How to Block SnapChat's MyAI Companion on iPhone
Completely disable and block SnapChat's MyAI companion on an iPhone or iPad. Protect against a child re-enabling MyAI.
If you're a parent who's concerned about your child's exposure to Snapchat's MyAI feature on iPhone, you've likely wondered if it's possible to disable it entirely. Parents can use Snapchat's built-in parental controls to limit the feature. However, Family Center isn't a perfect solution and a child still might be able to bypass the Family Center restrictions and chat with MyAi. In this guide, we'll show you how to effectively block access to MyAi by solving for the most common bypass techniques that kids use to get around Snapchat restrictions on iOS.
MyAI is enabled by default for every Snapchat account and can usually be re-enabled fairly easily (or even accidentally).
Choosing an Effective Approach to Block SnapChat MyAI on a Child's iPhone
To disable MyAI, a parent can set up Snapchat's Family Center and customize AI features for their teen. However, this approach has historically been problematic. Snapchat has historically made changes to prevent MyAi from being completely disabled by a parent and they are highly motivated to increase usage of their chatbot.
Furthermore, a motivated teen can get around Family Center restrictions and access MyAi without parental knowledge. For example, Snapchat can be accessed in a web browser, completely bypassing Family center restrictions. A parent might not know that a child has a secret Snapchat account, which has full access to MyAi.
While using Family Center to restrict access to MyAi can be helpful, parents should also consider using the LivingRoom app to monitor Snapchat on iPhone even if a teen bypasses Family Center restrictions or uses a secret account.
Monitor MyAI Conversations with the LivingRoom App
The single biggest gap in Snapchat's Family Center and parental controls is that no setting in the app lets a parent see what their child is actually saying to the chatbot or what the chatbot is replying. Furthermore, a teen might bypass Family Center restrictions and have full access to MyAi without any parental oversight.
The LivingRoom app for iOS closes this gap by capturing screenshots of iPhone app activity, including apps like Snapchat.
Since LivingRoom captures screenshots of the entire iPhone screen for a parent to review, it's easy to see if a teen has bypassed Family Center restrictions and is chatting with MyAi.
If your primary concern is comprehensive visibility into iMessage, FaceTime, and other on-device communication on your child's iPhone, the same family of tools is covered in our broader guide on iPhone screen monitoring . LivingRoom is the recommended starting point for AI-companion monitoring specifically because it is content-agnostic — anything visible on the screen is captured.
Restrict and Hide MyAI Using Snapchat's Parental Controls
Snapchat's Family Center allows a parent to connect to a teen's account and restrict certain features, such as MyAi.
We don't recommend completely relying on Family Center restrictions to gate access to MyAi since a teen can access Snapchat in a web browser to bypass Family Center restrictions. We only recommend this approach if you monitor your child's iPhone to ensure that you can see if your teen is attempting to bypass Family Center.
Step 1: Link Family Center and turn on "Disable My AI"
Parents will need their own Snapchat account so they can invite their child to Family Center. Check out our dedicated parents' guide to Snapchat for a walkthrough on how to set this up.
Once Family Center is set up:
- Open Snapchat, tap your Bitmoji, and open Family Center.
- Scroll to Settings at the bottom of the page, then tap to expand it.
- Toggle Disable My AI to on.
Step 2: Hide MyAI from the Chat feed (cosmetic)
Family Center disable stops MyAI from responding, but the pinned chat entry can still be visible to your child. To clear it from view — or as a fallback when Family Center isn't linked:
- On your child's phone, in the Chat tab, long-press the My AI entry at the top of the chat list.
- Tap Chat Settings > Clear from Chat Feed.
On free accounts, this clears the visible conversation but tends not to prevent the entry from reappearing the next time MyAI is interacted with. Historically, A Snapchat+ subscription has been required for a permanent unpin; this is a Snap product behavior that has shifted before, so verify the current state in the app before paying for it. Most parents who get this far have already enabled Family Center disable, so this step is about reducing visual prompting rather than blocking functionality.
Step 3: Turn off MyAI in group chats
Open Snapchat on your child's phone, tap the gear icon on the profile screen to open Settings, and look in the Privacy section for the MyAI controls. If you see one (this could change as Snapchat updates), turn off the option that allows MyAI to be added to group chats.
This prevents anyone in a group chat your child is in from pulling MyAI into the conversation, which is otherwise a way for the chatbot to surface even after Family Center disable is on. Snap moves these settings around with product updates, so the exact menu names may differ from what's described here. It should generally be found under the Privacy section.
Step 4: Clear MyAI conversation data
In the same My AI section of Snapchat's privacy settings, use the option to clear MyAI conversation data. This wipes the existing chat history with MyAI on that account. It is worth doing once when you first set up the rest of the controls so the child starts from a clean slate; it does not stop new conversations from being created on its own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I fully disable MyAI for my child without paying for Snapchat+?
At the time we are writing this guide, Yes. However, it's possible that Snapchat changes this in the future or prevents a parent from gating access to MyAi entirely.
On a parent-linked teen account, Snapchat's Family Center includes a Disable My AI toggle that stops MyAI from replying to your teen, processing their messages, or storing them. This is free and is the strongest in-app control Snap currently exposes for parents. Snapchat+ is a separate matter that has historically been required to permanently unpin the MyAI entry from the chat feed — that's a cosmetic concern, not a functional one, since a disabled MyAI doesn't reply regardless of whether the entry is visible.
Snapchat Family Center is free and disables any future MyAI use for your child. If you'd like to hide the MyAI icon on your child's device, you might consider Snapchat+.
Does Snapchat's Family Center let me read my child's MyAI conversations?
No. Family Center lets parents see basic information about general activity, such as who has contacted their teen, but not the contents of private messages. If a parent wants completely visibility into a teen's Snapchat activity, a screenshot-based monitoring app like LivingRoom can be used to see the contents of disappearing Snaps.
Does the LivingRoom app capture MyAI chats specifically?
Yes. LivingRoom takes periodic screenshots at the device level, so anything visible on the child's iPhone is captured — MyAI conversations in the official Snapchat app, MyAI summoned into group chats by other kids, and MyAI on any other surface a future Snap product update introduces. Because the capture is content-agnostic, it works the same for MyAI as it does for any other on-screen content, which is what makes LivingRoom the ultimate catch-all monitoring layer when individual app settings don't cover everything.
Can my child bypass Family Center restrictions by using Snapchat outside the official iPhone app?
Yes. This is one of the most common ways teens might bypass Snapchat Family Center restrictions and parental oversight.
The Family Center restrictions apply to the official Snapchat app on the linked account; they don't follow the child to a secret Snapchat account the parent isn't linked to or if Snapchat is accessed anonymously through a web browser.
Does monitoring MyAI also cover regular Snapchat messages and other apps?
Yes. This is one of the practical reasons parents pick a device-level monitoring tool over chatbot-specific ones.
Once an app like LivingRoom is installed, the screenshot capture covers anything on screen on the child's iPhone: MyAI conversations, regular Snapchat chats, snaps and stories, and other social media apps as well. The same approach applies if your primary concern is text messages rather than AI (see the dedicated guide on how to monitor text messages on iPhone for the iMessage-specific workflow).