Best way to implement AW for kids without giving them an iphone?

[spinedoc77]

I'm super bummed as the rumor of Watch OS 14 having the ability to pair a child's AW with the parent's iphone didn't come true. So I suppose we still need a separate iphone for each child's AW, sigh. I'd love to give my kids an AW so we can have their location and let them text/call us, but I don't want to give them an iphone screen to stare at all day long.

Anyone else just give their kids an AW without a phone?

 

[DoubleFlyaway]

I'm super bummed as the rumor of Watch OS 14 having the ability to pair a child's AW with the parent's iphone didn't come true. So I suppose we still need a separate iphone for each child's AW, sigh. I'd love to give my kids an AW so we can have their location and let them text/call us, but I don't want to give them an iphone screen to stare at all day long.

Anyone else just give their kids an AW without a phone?

No, but I would love that!

 

[antbob]

same here but realistically there is a slim chance they gonna implement it any time soon. cellular models are more than capable to work standalone it just seems that Apple relies on iPhone for better battery life and experience as addon device and while they can change the user experience part the battery life problem remains unsolved today.

right now the best approach is probably to grab an old iPhone like the original SE which still works great and remains supported even in upcoming 14, get a low data volume cellular data plan (provided it has Apple Watch compatible eSIM option), set everything up then put that iPhone away. in fact this is what I'm planning to do with my Series 3 Watch.

 

[spinedoc77]

same here but realistically there is a slim chance they gonna implement it any time soon. cellular models are more than capable to work standalone it just seems that Apple relies on iPhone for better battery life and experience as addon device and while they can change the user experience part the battery life problem remains unsolved today.

right now the best approach is probably to grab an old iPhone like the original SE which still works great and remains supported even in upcoming 14, get a low data volume cellular data plan (provided it has Apple Watch compatible eSIM option), set everything up then put that iPhone away. in fact this is what I'm planning to do with my Series 3 Watch.

That was my plan before hearing the rumors of this "kids mode" which never came true. But what I liked about the rumor was that supposedly you could manage your kid's AW like you can manage their screentime, which was very appealing. I've become very addicted to following and managing my kid's screen time on my phone. Supposedly you can track screentime, exercise, turn off texting calls at certain times, etc.

From what I've read this "kids mode" is already in the iOS 14 coding so maybe it just wasn't ready for release, hopefully it is still coming. It's not so much the money (although we are talking about buying an iphone for each kid plus the $20/month per kid cellular fees), it's the ability to do things on my phone. Imagine going backwards from Screen time to managing their stuff on their individual devices. I'd certainly be happy with connecting their AW's to their ipads, but Apple doesn't allow this either.

 

[antbob]

yeah that would have been great. you would still have to pay for cellular plan either way tho. it would also be really cool to have fast user switching on all devices so that they can be shared among family members easily and screen time rules would apply accordingly for each.