Samsung is missing a market with their phone and watch setup limitations .
I don't want to give my 11 yo daughter a phone yet (hello social media), but I do want her to be able to be more independent and be able to call me. We have a Gizmo (so we have a phone number for her) , but it's babyish for a tween and she argues when I want her to wear it.
Our Apple friends have set up Apple watches for their kids without a dedicated phone, and as an Android family, I expected this option from Samsung. My husband told me it wasn't possible, but I saw a posting on Reddit that another parent added her child as a user on her phone to download the wear app and set up the phone and line for him. Excited, I pre-ordered the Watch 5.
Unfortunately, after Googling more and talking with tech support, it seems that Samsung disabled Android's ability to have multiple user accounts on a single phone. So there doesn't seem to be any way to enable the Samsung watch without buying her a phone--which I do not want to do.
So I'm sending 2 watches back on Tuesday (I bought one as I decided it will be easier to troubleshoot if I had a watch too).
I'm very unhappy. PLEASE FIX THIS SAMSUNG!
I am happy to be part of a test user for your product team if needed. Parents need this option!
Which carrier do you have. If you have the LTE version of the Watch and you use T-Mobile, you can set up Digits, which is the same number on all devices or up to 5 numbers on a single device.
Thank you for the quick reply and the suggestion. I just spent 90 minutes discussing this with a Sprint rep---apparently Sprint doesn't know anything about Digits and has no comparable program. The Tmobile site keeps referring me to Sprint. 😞 I'll visit the Tmobile store as there is a thread on the Tmobile community that shares mixed results with setting up the Samsung Watch 4 independently as a stand alone device--but contacting the Digits team at Tmobile seems to be key to success. I'm hoping the store can make that happen.
Just an update. I'm technically still with Sprint, and there is no way to set up the watch with the Digits app. I mentioned the Digits app and the Tmobile representative I spoke with in the store said she did not believe this would work--even if we were with Tmobile. She recommended I look at an Apple watch which is able to be set up in stand-alone mode.
I would love this feature for AT & T as I also don't want to buy my 7 year old a phone, but when she's with her mom, I would like for her to call me if she wants to, or we can call her.
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