Is Messenger Kids actually safe or should I look elsewhere?

Can confirm the top answer, worked on my end too.

Adding to the accepted answer: results vary a bit by phone and OS version.

Same issue here after the last update. The fix above sorted it.

For pure family-only messaging it is fine. If you want to avoid Meta entirely, a locked-down iMessage or a kid account on a family plan elsewhere works, but Messenger Kids has the best parent controls out of the box.

Same here, glad someone finally asked this one.

Good to know, was about to reinstall for no reason.

Clear space on the phone first, a lot of these apps misbehave when storage is nearly full.

It is one of the safer options because you approve every single contact and there is no public search, ads or in-app purchases. It is not perfect (it is still a Meta product collecting some data), but for controlled family chat it does the job. The main risk is the same as any app, so keep it on a shared device you can see.

Been meaning to ask this for ages, so thanks.

Worth checking your notification settings too, they quietly reset after big updates.