Why it doesn’t work in the Netherlands yet
Family Setup (Family Setup)
Family Setup extends Apple Watch use to the whole family. It contains features for children and the elderly, such as the ability to make the Apple Watch less distracting during school hours. There are also functions for the elderly, mainly focused on health and safety. Apple even released a Dutch press release for it, but the function is not yet available in our country.
- What is Family Setup?
- Why doesn’t it work in the Netherlands?
- How can children communicate?
- What else can kids do?
- Kids Activity Rings
- Apple Cash Family
- School time and Device free time
- Features for the elderly
What is Family Setup?
Family Setup allows all family members, including children and the elderly, to wear an Apple Watch. They don’t need an iPhone, but they can still use health, fitness, safety, and communications features. A child’s Apple Watch can be set up from a parent’s iPhone to allow children to call and message their friends. Children also get custom Activity goals and can create their own Memoji. The SOS emergency notification, Maps, Siri, Alarm clocks and App Store also work.
It means family members can use an Apple Watch, without needing an iPhone. Parents can always reach their child and see where the child is. To do this, use the Find People app (Find People) on the Apple Watch. You can read how to configure an Apple Watch for a family member in this support article from Apple. We cannot yet explain these steps, because the function does not work in the Netherlands.
Why Family Configuration does not work in the Netherlands and Belgium
It often happens that Apple announces functions that are not yet available in the Netherlands. In this case, there are two obstacles: the children must have an Apple Watch 4G and the providers must support it.
First: if you want to give your child an Apple Watch that you still have lying around, the chances are small that it is a 4G model. So you will have to purchase a relatively new Apple Watch with 4G for your child(ren). In addition, there must be an active 4G subscription. In most countries you pay about €5 per month for this. This makes it an expensive solution.
Children and older family members using Family Setup have a separate phone plan with their own phone number.
Second, the provider must support Family Setup. The Apple Watch 4G is now available in the Netherlands via T-Mobile, but this provider does not support Family Configuration. So you can’t get it to work.
On this page you can see which providers Family Configuration does work with. There are no Dutch and Belgian providers listed here and in many countries you are only dependent on Truphone.
You can’t go to other eSIM providers either, because they only support the use of the eSIM in the iPhone. There are no ‘tricks’ to get it working on an Apple Watch.
How can children interact with their Apple Watch?
If you have Family Setup (and meet all the conditions), children can still use all kinds of Apple Watch features. This applies, for example, to FaceTime and the Phone app, but also to send messages via iMessage, send and receive emails via the Mail app and talk to other Apple Watch owners via Walkie-Talkie.
With the Memoji app on the Apple Watch, they can endlessly customize their Memoji and share it with friends. You can also set Memoji as a watch face since watchOS 7.
Parents determine who a child may have contact with.
What else can kids do?
Children have their own Apple ID and can view their own calendar and family activities on the Apple Watch. They can also create their own to-do lists with the Reminders app. And they can view photo albums downloaded from a managing family member’s iPhone.
When it comes to listening to music, kids can play their favorite songs from Apple Music through Bluetooth headphones, earbuds or speakers. They can also ask Siri questions or have texts translated, although this does not yet work in Dutch either. They can plan a route using the Maps app.
In this way, children can become familiar with Apple services at an early age, so that they may stick around later in life.
Apple Cash Family
Apple has also added the Apple Cash Family feature, which allows spending money. This allows parents to send money to their children, who can then spend the amount on their Watch via Apple Pay. If a child pays something, parents can be notified. In the Wallet app, parents can see what children have purchased. Apple Cash is a feature that cannot yet be used in Europe, so there is a good chance that you will soon be able to use it for pocket money with Family Setup.
Activity rings adapted for children
Because counting calories isn’t such a good idea for small children, Apple has made some tweaks to the Activities app. Instead of calories, they see numbers of minutes of exercise. The workout and standing goals are customizable, but so have other users since watchOS 7.
Apple has specially adapted the Outdoor Walking, Outdoor Running and Outdoor Cycling workouts for children, so that the measurements are more accurate. The messages that appear on screen are adapted to children in terms of language and are provided with emoji.
Kids can also share their activities, enter competitions, challenge others and view medals. The latter was previously only possible on the iPhone.
School time and apps for kids
Children can also use apps on the Apple Watch – but not always. With Schooltime, parents can determine when the children need to concentrate on their work. During School Time, the watch face displays a distinctive yellow circle that is easy for parents and teachers to identify. That circle means access to apps is restricted and Do Not Disturb is on. Parents manage this on iPhone.
The Apple Watch is equipped with a Downtime function in Screen Time, so that children are not always busy with their smartwatch. Children will be notified five minutes before Downtime begins.
Outside of school hours, children can use apps. Parents control which apps children can use through Content Restrictions. You can also set Ask to Buy, so that parents must give permission for every purchase. Examples of suitable apps include ClassDojo, Coloring Watch, and Lookup: English Dictionary. With the Calm app, children can do mindfulness exercises that are specially tailored to children.
Features for the elderly
If you have a grandpa who lives at home, or if you would like to provide your grandma who lives elsewhere with an Apple Watch, you can also do so via Family Configuration. The older family member does not need to have their own iPhone and you can arrange all settings via your own device.
If you give your grandparents or other older relatives their own Apple Watch, they can make an emergency call at the touch of a button with SOS emergency notification and call in the emergency services. All family members will also be notified automatically if they are listed as an SOS contact. This does not only have to be the managing family member.
Of course, an Apple Watch also contains the medical ID, which lists conditions, allergies and medication. Managing family members who have been given permission can also see the health and activities of the older family member. This is available in the Health app.
Of course, functions such as fall detection and irregular heartbeat notifications simply work, even if you buy the Apple Watch SE. With this affordable model you do miss ECG and Saturation measurement, but you could also do that periodically with a more expensive Apple Watch, where you manually note the data in the profile of the person in question. Fall detection is available from Series 4 and irregular heartbeat from Series 1.
For the elderly, there is an extra large XL dial that is easy to read.
