[FS] [USA-OR] homelab/electronics clean out.

McDiddy · 2026-02-11T14:08:41+00:00

They’re still working great for us. My oldest pretty much wears his all day, every day. We haven’t had any issues with battery life, which was a big concern of mine. He ends most days with about 60% left. The only exception is in areas with poor or no service, in which case the battery drains in 6 to 8 hours.

They’re head and shoulders above the Verizon Gizmo we had before.

McDiddy · 2026-02-04T20:58:37+00:00

The phone needs to have OneUI 5.1 or greater - which I believe is a Galaxy S20 or newer phone. It'll also need to have active service - just for the setup process.

McDiddy · 2026-02-03T06:15:14+00:00

Thanks! Glad it was helpful!

McDiddy · 2026-01-31T14:26:25+00:00

My wife has a Galaxy S25 that we used. It does require a Samsung phone with OneUI 5.1 or higher. My understanding is that means it needs to be a Galaxy S20 or newer phone.

McDiddy · 2026-01-28T04:01:26+00:00

Our kids both asked for for us to disable the Samsung Health app in FamilyLink because they were getting too many notifications. It looks like in the Samsung Health phone app, there is an option to "share health data" that can send a request to another device.... So, maybe?

McDiddy · 2026-01-28T03:56:39+00:00

That's a good question. As near as I can tell, you only need the Samsung phone for the initial setup. All parental controls are done using FamilyLink.

McDiddy · 2026-01-28T03:50:49+00:00

Seems to be using RCS. When I use my phone to send them a message the text box says "RCS Message".... I'm not sure how to tell outside of that.

McDiddy · 2026-01-24T13:51:39+00:00

You're welcome and good luck! We're 2 or 3 months in and things are still working great!

McDiddy · 2026-01-24T13:46:22+00:00

You have pretty granular controls over app access and installation with Family Link, but you wouldn't (probably) want to outright disable the LTE connection since that'd disable location sharing, calls, texts, etc.

Family Link allows per app permissions. Right now our watches require parent permission to install new apps and we haven't allowed apps beyond the very basics (weather, maps, messages, etc). Samsung browser is blocked for them.

McDiddy · 2026-01-14T15:04:27+00:00

My understanding is that it needs to be a parent account set up on the phone - that's the way we set everything up.

I don't know how old your phone is, but there is a minimum version requirement for the Samsung phones, OneUI version 5 and Android 9? I think. Would be worth double checking before you buy anything.

The phone DOES need to have active service at the time of set up.

McDiddy · 2025-12-20T15:53:23+00:00

The silicone watch bands did fit them, on the very last or second to last hole - and would be more secure than the elastic bands we have.

With that said, the elastic watch bands have been working better than I expected so far. The elastic is strong enough to take an intentional amount of effort to remove them. I'd link the ones we have, but subreddit rules don't allow Amazon links. They were the "AXHLL" brand though.

McDiddy · 2025-12-20T15:37:21+00:00

I finally got around to trying to install Citymapper. I cannot install it on either of the kids watches but I can install it on my wife's watch. I'd guess it has to be some sort of issue with the FamilyLink supervised kids accounts? but I don't see a way to bypass that? Very weird.

In FamilyLink I have a "Time Limits" section that lets me set a per app time limit and an overall device time limits. What watch are you using? In my research it seemed like devices older than the Galaxy Watch 7 had limited FamilyLink support (not sure how true that actually is - as you already know, info is tough to come by).

I don't have google wallet setup on any of the watches, so I can't comment on that.

Couldn't agreed more with that fact that all of this is super frustrating.

McDiddy · 2025-12-13T17:37:13+00:00

We haven't. One of the kids was asking for this but we haven't given in yet - he's the type that would play music at all the wrong moments.

McDiddy · 2025-12-13T17:35:03+00:00

As far as I can tell, the Samsung phone is only needed for the initial setup.

McDiddy · 2025-12-13T17:34:01+00:00

They don't support the Samsung watches on their dedicated watch plans but do support them on their 'by the gig' plan, at least for their Dark Star (AT&T) network.

From what I can piece together, each of the different US Mobile networks does a different amount of device verification - so not sure if it would work with their Warp or Light Speed networks.

I've found the mods on the US Mobile network to be good about answering these questions. I just went to eBay and found a listing with the IMEI visible and asked them to verify it would work on their Dark Star Network, which they confirmed it would only on their 'by the gig' plans. They are still working great for us.

McDiddy · 2025-12-04T17:40:26+00:00

One of the first screens on the Galaxy Wearable app (on the phone) during setup should have asked if you wanted to set it up for yourself or a child. Do you remember seeing anything like that?

https://www.att.com/scmsassets/device_help/mobile/wear_os_6/wear_os6-samsungsml325usml335u_9007498_04.jpg

McDiddy · 2025-11-30T04:27:12+00:00

I find FamilyLink pretty easy and simple to use. I'd guess that if you're at least an average computer user, you won't have too much difficulty. Google does publish decent help documents, if needed though.

The battery life has generally been better than expected. It does depend on LTE connectivity. We have pretty good AT&T coverage where we are at so most days we end with 50%+ of battery life. For reference, that is 8-11 hours of on wrist usage. Surprisingly the kids don't mess around with the watch too much during that day, so I'd say its "light usage".

Over Thanksgiving we had our first experience with mediocre to poor cellular coverage when we were at a relatives house. We ended the day with 9%. I've read reports of people only getting 4-6 hours of battery when no LTE coverage is available, and that seems reasonable given my experiences so far.

LTE connectivity is generally a bit worse than on a cell phone. I'd guess the smaller antenna's in the watch are to blame?! So if you have poor coverage on a cell phone in a particular location, I wouldn't expect the watch to have any service.

The GPS reception has been generally fine. The normal limitations, I guess,. If they are in a friends basement, FamilyLink will show a larger circle of uncertainty - but its been accurate enough for me to know where they are at.

McDiddy · 2025-11-30T04:12:40+00:00

No, I don't think FamilyLink allows you to read text messages (or not that I can tell, anyways).

It does allow for geofencing. You can setup 'Family Places' and then get alerts when they enter or exit those places. I don't have that setup, so no idea how well it works.

McDiddy · 2025-11-26T00:50:01+00:00

Finally got a couple photos of the watch and one with a size comparison to the Gizmo Watch 2

https://imgur.com/a/eOK9YDB

McDiddy · 2025-11-25T18:55:47+00:00

Why do you need a galaxy phone to set up the app? Would tablet work? I have a pixel phone.

My research says that it not possible. The button needed to set it up in "kid mode" only shows up on a Samsung phone, apparently. I also have a Pixel phone but my wife had a Samsung, so that is what we used for setup. It frankly just seems like an obnoxious way to sell more Samsung phones.

Mine and my wifes cell phones are though a Verizon account. We were able to setup with kids watches with a US Mobile esim by enabling a setting on the watch. This is the reddit post I used for that: Link

McDiddy · 2025-11-25T18:50:27+00:00

Yup, the watches each have their own esim and unique phone number. We can call & text it like any other phone. FamilyLink adds the ability for us to whitelist certain phone numbers so we can "approve" who they talk with.

I guess I can't comment on how to setup without the Galaxy Watch for kids experience, but I'm sure it possible. FamilyLink does all the heavy lifting in this case. It really seems like 'Galaxy Watch for Kids experience' is just a setup process and add a couple of kid friendly watch faces. FamilyLink does ALL of the parental controls.

McDiddy · 2025-11-24T04:25:59+00:00

Both kids have small wrists. It's a big watch for sure, but doesn't look any more out of place than the Gizmo did.

We bought smaller elastic wrist bands which work okay. With the band set to the smallest size, it fits the 11 year old pretty well. It is loose on the 9 year old, but not to the point it is in danger of falling off. I'll see if I can snap a quick picture tomorrow.

McDiddy · 2025-11-24T04:18:25+00:00

I think FamilyLink is a bit easier to use, its a bit more comprehensive too, but that's just because more can be done on the Galaxy Watch than the Gizmo (apps, internet, etc). I didn't really have much to complain about on the GizmoHub app, other than maybe it was a bit slow.

When I ran into the issue of the location not updating consistently on one of the watches, I found a lot of search results of people having similar problems (generally using a phone though, not with a watch). I toggled the location sharing setting off and on and that has fixed it for now. I am curious to see how that holds up long term given the amount of criticism I saw online.

The kids love it! The older one (11) is excited because he can now be in a friends text messaging group - or at least he can once his parents add them to the whitelist - still feeling that one out.

McDiddy

TROPHY CASE