Smart watch for a kid

[luke duke 6407]

I've got a kid entering junior high that will now be riding the bus and possibly staying after school for activities. I think that I want to get her a smart watch so we can talk, text and so I can track her location. I really don't want her to have internet access. Any recommendations? I'm on AT&T, if that matters.

[Jkwellborn 6666]

Load jack that mofo. Do you think it’s a good idea for that? Kids are hell on watches. Just get them an iPhone.

[Bill Clay 48]

Just went through this. 

1. Visit Apple store, acquire Apple Watch with cellular and GPS
2. Visit AT&T store, add a line, take them up on the free iPhone 6 offer
3. On your phone, create kid's iCloud account under your existing iCloud account
4. Setup new phone using newly created kid's iCloud account
5. Pair watch and new phone
6. Put new phone on charger and leave it there
7. Give watch to kid
8. ???
9. Profit

This is enough to give my kid talk and text capability, but no internet. If they really need a phone on a particular adventure, you have it available for them.

[dcbc 14443]

On 7/30/2019 at 10:04 PM, Jkwellborn said:

Just get them an iPhone.

Or even better, grab a refurbished Pixel 1 on Amazon for $120. 

For curiosity's sake, why a watch?  I assume because you want to keep her locked down on the technology end of things?

Assuming it needs to be a watch, can the watch run off wifi if it's not enabled on the phone?  The schools around here have guest wifi that's easy enough for the kids to get on.  Not sure about schools in your neck of the woods.  Not sure how much fun the internet is on a 2" screen even if it is possible to run it on wifi. 

[ballrific 215]

bumped b/c this was the closest I could find.  I'm sure someone here has dealt with going from a smart watch to cell phone for one of their kids. Mine has an apple watch with verizon and we want to "upgrade" to a phone now.  Verizon is telling me we can't convert a "watch line" to a "phone line" but have to add a new line and wouldn't be able to keep the old phone number from the watch and it would have to be a new phone number with the phone line.  That makes no sense as I know others do this with their teenagers going to iphones from apple watches.  I'd like to avoid the back door/pain in the ass route with porting out the number to another carrier and then porting back in.  I think I was probably talking to someone in customer service that didn't have a clue...let me know if anyone has done this, thanks in advance.

[thunderlounge 7778]

It’s so they can charge you more. Just sayin. 

[Prepuce of Doom 21014]

19 minutes ago, ballrific said:

bumped b/c this was the closest I could find.  I'm sure someone here has dealt with going from a smart watch to cell phone for one of their kids. Mine has an apple watch with verizon and we want to "upgrade" to a phone now.  Verizon is telling me we can't convert a "watch line" to a "phone line" but have to add a new line and wouldn't be able to keep the old phone number from the watch and it would have to be a new phone number with the phone line.  That makes no sense as I know others do this with their teenagers going to iphones from apple watches.  I'd like to avoid the back door/pain in the ass route with porting out the number to another carrier and then porting back in.  I think I was probably talking to someone in customer service that didn't have a clue...let me know if anyone has done this, thanks in advance.

Go to a store and talk to a salesperson. Leave and go to another if that one fucks you around, and tell the person at the second store that you were hoping for better service than at the first store. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10184]

On 9/18/2024 at 4:38 PM, ballrific said:

bumped b/c this was the closest I could find.  I'm sure someone here has dealt with going from a smart watch to cell phone for one of their kids. Mine has an apple watch with verizon and we want to "upgrade" to a phone now.  Verizon is telling me we can't convert a "watch line" to a "phone line" but have to add a new line and wouldn't be able to keep the old phone number from the watch and it would have to be a new phone number with the phone line.  That makes no sense as I know others do this with their teenagers going to iphones from apple watches.  I'd like to avoid the back door/pain in the ass route with porting out the number to another carrier and then porting back in.  I think I was probably talking to someone in customer service that didn't have a clue...let me know if anyone has done this, thanks in advance.

likely the customer service (hoping)... I'm in similar "watch" hell with Verizon and am going to a store this weekend to try and get fixed.  I have a new Pixel 9 phone and bought a new Pixel Watch 3 LTE, both from Google. I upgraded my phone with Verizon no problem. I'm now trying to add my watch into the mix. I know I need an additional line but want it to do the number share where can answer/text as if from my phone's number.  Customer service is telling me I can't do it unless I buy the watch from Verizon... with "bring your own device" there is no way to do it...

 

Update: went to Verizon store and the connected my watch in 15 mins....all good now  I really have phone/chat/online support. It's just typically a big FU experience for customers.

Edited September 22 by MonkeyDoughnut