Apple has announced the Apple Watch For Your Kids feature in India. This feature is for all those parents who think it’s too early to give their kids a smartphone but still want them to have a device they can stay in touch with and track where they are and what they’re doing. This will allow parents to communicate with their kids, track their health and fitness data, and use all the other safety features of Apple Watch. This means kids will get access to messages and phone calls and all the other health and fitness features you normally get on Apple Watch.

The feature is now live in India and will work with Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch 4 or later. The feature requires the watch to be running on WatchOS 7 or later and the iPhone to be running on iOS14 or later.

How to set up the Apple Watch for your kids

At the moment, Apple has exclusively partnered with Jio for this feature. This means that for this feature to work, you will need to get a new Jio connection for the Apple Watch. And yes, you will need the cellular version of the eligible Apple Watch.

To set up Apple Watch for your kids, at least one of the parents must be an iPhone user. This feature will be activated on the child’s Apple Watch after it is paired with an iPhone. The child will have their own number through the eSIM setup on the watch. The best way to do this would be to pair the Apple Watch and iPhone first and then set up the eSIM.

What kind of control will parents have over the features?

Apple Watch for Your Kids will give kids their freedom and allow parents to track their kids without any interference. Parents will be able to specify which contacts the kids can connect with on the Apple Watch. This feature will also allow parents to track the location of their kids from their iPhone.

There is also a feature called School Time on the Apple Watch, which is basically like a DND profile that can be enabled on the device during a child’s school schedule, extra classes, and/or their study time, which will block all notifications and calls on their watch so that they are not disturbed by anything. Parents will be able to disable School Time from their phone at any time, and kids will also have the option to do so directly from the watch by pressing and holding the Digital Crown. Parents will be notified every time School Time is disabled during the scheduled time.

Parents will also be able to schedule Downtime from Settings. When you set Downtime, only selected phone calls and approved apps will be accessed. This Downtime feature is synchronized across all devices that have Screen Time enabled, and a reminder pops up five minutes before Downtime begins.

Kids will have access to the App Store through the Apple Watch, but parents will need to approve each download from their iPhone.

Kids will also get access to emergency services through the watch. Parents can create an emergency profile for them that will include details like their allergies, blood group, age, height, and so on, which could be helpful in an emergency.

Additionally, parents or children can also set movement, exercise, and standing goals on Apple Watch and results can be accessed from both the watch and the parent’s iPhone.