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User profile for user: HeinrichFromBremen
HeinrichFromBremen Author
User level: Level 1
28 points

Apple Watch: Family mode

Hi,


I am looking at buying an Apple Watch SE Cellular. Unfortunately my current carrier, Congstar (Germany) does not support AW. Only Carriers are Telekom, Vodafone and Drillisch, which are much more expensive. The only carrier with a decent price is Truphone. However, they only support family mode.


So I could invent a family member and setup the watch for him. Problem is, the watch wouldn't receive any iMessages or similar for me because it would be running under a different Apple ID.


So my strategy would be:


- rename my Apple ID

- create a fake family member with my old id

- setup the watch for the family member


Has anybody tried this before?


Are there any limitations on the AW because of family mode?


Posted on May 9, 2023 8:55 AM

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User profile for user: javaliga
javaliga
User level: Level 10
119,895 points

Posted on May 9, 2023 9:51 AM

To answer your last question first,  some Apple Watch features depend on having a companion iPhone, and aren't available on an Apple Watch that you pair using Family Setup. See the 'Availability of features and apps' section in:

Set up Apple Watch for a family member - Apple Support

And I believe you will encounter several other limitations, especially with third-party apps.


IMO, you may encounter several (unforeseen) problems with what you are proposing about creating a fake family member and I would not recommend it. A GPS-only watch can do everything that a GPS+Cellular watch can as long as you are near the paired iPhone. Plus you won't have to pay an additional monthly fee to your wireless carrier.


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User profile for user: javaliga
javaliga
User level: Level 10
119,895 points

May 9, 2023 9:51 AM in response to HeinrichFromBremen

To answer your last question first,  some Apple Watch features depend on having a companion iPhone, and aren't available on an Apple Watch that you pair using Family Setup. See the 'Availability of features and apps' section in:

Set up Apple Watch for a family member - Apple Support

And I believe you will encounter several other limitations, especially with third-party apps.


IMO, you may encounter several (unforeseen) problems with what you are proposing about creating a fake family member and I would not recommend it. A GPS-only watch can do everything that a GPS+Cellular watch can as long as you are near the paired iPhone. Plus you won't have to pay an additional monthly fee to your wireless carrier.


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User profile for user: HeinrichFromBremen
HeinrichFromBremen Author
User level: Level 1
28 points

May 9, 2023 10:10 AM in response to javaliga

Thank you for the links, one of which states:

Apple Pay using a credit or debit card in the Wallet app is not available with Family Setup.

This is already a showstopper.

A GPS-only watch can do everything that a GPS+Cellular watch can as long as you are near the paired iPhone. Plus you won't have to pay an additional monthly fee to your wireless carrier.

The point is: The paired phone nearby. I would like to leave the phone (iPhone 11 Pro Max, quite large and heavy) at home at times and still be reachable or make calls through the watch.

As for the fees: My favoured solution would have cost me 17€ per month, whereas a new plan for both iPhone and AW would be 25€. But that seems to be the price you have to pay for wearing a lifestyle gadget😁


And yes, messing with Apple ids is in fact risky and error prone.


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Apple Watch: Family mode

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