Garmin Kids Smartwatch With Messaging & Tracking

Got this for my kid. Great way to communicate with them, without letting them get distracted by technology!

I bought a Bounce for my eight year old son; he likes to ride around and play with friends in the neighborhood. I love that he is building confidence and independence and being outdoors, but I also wanted piece of mind knowing I could reach him and keep tabs on his whereabouts. I would NEVER give a child a smartphone, so this seemed like a perfect option.

On the whole, it’s functioned exactly as needed. He enjoys wearing it. The battery is good enough to get through a day or two. He enjoys the games and had no problem figuring out how to use the Bounce and it’s various functions. Parental controls include “school mode” (which limits sounds and features during hours a parent can specify), and there’s a “do not disturb during sleep” option as well. A year of service was only $100.

He and I liked it so much, I recommended it to my sister, who has two boys, 8 and 10.

This is where Garmin needs to take note…

Garmin has a “family” system for the bounce (so that parents can determine a child’s Bounce settings, including who may contact a child). All settings are managed, and all communication occurs, within the Garmin Jr. app. The options for titles within a family include administrator, members (which are broken down into guardians, who can modify settings and caregivers, who cannot), and kids. My household had included my son, myself and my husband, our parents (my son’s grandparents), and my sister (his aunt), so all parties could communicate with my son. When my sister got two watches for her boys, she was unable to add them to the household because she was not the administrator, so she started her own family. This is where things get weird and definitely need improvement. The app has an option to make “connections,” which allows for interactions with other families. She and I connected, and after doing so, her boys and my son (cousins) can communicate through their watches, but she and I cannot contact our respective nephews. WHY WOULD THIS NOT BE POSSIBLE, OR AT LEAST AN OPTION???? Further, since you can only be a member of one family at a time, and there are restrictions that limit adults from contacting children that aren’t in their family, my parents cannot communicate with my sister’s boys (their other grandsons), whom they care for regularly. WHAT SENSE DOES ANY OF THIS MAKE? I am certain there are MANY adult caregivers (be it grandparents, babysitters, nannies, aunts/uncles, tutors, etc.) who engage with kids from multiple households/families. Why would Garmin restrict contact with adults in this way?? This is a huge, annoying flaw (or oversight) in need of improvement as soon as possible. Also, the app doesn’t let any adult in the household (not even the administrator) monitor the content of a child’s messages (you would have to physically take your child’s watch to see their messages.) This also seems like it should be an option, given the target audience for the watch.

For the price and current functionality, 4/5 stars, but it could be a 5/5 if Garmin did some work on the family system.

I am i the middle of thinking what to do, because my daughter loved the watch but after just 8 months of use it just died, didn’t charge anymore and went dead!

Received it today but just realize you can’t call your child. Love the look and feel of the watch though. Unfortunately will send back bc we can’t call to and from watch.