Thank you! My daughter is turning 10 in a week and the only thing she has asked for is an apple watch. I had some serious questions and you cleared up a lot. You are awesome!
I am so happy to hear that this helped you out. That is exactly why I started this channel! Thanks for your feedback. Hope your daughter has a great birthday.
@@rasheedrodneyroberts1568sync up and Gabb are a great option for kids but way to big when your child is skinny. Mine is turning 8 and I’m looking for a good option for her to be able to communicate with us during school time.
@@TheBradLloyd I had a question you didn’t cover much about it on the video. How easy is it to share between spouses we currently have T-Mobile sink watch for my twin daughters and my wife has had a difficult time creating an accessing an account to see the GPS location for my daughters she’s basically given up on trying and relies on me to check when she is wondering where they are. We do everything Apple, so this is something I’m very interested in doing and was wondering how the sharing for GPS location for the parents works.
Thanks for the information. Just bought this for my daughter who has Autism and can run away. We absolutely love the parameters we can set and send/receive messages and phone calls. Great review. Walkie-Talkie feature is excellent too. Thanks!
Great video and topic! Thanks for sharing! I also have a 10 year old and have considered this. She’s been using kid’s smart watch for a while, which does the job, but I know it would work much better with an Apple Watch. We also use family sharing and everything else is Apple. Thinking about giving her an upgrade later in the year. Any idea if you can use the watch SE for HomeKit location-based automations for the child? For example, turn on lights when the kid arrives home? Seems like it might be possible since it works with “Find My.” Again, great video.
Hi Shane, I'm glad you liked the video. I think the Apple Watch would be a great option for your 10-year old. Great question on the location-based automation. I feel like this should work for non-secure accessories, like lights... I'm going to test this out this week and will let you know. Maybe I can have her lights turn off when she leaves home (because she undoubtedly will leave them on!😂).
This video was really helpful. I’m in the US and my daughter is 9. Like you I don’t think that she’s ready for a phone but wanted some way for her to stay in touch when she’s away. I also wish that there was an app on the iPad for her to do certain things with her watch. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Brad! I was also considering this for my 13 and 11 years old because I want to hold on to the mobile until 15 if possible. I think my country doesn't have the family setup :(
I'm about to go through this process for my son for Christmas. I'm happy I watched your video first as it let me know I needed to switch carriers first. I switched to Bell and bought a AppleWatchSE2. Would you recommend I got to Bell with the box and get the cell plan figured out before Christmas or wait and go once I've given it as a gift. For some reason I thought perhaps the setup process would let me choose set up the carrier plan. Thanks for your advice.
i left feedback to apple about making the iPad fully functional for iwatch.. they would sell more watches and it would give functionality to children when parents are not there or unavailable.
I’m having the SAME issue with Cellular activation with my daughter’s phone. I have my phone set up for Canada but I live in the states! Thank you SO much, I’ll switch to US & HOPEFULLY I can get her cellular FINALLY activated. Hopefully family set up allows a bit for flexibility for other apps and etc. TYSM!
I recently got a Apple Watch SE for my child and I activated it with a different carrier then my own watch and phone. It works! I activated it right after a bought it at the mall. Just walked over then put in to watch info. I then went home followed the steps with my phone and set it up with the family option. 👍
This is great news, hope this means it’s fixed! Are you located in Canada? Just curious to know if this might be corrected where I was experiencing this issue. It is so helpful to be able to use family set up to activate the Apple Watch for someone in the family without them having to have their own iPhone. Thanks for sharing and hope you enjoy it!!
If I may ask: What carrier did you use? I am on Telus with my personal apple watch and my iphone, I tried Telus for my Son's SE celluar Apple watch and they can't trouble shoot it. Shall I go to another carrier for my son's watch and then set it up on my iphone? Thanks so much!
My son is also 10 years old and plans to wear a smartwatch due to the same situation as you. Thank for sharing all the useful information you have learned .
Hey Brad! Assuming you guys still have the watch - how do you like the GPS? Does it give immediate location updates upon request or does it lag? We have a SpaceTalk watch for our daughter but the battery isn’t great and trying to locate it can be a pain.
Question in school mode how will the kids know if you send them a text I know they can open the watch and it notifies you but how would they know to open it will they get a notification from certain people if so how do I allow it to just be like me and my sons grandparents if they don’t have this feature is school mode too restrictive? I’m worried cause I don’t want him playing on it at school but sometimes there’s something I need him to ask the teacher and yeah I can email her but if I could just remind him to ask it would be helpful or to tell him I’m not picking him up from school or if driving a different car which has happened maybe im just paranoid 😂😂
Hey, how does texting/ calling work if your plan is on the same cellular - or do you purchase a seperate e-sim on the watch so the child has a different number?
Sorry I missed replying earlier! The 1GB is more than enough. I could see if you were constantly listening to music or podcasts, you would use some however for us, especially because our daughter does spend a majority of her time at home while on wifi…it’s worked really well.
Thank you very much for this. I’m in the midst of going thru all this. Exactly as you did! Even down to Roger’s customer & Bell Apple Watch. It’s 2024 & things still have not changed. Heading out today in hopes of getting it all figured out 🙏🏼
One of my boys have an iPhone and we just bought our other son the apple watch. Would both my husband and I be able to see their location and control parental settings through family sharing?
If I already have an Apple Watch synced to my personal cell phone, will I still be able to sync an Apple watch for my daughter and sync the things I want like tracking her location? Or can I only have one synced at one time?
Hi Amber! You can pair multiple apple watches to your iPhone. In my iPhone watch app I can see my Apple Watch (and control the various settings), I can also see my daughters Apple Watch which appear under “family watches” and view her settings. It great for tracking location and sending quick messages.
I also want to get one for my 11 year old son. I've done tons of research, but keep getting conflicting info between Rogers, Bell and Apple... I am a Rogers customer and don't want to switch my cell plan to Bell, but I do want a smartwatch plan... Is this possible? I called Bell to let them know the situation and asked if I can sign up for the standalone plan with my son's Apple Watch SE (I haven't bought it yet, but wanted to see what they'd say). They didn't have any issue with that and said everything would work perfectly. Are they lying / misinformed? Anyways, thank you so much for sharing all of the info!
Hi Mark, Bell will say yes (they told me yes as well), but they just don't understand the service very well. I purchased the standalone plan with Bell (after first trying Rogers), and it didn't work. I contacted Apple and they told me I needed to be with the same cellular carrier as the Apple watch I was activating. It was a really frustrating experience but I was lucky that my Rogers contract had just ended. Unless something has changed since I went through this (late Dec/early Jan), then I'm afraid if you want to activate an Apple watch for your son then you will both need to activate with Bell. Hope that is helpful. I hope this service comes to Rogers and Telus in the near future.
Can you do a video on how the tracking is? Is it just though the “find my” app? Really wanting to switch my son from gizmo but I love the tracking it offers. Also, I have heard life 360 won’t work on stand alone Apple Watch. Do you have any other tracking app suggestions? He’s only 9 so I need something.
Hi Tricia - the tracking on an Apple Watch is though "Find My", which is really simple and easy to you. While not as reliable, you could consider Chipolo tracker or AirTag as well.
My 12 year old really wants a watch that tracks her steps. If I have the family plan with two kids on it, can they both track steps, or only one at a time?
My wife is getting an apple watch 8 for christmas, as her series 2 battery gave out. It's not really worth anything, so I was thinking of letting my kid have it to use with supervision obviously since she's only 5. Is this too early? Bad idea? I'd appreciate some thoughts. We already do allow her to play with an old iphone mostly for music or youtube if we don't want to bring the ipad somewhere (do data or plan, just imessage and supervised apps) so we aren't luddites, I just feel like wearable might be taking things too far.
please help.i am planing to buy an apple watch series 6 cellular .i want to setup it without family setup.so my question is that if i am going outside leaving my iphone (iphone to which apple watch is paired) at home.would i able to call to the iphone(iphone to which apple watch is paired) using the watch.plz answer this question.luv from India 🇮🇳
WIll a series 3 Apple watch work with family sharing? I'm using a series 3 Apple watch myself and paired with my iphone but wondered if a series 3 watch for my son could make/receive calls from us when he's away from us (not near my iphone)
Just found this video, this seems like a great feature. Obviously the child can message the parent who has the iPhone but what if the other parent has android. Can the child send a message to them via plain SMS?
I wonder what schools say, if allowed. In Australia phones are generally banned. It could be the same for Watches. Good tips. Difficult to message on the watch as often misheard. I find most tech companies Google, Apple, Sony, Prime, Nintendo don’t have intuitive parental controls. It almost like whoever designed them don’t have children. Often overly complicated and can’t do what you want. I am interested in the Watch. But Apple needs to redesign their parent controls
There is no way to pay through the apple watch if you don't have the apple cash? There is no way to connect a card - at all? What if the watch was for an older family member?
I personally would not spend the extra money to get the 7 for a kid, but totally up to you. The SE is still working great for my now 12 year old daughter.
We are thinking about this for our son who is 8.5 years old. We definitely don't want him to get a phone but also want him to have some independence but with us to be able to monitor him and get a hold of him. I like that I can monitor from my phone. He would spend all day on his iPad if we let him so this should be a good medium!
Totally agree Alice. It’s hard for a kid to waste time on their Apple Watch but it’s reassuring to track and communicate with them. My daughter also likes to use it to set alarms, check the weather, add reminders and basic things like that. Thanks for watching!
Hello. Thanks for the good video. I just tried using a Series 9 with an iPhone 14 Pro for Family Sharing. My wife really only needs the Apple Watch. Is it really possible that Apple doesn't release the GPS variant for family sharing? That would be some mega information. Or can someone help me? Thank you guys.
Could you tell me something about the battery life? I bought one for my child, but without any phone, no Wi-Fi, only cellular, the battery dies in max 6 hours. Apple Watch SE 40mm. Thank you very much!
My daughter uses the 40mm SE with wifi and cellular and it lasts approx 18 hrs. Something is draining the battery. Maybe worth contacting Apple. 6 hrs is not normal!
@@TheBradLloyd Thanks for your reply! If I connect to home or office wifi, the situation is much much better. But in the school there is no wifi, so the communication is fully based only on cellular data. I contacted the support, they said this is normal, because the watch is NOT in Family Setup. I had the same issue as you, I purchased the Watch, than found out there is no provider in my country who supports Family Setup. So I had no other choice, I had to pair with an old iPhone, and after setup put that iPhone away. Turned off Bluetooth, to not even search for the iPhone, turned off background app refresh, Wrist Raise, but did not really help. Seems that the cellular communication is eating the battery. But Support does nod do anything since the battery health is on 100%. So nothing else to do?
Hi Esteban - Yes, you can buy from the carrier but you still need to be mindful of your setup. Carriers will be happy to sell you their devices, but you need to ensure it's compatible with family setup (assuming that is what you are looking for). Cheers!
Rogers will sell a plan, just because they don’t know any different. They have a smart watch plan, it just won’t work with family setup. Unfortunately Bell is the only option here in Canada.
@@TheBradLloyd I see, so Rogers’ watch plan won’t do family sharing , you need to open another line( a new phone number) to have your watch on a family share account to call your phone, but Bell’s watch plan can have your family share watch to call your phone without open another line? I was at Rogers this morning and I was so confused, they told me I need to open another line and add a watch plan to that to have the watch to call me, then I went to apple , one of the guy told me I need to buy two watches to have one watch call my phone. Sounds like no one knows exactly what to do.....
@@q9290 It's confusing, I totally get it. "Family Setup" is a special service for the apple watch that allows a family member to use the watch with having their own iPhone. Telus and Rogers both have "shared data plans" but they do not work with Family Setup. This option is ONLY available with Bell. You also need to be a Bell subscriber yourself in order to active the family setup line. This is why I had to switch my carrier from Rogers to Bell, in order to activate family setup for my daughter's watch. I hope that makes sense, but let me know if you have any questions.
@@TheBradLloyd yes, it’s all make sense to me now after I saw your video, I thought the Rogers guy was trying to scam me, 😂 ask me to open another line....... I still have one year to go with Rogers before I can switch, got the watch already and my daughter just fall in love with it, just gonna keep the watch and maybe switch over next year
Very helpful information. My son had just asked for an Apple Watch. I would have had no idea that we would have needed to be with bell in order to connect it. Thanks for the information!
Great video. Many thanks. We have had iPhones and Apple Watches for years. My teenage daughter has her own phone so giving her my wife’s old S3 AW was a no brainer to upgrade my wife to S6 with LTE. Now my 8-yo son using an old iPhone 8 with no plan, but I’m considering giving him my S4 Apple Watch LTE and upgrading my own. But I’m not sure if I set it up family, as I don’t believe I can activate a number on his watch and pair it to his phone when he doesn’t have a plan.
Hi Peter, it will work will Series 4 or later with Cellular. You can pair it with your iPhone and activate a stand-alone plan for your son's series 4. This will allow your son to send and receive text/voice from hims watch, and the "find my" feature is helpful as well.
Thank you for this great video! Appreciate it and it was so helpful. Looks like Telus is now able to do this which is good news for us! My child is 11, and we've been looking in to this :)
Your video is amazing. Appreciate your hard work. Here is my scenario Iphone - Setup with e-sim with a number e.g. 12345678 Apple Watch SE with Cellular - Setup with e-sim from my provider . The e-sim is a second sim from my provider and binded to my primary number 12345678 Kid added to family sharing on Iphone Kid signed in to the Apple Watch with his Apple ID Issue : When someone called my primary number on Iphone it also rings on my kids Apple Watch. I wanted the apple watch only for my kid so he can pick calls from me and also call me back. But in this case any calls to my iPhone ring on my kids watch also. Not sure how to block this calls being received on Apple Watch.
This was very helpful! My 11 y.o. son is starting middle school and wants a phone, but he has a gizmo watch. He hates being on the actual phone but likes the freedom to text and call his friends more while most importantly I have his location. So I believe this is our compromise (an expensive person one, I know), but I’m hoping this watch will last him a few years. I do have an android phone but he and I both have an iPad so I was hoping to avoid the switch, but it seems inevitable. Thank you for the review!
You’re welcome, glad this was helpful. My daughter has had her watch for a few months now and it’s working out really great (for her and I). Definitely time to make the switch! 😀
have been thinking about it to track my kid who really enjoys running away in the mall. thanks for the heads up on the carrier. In Japan, thanks to you realized that only 1 of the 4 carriers support family setup. much thanks. m(_ _)m
After you purchase the watch you and your child both have a Telus account, what happened next? My store is saying it isn’t possible yet Apple and Telus have said it is possible…
Hello, parents needs a standard monthly plan (Telus would have to tell you what is available), and the child will need a stand-alone watch plan. Each person has a separate number, but the watch is managed from the parents iPhone (yes needs to be an iPhone). If you are having trouble with support at Telus then keep calling back until someone know what they are talking about.
My boys are 14 and 16. All of their friends have phones. We don't believe children need phones because they are quite addictive. The Ultra Watch series sounds like a better product, but it would require my wife to have an iPhone to access the location tracking features since she's the main person responsible for the kids' whereabouts.
Thank you!!! Great information on such a great cost we appreciate the time you put into this. It looks like Bell and Telus will do this now in Canada :)
Thanks for letting me know that Bell and Telus will do this! I’ll look into it and update the description on the video. Thanks for recognizing the time and effort it takes to put together content. 🙏
Merci i m from france and i am lookink for a solution to my child she is 11 and i will return to work outside so il will be very good for us to comunicate during the day . Thank you je suis en france et je cherche une solution pour mon enfant elle a 11 ans et je vais retourner travailler donc cela serai bien pour nous de communique durant le journée
How has her battery been 7 months later? We have Apple Watch SE's w/ cellular for our two kids (12 and 9). They don't have iPhones. They charge them at night and they're dead by 4 pm. Disappointing.
No issuers here, Jared. Seems to last my daughter the full day with room to spare. I wonder if your kids are running an app that is draining their battery 🤷♂️. Perhaps Apple Support can diagnose the issue. 4pm is certainly way too early to lose a charge.
@@TheBradLloyd We've got both of them in School Time mode. I ran an update on the WatchOS, turned off background app refresh, adjusted the brightness setting and sent them off to school with a full charge. Hopefully there's some improvement.
@@TheBradLloyd Turning off Wake Screen on Wrist Raise may have done the trick. We’ve had a couple of school days with dramatically improved batter life. 🤞
I have the same issue, even worse: the watch SE battery dies after 6 hours. And no phone calls or messages during this time. I turned off all what I could. Just the cellular seems to use this much power. If there is a Wi-Fi connection, the battery life is much much better. I called the SUPPORT but they said this is normal. It is not normal, I cannot give the watch to my children as at noon it turned off because of the battery issue :( what else could we do?
Call me a tinfoil hatter if you like but I don’t want my child wearing a cellular device on their body. I did get my 8 year old an SE and it works just fine for most things, including fitness tracking etc.
No phone until age 16. after which it will be very limited. I do not allow any games at all in the household. So they will have to move out for that feature ;) I just wanted calling, texting or walkie-talkie only to contacts (i.e. parents only), fitness tracking, sleep monitor... oh! and don't forget the watch app. That's all, nothing more. I would obviously like to track where they are too. but that's on my end not on the watch. Doesn't look like these kid friendly features are in line with Apples' brainwashing... I mean marketing agenda. So Apple watch for the kids is probably not the right strategy for me.
Thank you! My daughter is turning 10 in a week and the only thing she has asked for is an apple watch. I had some serious questions and you cleared up a lot. You are awesome!
I am so happy to hear that this helped you out. That is exactly why I started this channel! Thanks for your feedback. Hope your daughter has a great birthday.
Did you go with the apple watch? My oldest are 11 & 12. I'm trying to decide if I should go with an apple watch or the sync up for kids watch.
@@rasheedrodneyroberts1568sync up and Gabb are a great option for kids but way to big when your child is skinny. Mine is turning 8 and I’m looking for a good option for her to be able to communicate with us during school time.
@@TheBradLloyd I had a question you didn’t cover much about it on the video. How easy is it to share between spouses we currently have T-Mobile sink watch for my twin daughters and my wife has had a difficult time creating an accessing an account to see the GPS location for my daughters she’s basically given up on trying and relies on me to check when she is wondering where they are. We do everything Apple, so this is something I’m very interested in doing and was wondering how the sharing for GPS location for the parents works.
Thanks for the information. Just bought this for my daughter who has Autism and can run away. We absolutely love the parameters we can set and send/receive messages and phone calls. Great review. Walkie-Talkie feature is excellent too. Thanks!
That's why we bought it as well! Unfortunately, I
I am going through the exact same situation as the RUclipsr Just frustrated!
Great video and topic! Thanks for sharing!
I also have a 10 year old and have considered this. She’s been using kid’s smart watch for a while, which does the job, but I know it would work much better with an Apple Watch. We also use family sharing and everything else is Apple. Thinking about giving her an upgrade later in the year.
Any idea if you can use the watch SE for HomeKit location-based automations for the child? For example, turn on lights when the kid arrives home? Seems like it might be possible since it works with “Find My.”
Again, great video.
Hi Shane, I'm glad you liked the video. I think the Apple Watch would be a great option for your 10-year old. Great question on the location-based automation. I feel like this should work for non-secure accessories, like lights... I'm going to test this out this week and will let you know. Maybe I can have her lights turn off when she leaves home (because she undoubtedly will leave them on!😂).
This video was really helpful. I’m in the US and my daughter is 9. Like you I don’t think that she’s ready for a phone but wanted some way for her to stay in touch when she’s away. I also wish that there was an app on the iPad for her to do certain things with her watch. Thanks for sharing
Does Telus support this now for the Apple watch SE?
Yes
would the child have access to surfing the internet and do we have access to block that?
Thank you Brad! I was also considering this for my 13 and 11 years old because I want to hold on to the mobile until 15 if possible. I think my country doesn't have the family setup :(
I'm about to go through this process for my son for Christmas. I'm happy I watched your video first as it let me know I needed to switch carriers first. I switched to Bell and bought a AppleWatchSE2. Would you recommend I got to Bell with the box and get the cell plan figured out before Christmas or wait and go once I've given it as a gift. For some reason I thought perhaps the setup process would let me choose set up the carrier plan. Thanks for your advice.
i left feedback to apple about making the iPad fully functional for iwatch.. they would sell more watches and it would give functionality to children when parents are not there or unavailable.
I’m having the SAME issue with Cellular activation with my daughter’s phone. I have my phone set up for Canada but I live in the states! Thank you SO much, I’ll switch to US & HOPEFULLY I can get her cellular FINALLY activated. Hopefully family set up allows a bit for flexibility for other apps and etc. TYSM!
Glad this was helpful. Good luck!
I recently got a Apple Watch SE for my child and I activated it with a different carrier then my own watch and phone. It works! I activated it right after a bought it at the mall. Just walked over then put in to watch info. I then went home followed the steps with my phone and set it up with the family option. 👍
This is great news, hope this means it’s fixed! Are you located in Canada? Just curious to know if this might be corrected where I was experiencing this issue. It is so helpful to be able to use family set up to activate the Apple Watch for someone in the family without them having to have their own iPhone. Thanks for sharing and hope you enjoy it!!
If I may ask: What carrier did you use? I am on Telus with my personal apple watch and my iphone, I tried Telus for my Son's SE celluar Apple watch and they can't trouble shoot it. Shall I go to another carrier for my son's watch and then set it up on my iphone? Thanks so much!
@@claudiochisani4120I heard Bell is better. Telus do have the same option but I think Telus require you to be with Telus.
My son is also 10 years old and plans to wear a smartwatch due to the same situation as you. Thank for sharing all the useful information you have learned .
How can I track my son's apple watch I didn't understand this long video
This was great thank you! Very clear and helpful video, and thanks for taking about what is available in Canada
Ty I’m 11 and thinking of buying a 7 or se
Hey Brad! Assuming you guys still have the watch - how do you like the GPS? Does it give immediate location updates upon request or does it lag? We have a SpaceTalk watch for our daughter but the battery isn’t great and trying to locate it can be a pain.
If my child has an iPhone and now also an Apple Watch, where should I install it? On her phone directly or through my phone with family setup?
Thanks so much for the helpful video. Does the Apple Watch need to be cellular + gps or gps only?
Hi Claudia - For Family Setup it needs to have Cellular.
Is it me or rogers support it now? I just added a byod apple watch to my new rogers contract/plan
Question in school mode how will the kids know if you send them a text I know they can open the watch and it notifies you but how would they know to open it will they get a notification from certain people if so how do I allow it to just be like me and my sons grandparents if they don’t have this feature is school mode too restrictive? I’m worried cause I don’t want him playing on it at school but sometimes there’s something I need him to ask the teacher and yeah I can email her but if I could just remind him to ask it would be helpful or to tell him I’m not picking him up from school or if driving a different car which has happened maybe im just paranoid 😂😂
Thanks for the advice with the carrier. In Germany there are also only two carrier for this function available.
Hey, how does texting/ calling work if your plan is on the same cellular - or do you purchase a seperate e-sim on the watch so the child has a different number?
Hi, the watch has a separate e-sim and phone number 😊
@@TheBradLloyd Thank you :)
How is the 1GB data allocation turning out? Is it sufficient?
Sorry I missed replying earlier! The 1GB is more than enough. I could see if you were constantly listening to music or podcasts, you would use some however for us, especially because our daughter does spend a majority of her time at home while on wifi…it’s worked really well.
What model of apple watch is fit able for kids
Thank you very much for this. I’m in the midst of going thru all this. Exactly as you did! Even down to Roger’s customer & Bell Apple Watch. It’s 2024 & things still have not changed. Heading out today in hopes of getting it all figured out 🙏🏼
How is the size for a smaller child’s wrist? We had the gizmo kids watch and it was too bulky and uncomfortable for them to wear it.
One of my boys have an iPhone and we just bought our other son the apple watch. Would both my husband and I be able to see their location and control parental settings through family sharing?
I believe so not sure.
If I already have an Apple Watch synced to my personal cell phone, will I still be able to sync an Apple watch for my daughter and sync the things I want like tracking her location? Or can I only have one synced at one time?
Hi Amber! You can pair multiple apple watches to your iPhone. In my iPhone watch app I can see my Apple Watch (and control the various settings), I can also see my daughters Apple Watch which appear under “family watches” and view her settings. It great for tracking location and sending quick messages.
How do I set it up
I also want to get one for my 11 year old son. I've done tons of research, but keep getting conflicting info between Rogers, Bell and Apple... I am a Rogers customer and don't want to switch my cell plan to Bell, but I do want a smartwatch plan... Is this possible? I called Bell to let them know the situation and asked if I can sign up for the standalone plan with my son's Apple Watch SE (I haven't bought it yet, but wanted to see what they'd say). They didn't have any issue with that and said everything would work perfectly. Are they lying / misinformed?
Anyways, thank you so much for sharing all of the info!
Hi Mark, Bell will say yes (they told me yes as well), but they just don't understand the service very well. I purchased the standalone plan with Bell (after first trying Rogers), and it didn't work. I contacted Apple and they told me I needed to be with the same cellular carrier as the Apple watch I was activating. It was a really frustrating experience but I was lucky that my Rogers contract had just ended. Unless something has changed since I went through this (late Dec/early Jan), then I'm afraid if you want to activate an Apple watch for your son then you will both need to activate with Bell.
Hope that is helpful. I hope this service comes to Rogers and Telus in the near future.
@@TheBradLloyd ok gotcha, thanks for the quick reply! Darn it... :) Hope Rogers gets it soon as well.
Why no fall detection??
this is good i can put schooltime on so when im at school my apple watch dosent get loads of notifications
Do i need to add a plan so my son can make calls and texts?
Does this feature cost anything? Is it a monthly subscription required?
Can you do a video on how the tracking is? Is it just though the “find my” app? Really wanting to switch my son from gizmo but I love the tracking it offers. Also, I have heard life 360 won’t work on stand alone Apple Watch. Do you have any other tracking app suggestions? He’s only 9 so I need something.
Hi Tricia - the tracking on an Apple Watch is though "Find My", which is really simple and easy to you. While not as reliable, you could consider Chipolo tracker or AirTag as well.
GIVE A APPLE WATCH
My 12 year old really wants a watch that tracks her steps. If I have the family plan with two kids on it, can they both track steps, or only one at a time?
You can have multiple watches on family setup
Parent and kids needs to be on same carrier is a good one. I’m in Australia here is truphone
Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize that. Luckily (here in Canada anyway) more carriers support the stand-alone Watch plans.
My wife is getting an apple watch 8 for christmas, as her series 2 battery gave out. It's not really worth anything, so I was thinking of letting my kid have it to use with supervision obviously since she's only 5. Is this too early? Bad idea? I'd appreciate some thoughts. We already do allow her to play with an old iphone mostly for music or youtube if we don't want to bring the ipad somewhere (do data or plan, just imessage and supervised apps) so we aren't luddites, I just feel like wearable might be taking things too far.
I think it depends on the parent. I just ordered my 5 year old an apple watch. He's starting school this year and I want to be able to track him.
please help.i am planing to buy an apple watch series 6 cellular .i want to setup it without family setup.so my question is that if i am going outside leaving my iphone (iphone to which apple watch is paired) at home.would i able to call to the iphone(iphone to which apple watch is paired) using the watch.plz answer this question.luv from India 🇮🇳
Hello - No, I don't believe so since the paired iPhone and Apple watch share the same phone number and sim card.
@@TheBradLloyd if i pair my apple watch with business number instead of primary number, then can i do it??
WIll a series 3 Apple watch work with family sharing? I'm using a series 3 Apple watch myself and paired with my iphone but wondered if a series 3 watch for my son could make/receive calls from us when he's away from us (not near my iphone)
Sadly no. It needs to be an SE or higher.
Just found this video, this seems like a great feature. Obviously the child can message the parent who has the iPhone but what if the other parent has android. Can the child send a message to them via plain SMS?
Yes - totally. No issues calling or texting non-iPhone users.
@@TheBradLloyd nice, thanks for the reply!
I wonder what schools say, if allowed. In Australia phones are generally banned. It could be the same for Watches. Good tips. Difficult to message on the watch as often misheard. I find most tech companies Google, Apple, Sony, Prime, Nintendo don’t have intuitive parental controls. It almost like whoever designed them don’t have children. Often overly complicated and can’t do what you want. I am interested in the Watch. But Apple needs to redesign their parent controls
will they get all the calls on their watch that you get on your phone?
Hi Belinda, that is right. It has a phone number and will also accept face time (audio) calls.
@@TheBradLloyd is that mean we need to add a plan like standalone plane in t mobile as an example,so they get their own number?
There is no way to pay through the apple watch if you don't have the apple cash? There is no way to connect a card - at all? What if the watch was for an older family member?
This was a great in depth review. I’m thinking of doing the same thing for my kid so this was very helpful.
Do you think SE is enough for my kid? Or I get her version 7
I personally would not spend the extra money to get the 7 for a kid, but totally up to you. The SE is still working great for my now 12 year old daughter.
Do the kids get their own number?
Yea I thought I would need cellular version which sucks
This “guy’s” voice is so sweet
O just bought an apple watch for my kid thank you so much for answering my questions😄😄😄😄
We are thinking about this for our son who is 8.5 years old. We definitely don't want him to get a phone but also want him to have some independence but with us to be able to monitor him and get a hold of him. I like that I can monitor from my phone. He would spend all day on his iPad if we let him so this should be a good medium!
Totally agree Alice. It’s hard for a kid to waste time on their Apple Watch but it’s reassuring to track and communicate with them. My daughter also likes to use it to set alarms, check the weather, add reminders and basic things like that. Thanks for watching!
Hello. Thanks for the good video. I just tried using a Series 9 with an iPhone 14 Pro for Family Sharing. My wife really only needs the Apple Watch. Is it really possible that Apple doesn't release the GPS variant for family sharing? That would be some mega information. Or can someone help me? Thank you guys.
I think this is a brilliant idea from Apple.
I want get it for my 10 year old daughter which means she can't do selfies and go on social media.
So i cant set this up without an iphone?
Could you tell me something about the battery life? I bought one for my child, but without any phone, no Wi-Fi, only cellular, the battery dies in max 6 hours. Apple Watch SE 40mm. Thank you very much!
My daughter uses the 40mm SE with wifi and cellular and it lasts approx 18 hrs. Something is draining the battery. Maybe worth contacting Apple. 6 hrs is not normal!
@@TheBradLloyd Thanks for your reply! If I connect to home or office wifi, the situation is much much better. But in the school there is no wifi, so the communication is fully based only on cellular data. I contacted the support, they said this is normal, because the watch is NOT in Family Setup. I had the same issue as you, I purchased the Watch, than found out there is no provider in my country who supports Family Setup. So I had no other choice, I had to pair with an old iPhone, and after setup put that iPhone away. Turned off Bluetooth, to not even search for the iPhone, turned off background app refresh, Wrist Raise, but did not really help. Seems that the cellular communication is eating the battery. But Support does nod do anything since the battery health is on 100%. So nothing else to do?
I like the Apple Watch and the iPads but don't like the iPhone. Any other options other than the Apple watch?
No, unfortunately not at this time. Perhaps in the future it can be paired with an iPad or maybe even standalone.
Do you need a cellular plan to set up Apple Watch for kids, or does the gps only model work too?
I am 11 years old what size should I get
Hi Raven - My daughter is 11 and uses the 40mm size, but it's a personal preference based on your wrist size and what is comfortable to you.
Ok thx alot
How do u download apps on family set up and it says requires iphone
That’s why you buy the watch from the carrier. At least here in the U.S
Hi Esteban - Yes, you can buy from the carrier but you still need to be mindful of your setup. Carriers will be happy to sell you their devices, but you need to ensure it's compatible with family setup (assuming that is what you are looking for). Cheers!
Do you mean Rogers will sell you the watch plan but you can’t active a watch with the plan?
Rogers will sell a plan, just because they don’t know any different. They have a smart watch plan, it just won’t work with family setup. Unfortunately Bell is the only option here in Canada.
@@TheBradLloyd I see, so Rogers’ watch plan won’t do family sharing , you need to open another line( a new phone number) to have your watch on a family share account to call your phone, but Bell’s watch plan can have your family share watch to call your phone without open another line? I was at Rogers this morning and I was so confused, they told me I need to open another line and add a watch plan to that to have the watch to call me, then I went to apple , one of the guy told me I need to buy two watches to have one watch call my phone. Sounds like no one knows exactly what to do.....
@@q9290 It's confusing, I totally get it. "Family Setup" is a special service for the apple watch that allows a family member to use the watch with having their own iPhone. Telus and Rogers both have "shared data plans" but they do not work with Family Setup. This option is ONLY available with Bell. You also need to be a Bell subscriber yourself in order to active the family setup line. This is why I had to switch my carrier from Rogers to Bell, in order to activate family setup for my daughter's watch. I hope that makes sense, but let me know if you have any questions.
@@TheBradLloyd yes, it’s all make sense to me now after I saw your video, I thought the Rogers guy was trying to scam me, 😂 ask me to open another line....... I still have one year to go with Rogers before I can switch, got the watch already and my daughter just fall in love with it, just gonna keep the watch and maybe switch over next year
@@TheBradLloyd thank you for the video !
I have not been able to get reminders to work on my daughters apple watch since setting it up with family setup. Anyone have a work around for this?
Very helpful information. My son had just asked for an Apple Watch. I would have had no idea that we would have needed to be with bell in order to connect it. Thanks for the information!
You should definitely get your son an Apple Watch, he will LOVE it! 😉
Great video. Many thanks. We have had iPhones and Apple Watches for years. My teenage daughter has her own phone so giving her my wife’s old S3 AW was a no brainer to upgrade my wife to S6 with LTE. Now my 8-yo son using an old iPhone 8 with no plan, but I’m considering giving him my S4 Apple Watch LTE and upgrading my own. But I’m not sure if I set it up family, as I don’t believe I can activate a number on his watch and pair it to his phone when he doesn’t have a plan.
Hi Peter, it will work will Series 4 or later with Cellular. You can pair it with your iPhone and activate a stand-alone plan for your son's series 4. This will allow your son to send and receive text/voice from hims watch, and the "find my" feature is helpful as well.
does apple watch have screen time?
Hi Zoe, no it does not.
Thank you for this great video! Appreciate it and it was so helpful. Looks like Telus is now able to do this which is good news for us! My child is 11, and we've been looking in to this :)
That is amazing! Glad to see more carriers on-board. Your daughter will love it and should give you some peace of mind.
Very helpful!
But can it do it with a iPad
Hi Alexis, the Apple Watch cannot be paired to an iPad unfortunately.
Your video is amazing. Appreciate your hard work.
Here is my scenario
Iphone - Setup with e-sim with a number e.g. 12345678
Apple Watch SE with Cellular - Setup with e-sim from my provider . The e-sim is a second sim from my provider and binded to my primary number 12345678
Kid added to family sharing on Iphone
Kid signed in to the Apple Watch with his Apple ID
Issue :
When someone called my primary number on Iphone it also rings on my kids Apple Watch.
I wanted the apple watch only for my kid so he can pick calls from me and also call me back.
But in this case any calls to my iPhone ring on my kids watch also.
Not sure how to block this calls being received on Apple Watch.
Thank you so much for this video! It helped me in a huge way!
So happy to hear that! Thanks for watching!
How can i track my sons iwatch??
Really good video. Thanks
Thanks for this vid!
In short - aside from needing a iPhone to setup will this function like a standalone mini cellphone with its own number?
It will, but still paired to an adults iPhone. So I needed to use my iPhone to setup my daughters. Once setup thought it’s not reliant on an iPhone.
I agrêe with you. They should have a watch app on the ipad
i have a question can my parents see my text messages?
Thanks for this valued information ℹ️
You're welcome!
This was very helpful! My 11 y.o. son is starting middle school and wants a phone, but he has a gizmo watch. He hates being on the actual phone but likes the freedom to text and call his friends more while most importantly I have his location. So I believe this is our compromise (an expensive person one, I know), but I’m hoping this watch will last him a few years.
I do have an android phone but he and I both have an iPad so I was hoping to avoid the switch, but it seems inevitable.
Thank you for the review!
You’re welcome, glad this was helpful. My daughter has had her watch for a few months now and it’s working out really great (for her and I). Definitely time to make the switch! 😀
If you have TMobile, they’re running a promotion on the Watch SE for $199
@@JMJ.516 thank you! Unfortunately, the gizmo is only with Verizon so I ended up getting it (for more) with them smh
Thanks!
Welcome!
pls my daughter wants a apple watch and she does not have a phone
have been thinking about it to track my kid who really enjoys running away in the mall. thanks for the heads up on the carrier. In Japan, thanks to you realized that only 1 of the 4 carriers support family setup. much thanks. m(_ _)m
I dont got one I want one for my birthday
Hi, so an iphone is definitely needed for setting up
Yes, you do.
@@TheBradLloyd Thank you.
Happy to help. Let me know if you have more questions.
Can you also activate the watch with a non activated iphone that have no active line?
@@mimivalme4800 No, you need an active iPhone to active it.
After you purchase the watch you and your child both have a Telus account, what happened next? My store is saying it isn’t possible yet Apple and Telus have said it is possible…
Hello, parents needs a standard monthly plan (Telus would have to tell you what is available), and the child will need a stand-alone watch plan. Each person has a separate number, but the watch is managed from the parents iPhone (yes needs to be an iPhone). If you are having trouble with support at Telus then keep calling back until someone know what they are talking about.
@@TheBradLloyd we got it sorted! Watch is working. Guys at Costco were useless and told me it wasn’t possible. Told them to check out your page ;)
What about a phone number? Will I get a number when I pay for service
Yes, you get a phone number.
My boys are 14 and 16. All of their friends have phones. We don't believe children need phones because they are quite addictive. The Ultra Watch series sounds like a better product, but it would require my wife to have an iPhone to access the location tracking features since she's the main person responsible for the kids' whereabouts.
Thank you!!! Great information on such a great cost we appreciate the time you put into this. It looks like Bell and Telus will do this now in Canada :)
Thanks for letting me know that Bell and Telus will do this! I’ll look into it and update the description on the video. Thanks for recognizing the time and effort it takes to put together content. 🙏
Family sharing does not require an Apple Watch FYI
Hello! No, an Apple Watch is not required for family sharing. This video is about Family Setup with the Apple Watch. 🙂
Merci i m from france and i am lookink for a solution to my child she is 11 and i will return to work outside so il will be very good for us to comunicate during the day .
Thank you je suis en france et je cherche une solution pour mon enfant elle a 11 ans et je vais retourner travailler donc cela serai bien pour nous de communique durant le journée
Bonjour! Ce serait une option parfaite pour votre fille. Ma fille de 11 ans adore.
Does Apple Watch harm children
I am nine and I have a iPhone I have a Apple Watch series 3 and I’m gonna switch until this guy stops getting updates
watch os 9 has add podcast app and watch os 9.2 add home app for family member get in the houses
Your kid need a iPhone aswell
How has her battery been 7 months later? We have Apple Watch SE's w/ cellular for our two kids (12 and 9). They don't have iPhones. They charge them at night and they're dead by 4 pm. Disappointing.
No issuers here, Jared. Seems to last my daughter the full day with room to spare. I wonder if your kids are running an app that is draining their battery 🤷♂️. Perhaps Apple Support can diagnose the issue. 4pm is certainly way too early to lose a charge.
@@TheBradLloyd We've got both of them in School Time mode. I ran an update on the WatchOS, turned off background app refresh, adjusted the brightness setting and sent them off to school with a full charge. Hopefully there's some improvement.
@@TheBradLloyd Turning off Wake Screen on Wrist Raise may have done the trick. We’ve had a couple of school days with dramatically improved batter life. 🤞
I have the same issue, even worse: the watch SE battery dies after 6 hours. And no phone calls or messages during this time. I turned off all what I could. Just the cellular seems to use this much power. If there is a Wi-Fi connection, the battery life is much much better. I called the SUPPORT but they said this is normal. It is not normal, I cannot give the watch to my children as at noon it turned off because of the battery issue :( what else could we do?
That’s great news. Hopefully this has continued to work over the past couple of weeks!
Call me a tinfoil hatter if you like but I don’t want my child wearing a cellular device on their body. I did get my 8 year old an SE and it works just fine for most things, including fitness tracking etc.
I can understand that. Glad the SE can still be useful without cellular. Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Wait. You pay for the watch, you pay for AppleCare, and you still have to pay $80 for per accident?
Rogers and Freedom sux. They don’t have this is a huge turn off. Might need to join Bell or Telus.
No phone until age 16. after which it will be very limited. I do not allow any games at all in the household. So they will have to move out for that feature ;) I just wanted calling, texting or walkie-talkie only to contacts (i.e. parents only), fitness tracking, sleep monitor... oh! and don't forget the watch app. That's all, nothing more. I would obviously like to track where they are too. but that's on my end not on the watch. Doesn't look like these kid friendly features are in line with Apples' brainwashing... I mean marketing agenda. So Apple watch for the kids is probably not the right strategy for me.
Hello - I totally understand it's not for everyone. Thanks for watching and sharing your opinions! 🙂
Check out the Gabb watch, sounds like it would be a good fit!
How dare u show me ae
🏖
I’m 10 and have an iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, iPad and AirPods and nothing has parental controls XD