I want to know if an Apple Watch will work if paired with my daughter’s iPhone. I don’t live with her. What won’t work? I have wifi in my house. I can’t find an email address to ask this Q! A friend says her watch must be near her iPhone to work.
Yes it will work
Apple Watch Family Plan
Set up Apple Watch for a family member - Apple Support
Set up a family member’s Apple Watch - Apple Support
Some limitations: Cannot receive SMS/MMS messages, as that depends on a fully paired iPhone. Messaging is pretty much limited to Apple’s Messages, unless the messaging service provides an Apple Watch app. Alarms, alerts, notifications on the iPhone are not sent to the Apple Watch. Apple Pay via a credit card is not available. Also not available: Medications, respiratory rate, irregular heart rhythm notifications, ECG, AFib History, Cycle Tracking, Sleep, Wrist Temperature, Blood Oxygen, Walking Steadiness, Audiobooks, Camera Remote, News, Shortcuts, and the double tap gesture.
Yes it will work
Apple Watch Family Plan
Set up Apple Watch for a family member - Apple Support
Set up a family member’s Apple Watch - Apple Support
Some limitations: Cannot receive SMS/MMS messages, as that depends on a fully paired iPhone. Messaging is pretty much limited to Apple’s Messages, unless the messaging service provides an Apple Watch app. Alarms, alerts, notifications on the iPhone are not sent to the Apple Watch. Apple Pay via a credit card is not available. Also not available: Medications, respiratory rate, irregular heart rhythm notifications, ECG, AFib History, Cycle Tracking, Sleep, Wrist Temperature, Blood Oxygen, Walking Steadiness, Audiobooks, Camera Remote, News, Shortcuts, and the double tap gesture.
Also not available: Medications, respiratory rate, irregular heart rhythm notifications, ECG, AFib History, Cycle Tracking, Sleep, Wrist Temperature, Blood Oxygen, Walking Steadiness, Audiobooks, Camera Remote, News, Shortcuts, and the double tap gesture.
Thanks for the reply. What is the point of family sharing if it can't do the above? It would basically do nothing. I guess there is no point buying this watch. I will have to buy another Fitbit.
The majority of Apple Watch Family Sharing is dependent children that are too young for their own iPhone (or at least in the eyes of the parents).
Several of the medical features are not recommended by some government health agency for people under 22, so not a big deal on those. Others actually work in conjunction with the iPhone (such as SMS/MMS), but the dependent child does not have an iPhone.
You are also most likely not the “Aging Parent”, where the grown up child wants to track and stay in touch with their elderly parent.
In your position you would do better having an iPhone to pair your Apple Watch with.
Family Sharing for Apple Watch
