon to add more people).
3. Enter a name and select an icon.
4. Tap Add Profile.

Assigned devices

Primary and Manager users can manage a person's assigned devices from the bottom of their page.

To assign a device:

1. Under Assigned Devices, select Assign Device.
2. Click the checkbox next to the device(s) you want to assign.
3. Finish by selecting Assign.

To unassign a device:

1. Under Assigned Devices, select Unassign.
2. Select the trash can icon next to the device you want to unassign from the person and confirm Unassign Device.
3. Select Finish Editing when you are done unassigning devices.

Pause all devices

Internet access for devices connected to your home network can be blocked individually or at the person level. Pausing a person will pause internet access on your home network for all of their assigned devices. Only Primary and Manager users can pause or resume a person.

To pause a person:

1. Select the person from the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Then select Pause All Devices. You can also select Pause all devices directly from WiFi.
   • This is only available for people that are not already paused or in Downtime and have at least one connected device.

You can pause the person for a certain amount of time (for example, 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours) or until you choose to resume the devices.

Once a person is paused, any new device assigned to them will be paused.

Any current activity might not stop right away. Access to local network devices (like printers) and connections that use cellular data or other WiFi networks won't be paused.

To resume a person:

1. Select the person from the Connected to your WiFi section on the WiFi tab.
2. Select Unpause all devices. You can also select Unpause all devices from WiFi.
   • If the person is paused under a downtime schedule, you can choose to Wake up all devices from the WiFi tab.

This will resume all devices assigned to that person.

Learn more about pausing devices.

Today's active time

A person’s time online will be shown in HH:MM format after selecting their profile. For a more detailed view, select View More. From there, you can view the online time by hour of day for the current day and the past six days.

If there has been no online time for the day, click the View Past Time Spent link to view time online for prior days. Only Primary and Manager users can view a person’s time online.

Person settings

To access a person's Settings, select the gear icon in the top right corner of a person's page. Only Primary and Manager users can view a person’s settings.

The Settings page includes:

• Downtime.
• Active Time Limits.
• Active Time Details (for compatible gateways).
• Parental Controls.

From this page, you can also rename the person and select a new icon.

Downtime

Downtime can be used to set up scheduled pause times for people to block home WiFi access on assigned devices for the length of the schedule. A person can have up to 30 schedules and can be customized by day, time, and schedule type/name. Only Primary and Manager users can view a person’s settings.

To set a Downtime Schedule:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Create Schedule next to Downtime.
2. Select the type of schedule you wish to set for the person and give that schedule a name.
   
   • There are four templates: Anytime, Bedtime, Homework, and Dinner.
3. Select Next to pick which days the schedule should apply.
4. Pick the start and end times for the schedule and then select Apply.
   • Schedules cannot overlap. There must be one minute between the end of one schedule and the start of the next.

Schedules set on a person will apply for all devices assigned to them. If a device tries to access a website, app or service outside a web browser (e.g., mobile email app) during a scheduled pause, you'll see the a message that the website cannot be reached or that it's not connected to the internet.

Active Time Limits

An Active Time Limit lets you set time limits for people on your home network to help your family promote healthy internet usage habits. Once turned on, the Primary user will get a text message, email and/or push notification when a person’s devices are close to reaching their active time limit.

Only Primary and Manager users can view a person’s settings.

To set up an Active Time Limit:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Active Time Limit.
2. Check the box next to Weekdays and/or Weekends.
3. Adjust the bar to set the active time limit.
   • This will be the daily limit for the person starting at 12:00 a.m. (midnight) each day.
4. If you would like the device to automatically pause once the time limit is reached, be sure to turn on this setting for the active time limit.

The following counts toward active time:

• Streaming music or videos.
• Surfing.
• Shopping.
• Gaming.
• Downloading books, pictures and videos.
• Apps you are not actively using but are running in the background.
  • For example, an app downloading an update.

Access using cellular data, a public Xfinity WiFi hotspot, or other available WiFi networks won't count toward active time.

For more on what counts towards active time, see xFi FAQs.

To get Active Time Limit notices, be sure you have Network Activity notifications turned on. Learn more about preferences.

Active Time Details

Active Time Details shows a detailed view of how much time you and your kids are spending on supported apps and their sites when connected to your home network.

Once turned on for a person, network traffic from their devices will be analyzed. Time spent on supported apps or websites will be reported out by Application and by Category.

Active Time Details is not turned on by default. It's a feature that can only be turned on at the People level. Active Time Details cannot be turned on for the xFi default Household and Guest groups.

Only Primary and Manager users can see a person’s settings.

To turn Active Time Details on:

1. From a person’s Settings page, select Active Time Details.
2. Agree to the consent by checking the box.
3. Select Turn On.

Once turned on, data may not be viewable right away. Activity is measured in five-minute increments and refreshed in xFi every 15 minutes.

Active Time Details can only be tracked on devices connected to your home WiFi network that are running one of the supported platforms: Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome OS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, or PlayStation 4. Activity cannot be tracked on Smart TVs or on Amazon platforms (Kindle, Kindle Fire, etc.).

Apps that do not need an internet connection will not be tracked. Customers can find more information on supported apps in the active time details FAQs page in xFi.

Active Time Details is available to all Xfinity Internet subscribers who rent an xFi Advanced Gateway (XB6 or greater).

Parental Controls

Parental Controls help reduce the risk of children accessing content that is generally deemed inappropriate. To set Parental Controls on a device, you must first assign it to a person.

Only Primary and Manager users can set up parental controls.

To set Parental Controls:

1. From a person's Settings page, select Parental Controls.
2. Select On to only allow access to content deemed appropriate for all ages.

Content should be blocked fairly quickly once parental controls are turned on. However, content that was already accessed on a device may be cached. It may still be accessible on that device for up to 24 hours. Parental controls only restrict access for devices connected to your personal home network.

The following third-party settings are applied to people who have parental controls turned on:

• Google SafeSearch: On
• Bing SafeSearch: Strict
• YouTube Restricted Mode: On

When Parental Controls are turned on, these protective settings help limit exposure to potentially explicit content for the websites as well as the Google and YouTube apps.

If a device assigned to that person tries to access a website or app known to host inappropriate content for that level, a block page will show. In the case of secure websites or mobile apps, the block page may not show, but access is still stopped.

Learn more about what the Parental Controls feature for xFi uses to determine if content is appropriate to access.

Note for customers with Apple devices:

If iCloud Private Relay is turned on, Parental Controls filtering and Active Time Details may not work. Learn more about iCloud Private Relay.

​Additional Resources​

​https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xfinity-xfi-manage-profiles​