Apple Watch - Family Setup

[tims4wins]

So my son is 10 and is out and about with friends much more frequently recently, but we're not quite ready to get him his own phone. From what I understand, I think we could get him a watch that would have its own phone number, but would be linked to either my or my wife's account? And we would have to buy the watch, and then spend the $10-12 a month or whatever it is for the cellular service? My wife went to an ATT store today and they told her that he'd need his own line / phone number and that would be $75/month, but that doesn't seem correct from what I've read. She's headed to the Apple Store now for more clarity.

Am I misunderstanding what Apple is saying on their website? Anyone have any experience with this, and do they recommend?

"Family Setup lets you pair watches for your children and older family members to your iPhone. Everyone gets their own phone number, and you can manage each watch using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. "

https://www.apple.com/watch/?afid=p238|s7KkTmfZ9-dc_mtid_20925qtb42335_pcrid_623622242107_pgrid_130165756074_&cid=wwa-us-kwgo-watch-slid---Brand-AppleWatch-Avail-

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

So my son is 10 and is out and about with friends much more frequently recently, but we're not quite ready to get him his own phone. From what I understand, I think we could get him a watch that would have its own phone number, but would be linked to either my or my wife's account? And we would have to buy the watch, and then spend the $10-12 a month or whatever it is for the cellular service? My wife went to an ATT store today and they told her that he'd need his own line / phone number and that would be $75/month, but that doesn't seem correct from what I've read. She's headed to the Apple Store now for more clarity.

Am I misunderstanding what Apple is saying on their website? Anyone have any experience with this, and do they recommend?

"Family Setup lets you pair watches for your children and older family members to your iPhone. Everyone gets their own phone number, and you can manage each watch using the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. "

https://www.apple.com/watch/?afid=p238|s7KkTmfZ9-dc_mtid_20925qtb42335_pcrid_623622242107_pgrid_130165756074_&cid=wwa-us-kwgo-watch-slid---Brand-AppleWatch-Avail-

Your wife and ATT had a misunderstanding. Yes, your son's Apple Watch will need his own number but assuming your plan allows it, you can add a number to your plan for the approximately $10 a month. We did this for my son last year and it has been good for all of us, well not my son as he really wants a phone but like you we don't see a need for him to carry a computer and a camera everywhere he goes.

Even though he's like the last one in his class (at 12YO) without a phone, but that's another thread.

 

[GoJeff!]

wbcd is correct

I will say that my kid's experience with the watch has been a disappointment. All it has done is make them more eager for a phone.

 

[tims4wins]

Thanks to both of you.

Complicating factor here is my wife and I are both on corporate plans, so I need to look into adding a line to one of those.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

wbcd is correct

I will say that my kid's experience with the watch has been a disappointment. All it has done is make them more eager for a phone.

My son's has been disappointed as well but that's primarily because he can't take photos, can't watch youtube or other stuff, and has to limit his texts to short messages. And he also isn't the greatest about charging it overnight.

All of which are reasons we aren't getting him a phone right now.

 

[Murderer's Crow]

Thanks to both of you.

Complicating factor here is my wife and I are both on corporate plans, so I need to look into adding a line to one of those.

No bueno. I've been trying to do that for myself forever.

 

[tims4wins]

No bueno. I've been trying to do that for myself forever.

My corporate plan will allow me to add an Apple Watch and pay for it personally for the cellular service but unsure about the complications of an additional line. I’m pretty sure back in the day that they allowed additional lines for family members if we paid for it personally but not sure how that’s changed in recent times. I have a call scheduled with IT later this afternoon to discuss.

 

[MuzzyField]

My corporate plan will allow me to add an Apple Watch and pay for it personally for the cellular service but unsure about the complications of an additional line. I’m pretty sure back in the day that they allowed additional lines for family members if we paid for it personally but not sure how that’s changed in recent times. I have a call scheduled with IT later this afternoon to discuss.

If they allow watches to be added you should be fine. Even if the Apple Watch was yours, the watch would get its own number/line to pair with your phone.

 

[tims4wins]

If they allow watches to be added you should be fine. Even if the Apple Watch was yours, the watch would get its own number/line to pair with your phone.

Oh really? That’s great news. So to be clear, calls to my phone would not be routed to his watch?

 

[MuzzyField]

Oh really? That’s great news. So to be clear, calls to my phone would not be routed to his watch?

I think you will need the Apple family plan.

https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/set-up-a-family-members-apple-watch-apd54d0a51fb/watchos

 

[tims4wins]

I think you will need the Apple family plan.

https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/set-up-a-family-members-apple-watch-apd54d0a51fb/watchos

Right I figured. Thanks again. I am starting to believe this might work

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Oh really? That’s great news. So to be clear, calls to my phone would not be routed to his watch?

If your kid had a separate number, then no, his calls would not be routed to your phone.

If you buy yourself an Apple Watch, it would not need its own number as it could work off your phone (assuming they are in close proximity all of the time). In other words, you can run an Apple Watch off an existing phone line but as your kid doesn't have a phone, that Apple Watch will need its own line.

 

[tims4wins]

If your kid had a separate number, then no, his calls would not be routed to your phone.

If you buy yourself an Apple Watch, it would not need its own number as it could work off your phone (assuming they are in close proximity all of the time). In other words, you can run an Apple Watch off an existing phone line but as your kid doesn't have a phone, that Apple Watch will need its own line.

Right, I'm just not 100% clear on how to ensure that my kid has his own number.

When I go through our internal website to activate, it looks like it auto generates an email to Verizon (my carrier) to activate the cellular service, and in the email there is a section for preferred area code, so I am guessing / hoping it defaults to its own phone number. I may just need to buy the watch and test it out. Worst case I pay for a month of cellular service and sell the watch if it's not working how I want it to.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Right, I'm just not 100% clear on how to ensure that my kid has his own number.

When I go through our internal website to activate, it looks like it auto generates an email to Verizon (my carrier) to activate the cellular service, and in the email there is a section for preferred area code, so I am guessing / hoping it defaults to its own phone number. I may just need to buy the watch and test it out. Worst case I pay for a month of cellular service and sell the watch if it's not working how I want it to.

When I got my kid an Apple Watch, for a variety of reasons, my family spent more than four hours in the Apple Store trying to do it, so perhaps I'm not the one to give advice here.

But what ended up happening is that we first had to find someone at the Apple Store who understood it (the first salesperson we had tried to sell us an Apple Watch without cellular) and then we had to spend some time on ATT (my carrier) to get a phone number, then once we got the phone number, we had to spend more time having Apple set up the sim card.

Or something like that.

And I already had a family plan so didn't have to deal with my IT folks. Hopefully your experience will be easier as when we first got it, Apple had just started pushing the stand-alone service.

 

[MuzzyField]

I have an Apple Watch Series 4, and will until the battery can't make it through the day.

I wasn't given the option with at&t of activating it directly to my phone's number, so it has a different number.

Calls (and text messages) to my phone come to my watch (different number) when I am away from my phone. I can make calls from my watch. I assumed it was calling through my phone's number as my contacts see me when I call from my watch as if the call is from my phone.

Having a separate number for the watch seemed more billing related (each device has to have its own number) rather than a tech limitation.

I'm interested to see how this plays out for tims4wins.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

I wasn't given the option with at&t of activating it directly to my phone's number, so it has a different number.

I believe you were given incorrect information and an Apple Watch does NOT need its own line to function: https://whatsabyte.com/do-i-need-a-separate-line-for-the-apple-watch/.

It probably works better with its own line because without it's own line, it depends completely on your IPhone and the bluetooth connection to function and if you're ever out of range of your phone, it won't do anything.

But that doesn't mean you can't just get a Watch and not get a new line.

 

[MuzzyField]

I believe you were given incorrect information and an Apple Watch does NOT need its own line to function: https://whatsabyte.com/do-i-need-a-separate-line-for-the-apple-watch/.

It probably works better with its own line because without it's own line, it depends completely on your IPhone and the bluetooth connection to function and if you're ever out of range of your phone, it won't do anything.

But that doesn't mean you can't just get a Watch and not get a new line.

But at&t still get the extra $10 to add the watch, correct? Maybe I just wanted to get something "extra" for the $10 and took the dedicated number for the watch.

So, reading the article, the different number is for billing and differentiation of devices.

 

[tims4wins]

I'm confused about the new line thing.

Things I know to be true:
- My phone is a corporate phone
- My company allows for personal Apple Watches to be paired to our corporate phones, but we have to pay for the cellular piece of the bill if we want that capability
- My corporate plan is Verizon
- Verizon allows for Family Sharing
- My company says it does NOT allow for personal lines to be added to company accounts

So all that said... say I order an Apple Watch. I submit an online request through my company to activate the cellular capability. My watch arrives. I pair it with my phone, and go through the Family Sharing process during set up. I select my son, etc.

Per this link (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768), step 7 says:

Set up cellular and Wi-Fi
If your iPhone cellular provider supports Family Setup, you can add the watch to your plan. If your carrier doesn’t support it, you might be able to use an alternative carrier. Then you can set up cellular on the watch later.

Next, choose whether to share your current Wi-Fi network with the Apple Watch.


I am unclear what "you can add the watch to your plan" means. Does this mean I need a new line on top of the cellular service?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also tried going through the Verizon website to see what's up. It looks to me like if you go to devices, watches, pick the watch, then a plan is $10/month, not the normal $35-55 for a mobile device. Unfortunately no one at any of these companies seems to be able to answer my questions. I'm wondering if I just need to order one, try activating the cellular through my company, and hope for the best.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

I'm confused about the new line thing.

Things I know to be true:
- My phone is a corporate phone
- My company allows for personal Apple Watches to be paired to our corporate phones, but we have to pay for the cellular piece of the bill if we want that capability
- My corporate plan is Verizon
- Verizon allows for Family Sharing
- My company says it does NOT allow for personal lines to be added to company accounts

So all that said... say I order an Apple Watch. I submit an online request through my company to activate the cellular capability. My watch arrives. I pair it with my phone, and go through the Family Sharing process during set up. I select my son, etc.

Per this link (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211768), step 7 says:

Set up cellular and Wi-Fi
If your iPhone cellular provider supports Family Setup, you can add the watch to your plan. If your carrier doesn’t support it, you might be able to use an alternative carrier. Then you can set up cellular on the watch later.

Next, choose whether to share your current Wi-Fi network with the Apple Watch.


I am unclear what "you can add the watch to your plan" means. Does this mean I need a new line on top of the cellular service?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also tried going through the Verizon website to see what's up. It looks to me like if you go to devices, watches, pick the watch, then a plan is $10/month, not the normal $35-55 for a mobile device. Unfortunately no one at any of these companies seems to be able to answer my questions. I'm wondering if I just need to order one, try activating the cellular through my company, and hope for the best.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Is there an Apple Store near you? They seem to be the most knowledgeable about this stuff in my experience.

But at&t still get the extra $10 to add the watch, correct? Maybe I just wanted to get something "extra" for the $10 and took the dedicated number for the watch.

So, reading the article, the different number is for billing and differentiation of devices.

Honestly, I don't know since we got a separate line but if you ran your Apple Watch only through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, not sure why you'd need to have a separate bill but maybe someone else knows the answer to this.

 

[tims4wins]

Is there an Apple Store near you? They seem to be the most knowledgeable about this stuff in my experience.

Honestly, I don't know since we got a separate line but if you ran your Apple Watch only through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, not sure why you'd need to have a separate bill but maybe someone else knows the answer to this.

I ordered a phone today and am going to try to activate the corporate cellular and see what happens. If it fails I’m going to a Verizon store since that’s where my corporate account is. Worst case I either return the phone or establish a new plan at Verizon. Whatever. I’ve spent way too much time on this today!!

 

[tims4wins]

Update:

Watched arrived yesterday. I activated the cellular plan through Verizon. When I set up the watch for myself, the cellular seems to work. When I set it up for my son using family sharing, it doesn't seem to work.

So, I think I'll be headed to the Verizon store to figure it out.

 

[MuzzyField]

Good Luck!

Keep us posted.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Update:

Watched arrived yesterday. I activated the cellular plan through Verizon. When I set up the watch for myself, the cellular seems to work. When I set it up for my son using family sharing, it doesn't seem to work.

So, I think I'll be headed to the Verizon store to figure it out.

I'd go to Apple Store first if I were you.

 

[tims4wins]

I'd go to Apple Store first if I were you.

Not sure how they could help, since I need service / a line.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Update:

Watched arrived yesterday. I activated the cellular plan through Verizon. When I set up the watch for myself, the cellular seems to work. When I set it up for my son using family sharing, it doesn't seem to work.

So, I think I'll be headed to the Verizon store to figure it out.

Super excited to see I got a bill for $60 for the first month. $35 activation, $10 charge for the line. $10.59 in surcharges and $5.94 in Taxes and fees. We'll see how this shakes out after month 1 but I'm not paying $27 a month for the cellular connectivity.

 

[tims4wins]

Super excited to see I got a bill for $60 for the first month. $35 activation, $10 charge for the line. $10.59 in surcharges and $5.94 in Taxes and fees. We'll see how this shakes out after month 1 but I'm not paying $27 a month for the cellular connectivity.

Yikes

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Yikes

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Not sure how they could help, since I need service / a line.

Apple store in my experience knows a lot more about the ins and outs of the Apple Watch than anyone I spoke to at ATT when we activated my son's watch. If there's anything you need from Verizon, you can call their customer service line while you talk to the Apple folks. Besides, I would guess that any mall with an Apple Store would probably have a Verizon store as well so you could walk over in case you need to.

But that's just my experience. Good luck.

 

[tims4wins]

Thanks