watchOS 7: How to Eliminate Distractions Using Schooltime on Apple Watch

[MacRumors]

In watchOS 7, Apple introduced Family Setup, a new feature that allows users to pair additional watches to their iPhone for children or older members of their household who don't have their own iPhones.

An associated feature of Family Setup, called "Schooltime," allows parents and guardians to remotely turn on Do Not Disturb on kids' watches and display a special watch face with restricted interaction. But even if you have no interest in Family Setup, you can still use Schooltime on your own Apple Watch whenever you want to focus on something.

Schooltime helps eliminate distractions on your Apple Watch, and you can use it as an alternative to Do Not Disturb or Theater Mode when you want to silence notifications and block apps, but still want to be able to check the time easily without visual distractions. And you don't have to worry about not receiving Emergency Calls – they'll still come through with Schooltime enabled.

To access Schooltime on an Apple Watch running watchOS 7, you first have to add it to Control Center. Here's how:

How to Set Up Schooltime on Apple Watch

1. From the bottom of your Apple Watch screen, swipe up on your watch face to bring up Control Center.
2. Scroll to the bottom, then tap Edit.
3. Tap the plus (+) button on the Schooltime button.
4. Tap Done.

How to Use Schooltime on Apple Watch

Next time you want to eliminate distractions on your wrist, simply bring up Control Center and tap the Schooltime button to turn it on.

Whenever you want to exit Schooltime, just turn the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch, then tap Exit to confirm.

Article Link: watchOS 7: How to Eliminate Distractions Using Schooltime on Apple Watch

 

[sohilpandya]

This as a normal watch face would look nice!

 

[justperry]

Control freaks comes to my mind.

As using it for yourself, you could switch it off or use do not disturb, that is, if it's available on an Apple Watch, I don't own one.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

This sounds like every helicopter parent's ultra-mega fetish.

While I'm sure this tech has good intentions, I do worry about how much this can be used to "control" people. I'm sure there's nothing to stop an abusive partner from doing this on their significant other.

 

[Tech198]

call me an oldie... but using tech to distract you from itself ? sounds backwards..

What about education as in "don't wear it"?? Its like taking a pack of cigarettes to school and "trusting yourself" not to light up. If its on you, no hope.

 

[sdz]

Do not disturb is sufficient for reasonable people.

 

[chucker23n1]

The Family Setup segment in the presentation this week was hella creepy, and rather tonedeaf for a company that touts privacy.

Particularly these two actual quotes:

• “you can specify which contacts your kids can communicate with"
• "you can set up automatic location notifications, so you’ll get the reassurance your child is exactly where they’re supposed to be”

A Tile tracker for human beings, or something.

They could've introduced this in a far more nuanced way that emphasizes privacy, but they chose to ignore that aspect entirely, which is a real shame.

What if the kid is queer, and the parent is bigoted? What if the kid has a secret s/o, and the parent is abusive? What if the kid is going to an abortion clinic? Or to a psychotherapist?

Lots of problems, there. Genuinely useful use cases, too, yes, but the strong implication in the presentation was that the child's consent doesn't matter.

 

[djcerla]

The Family Setup segment in the presentation this week was hella creepy, and rather tonedeaf for a company that touts privacy.

Particularly these two actual quotes:

• “you can specify which contacts your kids can communicate with"
• "you can set up automatic location notifications, so you’ll get the reassurance your child is exactly where they’re supposed to be”

A Tile tracker for human beings, or something.

They could've introduced this in a far more nuanced way that emphasizes privacy, but they chose to ignore that aspect entirely, which is a real shame.

What if the kid is queer, and the parent is bigoted? What if the kid has a secret s/o, and the parent is abusive? What if the kid is going to an abortion clinic? Or to a psychotherapist?

Lots of problems, there. Genuinely useful use cases, too, yes, but the strong implication in the presentation was that the child's consent doesn't matter.

Clearly, this is meant for children too young to own a phone, according to parental judgement. So they can communicate with them and locate them in an emergency.

As a father, this will solve many problems at once in my near future.

 

[sdz]

As a father, this will solve many problems at once in my near future.

Can you tell which problems?

 

[G5isAlive]

The Family Setup segment in the presentation this week was hella creepy, and rather tonedeaf for a company that touts privacy.

Particularly these two actual quotes:

• “you can specify which contacts your kids can communicate with"
• "you can set up automatic location notifications, so you’ll get the reassurance your child is exactly where they’re supposed to be”

A Tile tracker for human beings, or something.

They could've introduced this in a far more nuanced way that emphasizes privacy, but they chose to ignore that aspect entirely, which is a real shame.

What if the kid is queer, and the parent is bigoted? What if the kid has a secret s/o, and the parent is abusive? What if the kid is going to an abortion clinic? Or to a psychotherapist?

Lots of problems, there. Genuinely useful use cases, too, yes, but the strong implication in the presentation was that the child's consent doesn't matter.

Sorry, I often agree with you, but on this one... the child can choose not to wear it. And if you are going to go down the road that parents could force them to...such parents can also take their children out of school and keep them home for home schooling. Are you going to ban that? Just because tech can be abused, does not mean it is bad. There is very little that can't be abused. I think a lot of people complaining about this don't actually have children.

 

[G5isAlive]

Clearly, this is meant for children too young to own a phone, according to parental judgement. So they can communicate with them and locate them in an emergency.

As a father, this will solve many problems at once in my near future.

I agree with you, this can be a gateway device that accomplishes many of the same things as a phone without being a phone with all its associated problems of cost, distraction, potential for abuse, and ease to lose. Same reason parents put elastic on gloves through the sleeves.. kids put things down and lose them all the time. This is the first step in teaching them some responsibility and increasing their safety. Non parents won't get it.

 

[trainwrecka]

This sounds like every helicopter parent's ultra-mega fetish.

While I'm sure this tech has good intentions, I do worry about how much this can be used to "control" people. I'm sure there's nothing to stop an abusive partner from doing this on their significant other.

Uh... ok. Just because some may have nefarious motives, doesn't mean the rest of us do.

 

[trainwrecka]

Control freaks comes to my mind.

Giving small children (or really older children) uncontrolled access to a pocket computer is not at the top of most parents' list of things to do. This helps bring some of the features parents want a phone for their kid for, without the internet/apps.
[automerge]1600435948[/automerge]
Really sad to see the Series 3 was not supported.

 

[Dhonk]

The Family Setup segment in the presentation this week was hella creepy, and rather tonedeaf for a company that touts privacy.

Particularly these two actual quotes:

• “you can specify which contacts your kids can communicate with"
• "you can set up automatic location notifications, so you’ll get the reassurance your child is exactly where they’re supposed to be”

A Tile tracker for human beings, or something.

They could've introduced this in a far more nuanced way that emphasizes privacy, but they chose to ignore that aspect entirely, which is a real shame.

What if the kid is queer, and the parent is bigoted? What if the kid has a secret s/o, and the parent is abusive? What if the kid is going to an abortion clinic? Or to a psychotherapist?

Lots of problems, there. Genuinely useful use cases, too, yes, but the strong implication in the presentation was that the child's consent doesn't matter.

I don’t see this at all. First of all, adding an Apple Watch to a cell plan is much cheaper than a phone. Secondly, as a 14th year teacher, It amazes me how parents don’t know if your kids are friends with. When I ask students how many of them have friends their parents have never heard of or met, nearly all of them raise their hands. I’m not talking about acquaintances, talking about good friends. When I was in school in the 90s and I called to talk to a friend, my first 5 minutes were usually spent talking with their parents. I may not have kids, but I think it’It amazes me how parents don’t know if your kids are friends with. Giving your kids some responsible independence while still allowing them to text, call, and have locations verified seems perfectly fine to me. Especially given how the London School of Economics’ major study on phone usage in school showed that kids do horrible when their phones are present. The vast majority of parents never take the time to set up limits for their kids devices in the first place, so I applaud Apple for making an effort to improve things. I’m a high school teacher, but I still don’t understand why a child below high school would need a cell phone

 

[mguzzi]

This is awesome for when I am working on a project and don’t want to be distracted or bothered. Thanks for sharing.

 

[insomniac86]

The Family Setup segment in the presentation this week was hella creepy, and rather tonedeaf for a company that touts privacy.

Particularly these two actual quotes:

• “you can specify which contacts your kids can communicate with"
• "you can set up automatic location notifications, so you’ll get the reassurance your child is exactly where they’re supposed to be”

A Tile tracker for human beings, or something.

They could've introduced this in a far more nuanced way that emphasizes privacy, but they chose to ignore that aspect entirely, which is a real shame.

What if the kid is queer, and the parent is bigoted? What if the kid has a secret s/o, and the parent is abusive? What if the kid is going to an abortion clinic? Or to a psychotherapist?

Lots of problems, there. Genuinely useful use cases, too, yes, but the strong implication in the presentation was that the child's consent doesn't matter.

If a kids queer, or going to an abortion clinic? Lol. It’s for kids deemed to young to own a phone.

“child’s consent” is a funny comment to me. It’s not sexual assault. As long as a parent isn’t abusing their child, a child’s rights are “tuff ****”. It’s a parent’s responsibility to raise and protect their offspring. Does a child have a right to go to bed whenever they please, eat what they want, do what they want? Hell no they don’t. My rules until you’re an adult buddy.

You do realise that family sharing allows parents to track members of the family via their iPhone anyway right? Yes you can turn it off when your Apple ID age is no longer a child account

For parents with pre-teen children, this feature is fantastic.

As for the “School time” DND mode, this would also be a requirement for most schools as mobile phones are banned during school hours. This mode allows teachers to identify that it’s on, while still proving to child with emergency contacts and tracking.

 

[mimeArtist]

Needs Apple Watch version 4 or later

 

[insomniac86]

This sounds like every helicopter parent's ultra-mega fetish.

While I'm sure this tech has good intentions, I do worry about how much this can be used to "control" people. I'm sure there's nothing to stop an abusive partner from doing this on their significant other.

Jesus the comments blow my mind.
“Oh my partners locked out my watch and is tracking me.” 😱 Wow they also glued It to your arm so you can’t take it off as well.

Like really? You do realise that if you’re forced to wear a watch that is tied to your abusive partners phone, it’s exactly the same as making them wear any Apple Watch right? I buy a watch, I pair it to my phone, I make you wear it. - see how it’s exactly the same? Clearly if you’re in such a scenario you have MUCH bigger problems.

 

[chucker23n1]

Clearly, this is meant for children too young to own a phone, according to parental judgement.

Sure? I don’t think their intro did a good job explaining that.

Sorry, I often agree with you, but on this one... the child can choose not to wear it. And if you are going to go down the road that parents could force them to...such parents can also take their children out of school and keep them home for home schooling. Are you going to ban that? Just because tech can be abused, does not mean it is bad. There is very little that can't be abused. I think a lot of people complaining about this don't actually have children.

I don’t think this tech is bad per se. I do think Apple didn’t communicate this well.

As for homeschooling, yeah, that’s fortunately illegal here.

I don’t see this at all. First of all, adding an Apple Watch to a cell plan is much cheaper than a phone. Secondly, as a 14th year teacher, It amazes me how parents don’t know if your kids are friends with. When I ask students how many of them have friends or parents have never heard ever met, nearly all of them raise their hands. I’m not talking about acquaintances, talking about good friends. When I was in school in the 90s and I called to talk to a friend, my first 5 minutes were usually spent talking with their parents.

You lived no secret life at all as a teen? That’s… unusual, to say the least.

“child’s consent” is a funny comment to me. It’s not sexual assault. As long as a parent isn’t abusing their child, a child’s rights are “tuff ****”.

what

 

[Dhonk]

You lived no secret life at all as a teen? That’s… unusual, to say the least

no, that’s a trolling way of interpreting things. But today’s parents only know a tiny bit about their kids’ lives. I. The 90s, parents were much more in tune with things. Technology has opened Pandora’s box, perhaps giving many teens too much freedom and this is about empowering parents to teach kids to use it responsibly.

 

[insomniac86]

no, that’s a trolling way of interpreting things. But today’s parents only know a tiny bit about their kids’ lives. I. The 90s, parents were much more in tune with things. Technology has opened Pandora’s box, perhaps giving many teens too much freedom and this is about empowering parents to teach kids to use it responsibly.

I think we can sometimes forget that the general public have experienced very different upbringings.

We have an era where we have super snowflake and entitled young adults that fell victim to their parents having minimal interaction with them, lack of discipline and “everyone’s a winner bs”. And in the other hand we have others with a lot of childhood trauma due to having abusive and controlling parents.

So with that in mind, people will freak out over such technology due to their view of how it could be abused. And due to that, they can miss the point and fail to see the good.

For me personally I agree with you that technology has been a double edge
sword.
For parents that make the effort to spent time with their kids and know what’s going on in their life, the internet is a portal to another world in which a parent can very easily lose sight of what their child’s up too.
So these tech parenting tools, such as knowing if your kids wagging school and knowing who they are communicating with should probably be a parents concern.

Obviously some people think a child has a right to do such things without the parents knowledge, to not be “tracked” or to talk to whoever they want. Clearly It boils down to what ethnics a parent stands for, and how intelligent/mature a child behaves.

 

[C DM]

So much handwringing and all kinds of essentially extreme hypotheticals regarding an optional feature that some might find useful and choose to use or not use.

 

[chucker23n1]

no, that’s a trolling way of interpreting things. But today’s parents only know a tiny bit about their kids’ lives. I. The 90s, parents were much more in tune with things.

As a 90s’ teen, I can’t agree.

And I wasn’t trolling. I just had a vastly different experience, clearly.

 

[G5isAlive]

Sure? I don’t think their intro did a good job explaining that.



I don’t think this tech is bad per se. I do think Apple didn’t communicate this well.

As for homeschooling, yeah, that’s fortunately illegal here.

eh, maybe because why should they limit the market? but yeah, as a parent, that's the first thing that sprang to my mind. and in their video you will note its a young child. not all communication is verbal

 

[chucker23n1]

eh, maybe because why should they limit the market?

Of course they should, because they’re selling themselves as privacy-conscious. You can’t have it both ways. Unless they’re saying privacy is only for 18 and up?