I didn't realize Apple had a kid mode. Of course I see Apple watches everywhere, but I haven't talked to any parents about them. When we got the gizmo 3ish years ago, it was popular with a lot of kids around here. I wasn't hearing of kids using the apple watch. The gizmo is nice in that they can call us and that their contacts are limited. I really don't want to have more features than that. I'm just surprised that it feels like an "unpolished" set of features.
Kid mode might be newer than 3 years ago, I certainly haven’t been keeping track.
Any Apple kit for your kids is completely useless if you yourself don't use Apple crap.
You literally can't set up am Apple watch for kids without a parent-owned iPhone. It's the kind of vendor lock in thst all other companies get immediately chastised for, but Apple always manages to get a pass. I hope they pay their marketing teams adequately for those amazing ways in which they twist public perceptions.
I don’t like that aspect either, to be clear, but the majority of American parents use iPhones and don’t have any plan to leave the platform, and there are other kids smartwatches on the market not made by carriers.
I am sure there’s a decent product not made by a carrier, like the Fitbit Ace LTE.
To be fair, that specific product wasn’t yet released when OP got their Verizon watch.
Not an option, unfortunately, since my wife and I are both on Android.
The Fitbit Ace LTE is Google’s kids watch, although it wasn’t yet available when OP first bought watches.
With Google moving their smartwatch efforts to the pixel brand I'm worried about longevity here. It also has a lot of the downsides of the Gizmo: 20 contacts max, texting only through the app, can't interact with friends. If I'm going to get new ones for the kids I'll probably do a TickTalk or Cosmo that don't have these drawbacks.
I almost started talking about how I think the best solution is really just a customized/locked down normal smartphone but I’m not sure how helpful that is to the discussion.