With the launch of Apple Watch For Your Kids (formerly known as Family Setup), Apple have acknowledged the growing popularity of their smartwatches among children and teenagers. This software update allows iPhone users to set up multiple cellular Apple Watches with a single iPhone and hand them out to family members who don’t have their own phones, such as children and older adults.
It essentially turns an Apple Watch into a cellularly connected smartphone, without the distracting capability of a fully functioning iPhone and with an added raft of parental controls and safety features. This growing market has been swiftly followed by a rise in the number of family-friendly watch apps on the App Store. Here, we explore some of the best apps for kids and teenagers and show you how to use a data plan with Apple Watch For Your Kids mode.
The Best Educational Apple Watch Apps
Schooltime
Schooltime is a unique feature of Apple Watch For Your Kids mode – while not strictly an app (it comes pre-installed on cellular Apple Watches), Schooltime is a godsend for parents and children who need to focus. It limits all features (other than calling and emergency contact functions) during a set period of time. The Watch wearer can override Schooltime, though the parent will be notified of this on their iPhone. The simple solution placates any parents or caregivers who are understandably reluctant to hand a child an internet-connected device during school hours, though some may also see it as an infringement of the child's privacy.
Forest
Forest app differs from Schooltime in that it aims to motivate children to focus through their own initiative, rather than being commanded to do so from afar. The app operates on a simple principle – for every second the watch is unused, a virtual garden will bloom and grow within the app. If the watch is opened before a particular time however, the plants will wither and die. The whimsical premise has found lasting success, topping the App Store charts in the 'Productivity' category.
Night Sky
Night Sky isn’t designed specifically for kids, but its intuitive interface and simple concept make it suitable for all ages. The stargazing app is a meditative and educational way for kids and adults alike to learn more about the cosmos. Simply angle the watch face towards the open sky to see the constellations above mapped out in real-time on the screen. An antidote to the notification overload of smart devices, Night Sky is a rare app that encourages children to get outside and interact with nature.
Trivia Crack 2
Trivia Crack 2 is the Watch-compatible follow-up to one of the iPhone’s most popular quiz games. It lets kids and adults alike compete against others in timed trivia competitions, via their Apple Watch screen. The app has that compulsive ‘just one more round’ quality of some of the app store's most popular games, making it an entertaining and lightly educational companion on longer bus and car journeys, though parents should be aware many features are locked behind enticing paywalls. It is suitable for all ages, with a range of difficulty levels, though it will only function with an active Facebook, email or Apple ID login.
The Best Creative Apple Watch Apps for Kids
Coloring Watch
Coloring books have an enduring popularity with all ages, remaining in vogue well after the digital revolution. Adult colouring books in particular have shot up in popularity over the last few years. For kids and adults alike, the appeal lies in the blending of creative expression with meditative repetition. If they don’t have a colouring book to hand, Coloring Watch lets users shade in hundreds of pre-made designs directly on their Apple Watch screen. Kids can save their favorites and set them as their watch face background.
Watch Funk
Apple’s GarageBand software lets legions of non-musicians replicate the sounds of their heroes and noodle around on string instruments, keys and drum machines. Watch Funk takes it further, conjuring up a full playable synth and drum machine within the strict confines of an Apple Watch display. This small but mighty app lets future J Dillas create beats, songs and more on their wrist.
Like Coloring Watch, Watch Funk utilises every square millimetre of the Apple Watch’s compact display to let children express themselves through music. While they may not be composing symphonies on it anytime soon, Watch Funk is a brilliant way to introduce kids to the world of music production, and the range of available instruments means they can explore and experiment with building full tracks.
The Best Apple Watch Apps for Younger Children
Sleepiest
In contrast to the bevy of data-heavy sleep trackers on the App Store, Sleepiest describes itself as a ‘sleep coach’, with an archive of prerecorded ambient soundscapes and bedtime stories designed for all ages. Getting younger children to sleep regularly can be a parental headache: Sleepiest is a helpful tool both for encouraging falling asleep as well as maintaining a healthy sleep schedule.
Rules!
Rules! possesses the elusive quality of being both fun and educational. A puzzle-gaming app, it uses colorful characters and ingenious mechanics to lead the user through a progressively harder series of logical problems. For those concerned about excessive screen time, Rules! provides an elegant solution – like other daily puzzle games, Rules! only allows the user to attempt one challenge per day, maxing out at around 10 minutes. It’s a great way to keep kids thinking and entertained for a short space of time.
Water Reminder
Sometimes the simplest apps are the best. Water Reminder is a free watch app that does exactly what it says on the tin: remind the user to drink water. While Water Reminder can be used by anyone including hikers, athletes, and students, it’s a great help for younger kids who may not be paying particular attention to their water intake, especially during warmer summer days. The discrete Watch app pops up only when needed, providing a clearer reminder than an iPhone app would and encouraging kids to drink water and stay focused and healthy.
The Best Apple Watch Apps for Teenagers
Pillow
It's a particular irony of modern life that teenagers require the most sleep out of anyone, yet are rarely in a position to be able to do so. A healthy sleep schedule is a crucial part of growing and maintaining positive physical and mental health. Pillow is an Apple Watch app that records the user's sleep schedule in the hope of improving it. The built-in alarm analyzes the wearer's sleep pattern to rouse them at the optimal time, theoretically boosting energy levels throughout the day. While the science is still out on the efficacy of sleep trackers, Pillow can at least provide a greater insight into personal sleeping habits, including what works and what doesn't for individual users.
iStudiez Pro
Navigating the first few months of a new school is hard: getting used to the layout, remembering where to be at what time, and what to bring to each class. Inevitably, things will get lost, homework will be forgotten and classes will be missed - this is all part of the experience. The iStudiez Pro Apple Watch app makes it easier for school-age kids to keep track of their lessons and extracurricular activities with an all-in-one planner and timetable on their wrists.
iStudiez Pro gives kids an easy way to help them stay on track during their schooldays, provided they don’t lose their Apple Watch. Reminder notifications are colour-coded, and the simplistic layout works well on even the tiny Apple Watch screen. The preinstalled Apple Reminders app is also a great free tool for organizing tasks and goals.
Calm
Studies have shown that practicing meditation from a young age can have a beneficial effect on physical and mental health over time. This is not always available in schools – Calm aims to bridge this gap by offering a free Watch app that uses audio cues, ambient soundscapes and gentle instructions to guide the user through a meditative session. While it may take some practice initially and should not be considered scientifically valid, Calm provides an accessible way for children and young adults to build the foundations of a healthy lifelong practice.
It may sound counterintuitive for a mobile app to be an aid for relaxation and mindfulness, but Calm, and similar services like Headspace have proven enduringly popular among iPhone and Apple Watch users. The stripped-back Apple Watch version offers many of the same features as the iPhone app, with the added benefit that kids can meditate and unwind without having to open a phone first.
Can Children Make Purchases on the Apple Watch?
While contactless services like Apple Pay and devices with saved card details can make life more convenient, they also require extra vigilance when handing the phone to someone else, such as a child. Parental horror stories of kids racking up $5000 bills on mobile gaming were commonplace in the early days of the App Store. In 2013, Apple paid out $87 million in compensation to parents and guardians whose children had made in-app purchases while unaware (or unbothered) that they were spending real money. Facing the growing popularity of smartwatches among children, Apple has attempted to stymie this issue with the newly rolled out Ask to Buy feature.
With Ask To Buy tuned on, children will be unable to make in-app purchases, or download movies, music or apps (even free ones) without consent from their parent or guardian. The child's Apple Watch will send a message to the person who set up the watch (referred to by Apple as the 'family organizer'), who can then approve or deny the purchase or download.
Using Apple Watch For Your Kids Mode
As a parent or guardian, Apple Watch For Your Kids allows you to hand out a cellular-connected Apple Watch to a child, safe in the knowledge that they can call or text whenever they need to.
While the same thing can be achieved with a $20 flip phone, an Apple Watch provides some extra features that may give some parents additional peace of mind, such as tracking the location of each watch and receiving updates from their kids, as well as SOS notifications in the event of an emergency. It’s important to consider how your child feels about wearing a smartwatch, and the tracking that comes with it: there’s a fine line between staying connected and surveillance. If all parties are happy though, Apple Watch For Your Kids is one of the most intuitive and convenient ways for a family unit to stay in touch.
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