Imagine trying to replicate the motion of the wax in a lava lamp by using modeling clay. It’s very difficult to make modeling clay move at all, let alone have it mimic motion. Holding someone accountable can feel a lot like that. With people jumping around between work computers and home computers, smartphones, and tablets, it can feel a little intimidating to try to figure out when and why a person may have stumbled online.
That’s why 2016 will be the most ambitious year yet for Covenant Eyes. We’re breaking new ground in research and technology, all to provide better service to our users.
Better Education
Battling pornography, whether as a parent, as an individual who is struggling, or as a leader equipping others, is challenging. This is why Covenant Eyes invests so much in providing you educational articles, blog posts, e-books and videos. In 2015, we released an updated version of Porn and Your Husband, and two new e-books, More than Single: Finding Purpose Beyond Porn, and Fight Porn in Your Church.
Better Reporting
Covenant Eyes uses proprietary techniques to classify website visit types such as “visited” or “secondary.” However, sometimes we don’t know how to classify something. Through improved techniques, we found a way to classify more websites than ever before, making your reports cleaner and easier to understand.
If you are a Covenant Eyes Accountability Partner, you are interested in the sites your partner visits, but you likely want to know what led them to that site, what they did there and what happened afterwards. We’re almost ready to add Incident Reports to the Accountability Report to show you what happened before Highly Mature content was accessed. Was the user searching for inappropriate content, or did they stumble on it accidentally? This information should help create better accountability conversations about intention as well as help identify common triggers that can be avoided in the future.
One of the biggest criticisms we’ve received for our accountability app for iPhone is that we don’t provide any accountability or filtering for the Safari browser. We’ve been working on a new, patent-pending way to expand our service to provide better coverage across your entire device, including Safari.
Better Service
Covenant Eyes just opened a second location here in Owosso, MI. More than 100 people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, including media, local elected officials and leaders, and Covenant Eyes staff members. The location will house nearly 40 customer service representatives to provide you with shorter wait times and even more personalized service. We plan to use this site to work through some of the kinks in operating multiple locations so we can open offices across the country and possibly internationally.
Lastly, we have heard countless requests for improved reporting of photos and videos. Using a new process built off state-of-the-art technology, we are thrilled to announce that we have developed a new, patent-pending image recognition software. Short-term, this means better reporting of inappropriate images…and it has some long-term implications for video as well.
Want to see this in action? There is a demo that shows some of the capabilities of this new system in the video above. The moment of the kiss is flagged as possibly inappropriate (represented by the dip downward). Compare that to the analysis of a pornographic video, where the line stays at the bottom of the graph (“pornographic content”) until the very end, which is presumably when the clothing goes back on. Remember, this isn’t necessarily how it will appear on your Accountability Report…but it’s exciting, and we wanted you to share our excitement.
We are still researching this technology, and are in the process of deciding how to report it and integrate it into our software and apps, but we’re getting close. Look for an announcement with more details this summer.
We’re excited to offer you these exciting updates, and we’ve got even more planned. Leave us a comment to tell us what features you’re most excited about or what you’d like us to pursue.
Setbacks happen. I’m very much looking forward to this update and hope it even reaches public beta testing before the end of the year, but I’m also quite aware of how unfriendly iOS can be for developers in some scenarios like this. I appreciate CE doing their best to keep us updated (and they have) and I don’t feel like more is needed. At least there is a solution like this in the works, as that’s more than you can say for competitors to my knowledge. Keep up the good work CE team and please continue to keep us posted!
I wonder if CE is so severely understaffed/underfunded that they are unable to complete basic programming and beta testing, or if there are issues with Apple approving the app update? It just seems quite odd that we started this year expecting the app by summer, and here we are at the end of the year with a weak promise that the end of the year is our expected release date, but could possibly be next year. I have a hard time believing that CE has been “working so hard” on this update, yet we still have no evidence that any progress is being made. I wish for more transparency from a company that touts (rightfully so) accountability as a hallmark of virtue.
Hello, Matt – I wonder if you would be interested in discussing the situation in person? I’d be happy to do so. You can call me directly at 616-450-6719. We’ve tried to be transparent, even sending out a video from our CEO explaining where we are. iOS is a monster. Every door we knock down shows us 3 more we hadn’t considered. The motivation behind your comment is understandable (we are not happy with how long this is taking us!). But, your words could have been more constructive. Please call me if you would like to discuss further.
Chris
Covenant Eyes
Have there been any updates on this new iOS product? Any idea on the release date yet? We are excited about this app!
Thanks.
Shelly
Hello Shelly!
We’re happy to hear you’re excited because we are excited too! We do not have a release date yet, but it is our goal to hopefully have it available by the end of the year. With that being said there could always be bugs or minor hiccups with the new app that will delay a release date, which is also why we haven’t given a specific date yet. Just be on the lookout for an email from us announcing any news about our new iOS app! We look forward to providing you with a quality app that will expand the protection on iOS devices!
Best regards,
Annelise
I recently upgraded to the IOS 10 operating system on my iPhone and every time I try using my covenant eyes browser it freezes my phone and I have to power off my phone and restart it. Has anyone else experienced this issue and is their an updated version of the browser that I may have missed? I would appreciate anyone’s feedback. I love having covenant eyes but I also need my phone to work for me as I use it a ton for work.
Hi, Mark – I bet it’s something our Customer Support Team can help with. Have you tried giving them a call? 877.479.1119
Is there any update on an ETA for this better iOS solution? I signed up for updates recently but hadn’t heard anything. Have an Android but would love to go back to iPhone but currently it is so limited in what is monitored I have to lock down the majority of features. This new update sounds like an excellent solution!
Hi, Evan – thanks for your patience. We have not been able to complete our work on this new technology as quickly as we had hoped. But, it should be before the end of the year. I’m hopeful! I’ll send you an email with a link to a video that will give you a short update from our CEO.
Peace, Chris
Covenant Eyes
I’m sure this a bit late, but is there still a chance to be a part of the Beta testing for the new update for iPhone?
Hi, Andrew – please follow this link to leave your name. Thanks for your interest! https://www.covenanteyes.com/coming-soon-full-device-accountability-for-iphone/
Chris
Is there any update on the new iOS app coming? I see above that you were hoping to get something in beta in August? Since September is around the corner, has there been any progress?
Hi Janice, yes, we are in beta right now! Yes, making progress.
Hello Janice,
Thank you for contacting us! At this time we do not have a release date for our new iOS app. We are currently internally testing a version of the new app but do not have a target release date. We are hoping to have it available in the near future. With this being a major release there will be plenty of communication with our users once it’s available, so be on the lookout for that!
If you have any further questions feel free to contact our Customer Service at 877.479.1119.
Best regards,
Annelise
I have seen other iOS filtering solutions that use a VPN for filtering the entire device. Will your new solution be based on the same type of VPN methods?
Thanks.
Hello Janice,
Thank you for contacting us and your great question! Our solution for full device coverage on iOS does include VPN technology, but using it in a way that is different than traditional VPN usage. Our initial release will not include filtering, however our plan is to get filtering working in subsequent releases. I hope this helps! If you have any further questions feel free to contact our Customer Service at 877.479.1119.
Best regards,
Annelise
Hey guys. What’s the current status of the new iPhone app? I’m really looking forward to using it.
Hi Jalen – we are entering a Beta phase very soon (August). Once we see how that goes, we will be able to communicate a more firm timeframe for full roll-out. We are excited with the extended protection the new app will provide in Safari. You will see news about it through our various communication channels once it’s available! Thank you for being part of the Covenant Eyes family.
Peace, Chris
I understand that technology takes time to debug, but perhaps your staff writers should be more careful in promising dates for the release of new software, especially one that is as anticipated as the iOS update, without having the ability to produce it. The article above clearly states that we could expect the update during the month of May, and it was not followed through. Promises should have meaning. Now the promise is “this summer”. We’ll see.
Hi Matt, you’re right. We want you to be able to trust us when we make a promise. I’m sorry that we haven’t come through on this one. I hope you are so impressed with TMS when it is finally unveiled that you will forgive us :)
Peace, Chris