Set up Apple Watch For Your Kids

You can set up any Apple Watch with cellular for your child or family member, even if they don’t have their own iPhone. To do so, you must be the family organizer or parent/guardian in your Family Sharing group.

The iPhone you use to initially pair and set up the Apple Watch must be within normal Bluetooth range (about 33 feet or 10 meters) of the Apple Watch to manage settings and update the software. Your child or family member must be part of your Family Sharing group and have a cellular-capable Apple Watch SE or Apple Watch Series 6 or later. (Your child or family member’s watch doesn’t have to use the same cellular carrier as the iPhone you manage it with.) See Get apps in the App Store on Apple Watch.

Contacts

Choose trusted contacts.

Find My

Choose notification settings.

Handwashing

Manage restrictions, and turn the handwashing timer on or off.

Health

Add or edit health details and Medical ID, view the health data (with the proper permissions and settings) of the person who uses the managed Apple Watch, request to share health data, and choose to stop receiving health data.

Heart

View the heart data (with the proper permissions and settings) of the person who uses the managed Apple Watch, including heart rate, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and walking heart rate average.

Mail & Calendar

Add a family member’s account—Gmail or Outlook, for example. Also choose how often Apple Watch fetches calendar updates.

Messages

Choose dictation options, and edit smart replies.

Noise

Turn Environmental Sound Measurements on or off, and set the noise threshold.

Photos

Select a photo album from the iPhone used to manage the watch, and choose the number of photos Apple Watch can display.

Wallet & Apple Pay

Set up Apple Cash and Express Transit cards.

Note: Not all features on an Apple Watch you set up for yourself are available on a managed Apple Watch. See the Apple Support article iPhone User Guide.

Apple Watch User Guide

Set up Apple Watch For Your Kids