Smartphone app lets happy couples track each other's texts, calls and location history

Because nothing says 'I love you' like demanding someone's GPS data

Sneaking a look at your partner’s smartphone when they get a text message is a romantic ritual as old as time – but what if this sort of impromptu surveillance isn’t enough?

Meet mCouple, a new app from mobile surveillance start-up mSpy that gives your other half access to your phone calls, texts and even location history at any time during the day.

Essentially, mCouple offers couples mutually assured destruction for trust in a relationship. Not because you’re guaranteed to find signs of infidelity, but because nothing says “I’m an emotionally stunted weirdo” than demanding unlimited access to your loved one’s mobile.

mSpy are quick to point out that legally you have to notify your partner if you load the app onto their handset, but as Betabeat (the tech site that first spotted the mCouple) have pointed out, you could just gift them a new smartphone with the app pre-loaded for legal peace of mind.

The app is free to download, with mSpy presumably hoping it will lead interested customers onto their main business – a subscription service that offers even more exhaustive and intrusive tracking options.

The London-based company set up shop in 2011 and says it sells 40 per cent of its £24.99 a month subscriptions to parents and to this end the company’s website is full of worrying statistics about cyber bulling, suicide and drug use.

And what about the other 60 per cent? We’re sure it’s all happy couples in loving relationships (that or GCHQ staff in waiting).