Do You Need Cellular in Your Apple Watch?

My daughter is 9 years old, and at some point in the next few years I’d like to get her an Apple watch with cellular. It’s a very good alternative to getting her a phone. She can still call home (and we can call her), and the watch will be much less distracting than a full-fledged phone. It’ll also be pretty nice when she goes to camp in the summer - I can check and see how far away the bus is when I’m waiting for it to get back!

Great to see you here, Tonya!

Dennis

I have a series 6 cellular which I activate regularly when outdoors running, walking, hiking,etc. I am in contact as may be needed, and I don’t have to pack the phone. I also can access other cellular services. So the extra expense is worth it for me.

You need cellular if you are away from your phone and away from WiFi. In other words, if you were snowboarding without your phone in your pocket or nearby, with a cellular watch - even without active cellular service - you can call emergency services. You cannot with a GPS only watch, again, unless you have an active WiFi connection and WiFi calling is activated for your line.

See Use Emergency SOS - Apple Support

Uh yeah, I know this, but saying you need a cellular watch for calling 911 when you fall is incorrect. My non-cellular watch has offered to call, again, with phone in pocket.

I am extremely pleased with my iWatch 6 cellular. My wife has one as well. I am able to call, receive cellular calls without my iPhone nearby. I am able to have Ring keep me in touch with visitors to my residence or to be to survey the boundaries of my home with Ring. I find my iWatch6 cellular at a minimum to be worth the expense if only to keep in touch with a loved one. And I concur with all who value this accessibility.

The watch uses power at a higher rate when cellular is turned on which might be a concern for some users. Of course the cellular radio can be turned off as needed to reduce power usage.

Normally I don’t need the cellular capability but I like the convenience provided by that feature. The added cost is something I accept for the flexibility of not always carrying a phone and ability to be contacted or to contact others at such times.

I bought the cellular version of the AW6 for when I’m out running. I run distances up to marathon and the watch works fine for that (battery life is fine for that). I went from a Fenix 5 to an AW6 and would only go back to a Garmin if they implemented true cellular in their watches.

The cellular plan for the watch here in Denmark is about 4.40USD so pretty much next to nothing, and it gives me the freedom of not having to carry my phone with me when training.

So for me - yes I need the cellular option in my watch.

Let’s just say that I might still be stuck in a room downstairs, without my luggage or phone, at Heathrow airport if it wasn’t for the fact that I have an Apple Watch with cellular service. Being able to contact my partner and update her was critical.

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Garmin has one now, the Forerunner 945 LTE. I’m not sure how well it works since I’m not that interested in LTE in a watch. I went from an AW5 with LTE to a 7 without because I rarely used the cellular connection on the watch. It’s expected that LTE will make it into other Garmin devices, but nothing has happened yet.

I decided to get one for safety/backup reasons. I live alone and don’t have a land line. I often travel alone. If my phone’s battery ran out, got damaged, or was stolen, I still have a way to make phone calls and communicate with friends and family until I can get a working phone again. My laptop and a Wi-Fi network also work well as a backup for those situations, but the watch is more convenient and works away from a Wi-Fi connection.

We’re not saying that you need a cellular Apple Watch to call 911, just that it becomes possible to do that even if you don’t have your iPhone with you or something renders it inoperable. It’s not inconceivable, for instance, that someone could be involved in a car accident where their iPhone is damaged, but they’d still be able to call for help. Or someone’s iPhone battery could die at the end of the day, but if they had a cellular Apple Watch, they could still call for help during a late-night walk home if necessary.

All highly theoretical, of course, but that’s always the case when you’re insuring against possibilities.

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I originally got a cellular watch for my mother (she’s now 81), but after several years of paying $15+ a month to AT&T ($10 + “fees”) I realized she only used cellular about twice in all that time (and one of those was testing it).

It turns out, she always has her iPhone with her. The one time she forgot her phone at home, she forgot she could use the watch without the phone!

When I upgraded her to a new watch model with fall protection, I opted to get the wifi-only model. It has been just fine.

Now, recently, she has become more aware of falls (a lot of her elderly friends have had incidents) and has commented that she’s a little worried that she might fall or have a medical problem without the phone nearby. We’ve tried going over scenarios of how that would happen and haven’t had much luck (if she falls in her apartment, the phone is within 30 feet).

At least she is aware that she needs the phone, though her grasp on technology is a little iffy: she recently “lost” her phone and called me to help her find it. I was like “How are you calling me if you don’t have your phone?”

“Oh, I’m using the car phone!” :man_facepalming:t3:

Her phone had been “lost” under one of the car seats. :wink:

I had her use her watch to ping the phone, but naturally she’d left the phone in silent mode (side switch) and it wouldn’t sound. The friend she was meeting helped her find it as I wasn’t nearby.

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That couldn’t have been it. The phone makes a sound when pinged from the watch even if the mute switch is activated.

Now that is bizarre. I just tested it on my phone and watch and you’re right. I thought that was the case, but at the time she read me the error message on her watch which said, “Phone is in silent mode and can’t make noise” (or something to that effect). She tried it several times and it kept saying the same thing. I thought it was a pretty dumb limitation.

Now I’m baffled.

Sadly it only sends data to Garmin Connect with live updates (perhaps also a distress message, but no interaction) - you still can’t make or receive calls.

Yeah, from what I understand it’s more like the cellular enabled Kindle; the cost of LTE is folded into the cost of the watch and you don’t really know where you’re getting LTE from. There’s no microphone and the “speaker” is limited to beeps, so no on watch calls and dealing with texts must be a nightmare with the usual Garmin text input UI. Garmin also has inReach, their satellite communications system, and I’m not sure whether they see that as the way forward or LTE. (From what I understand, inReach works anywhere and doesn’t require a cellular network, but what you can do with it may be more limited.) inReach is built into a few Garmin devices, and many more can relay through an inReach device. Will Garmin going forward just build in inReach or LTE?

The Apple Watch is a much better smart watch than any Garmin watch, but the Garmin watches are much better fitness devices than the Apple Watch. That’s why I have both a AW7 and a Garmin Fenix 5+. Neither has LTE.

Now that you mention it…
Garmin Inreach works with the Iridium (corrected) satellite network and so works everywhere that you can see the sky. It provides basic text messaging capability (you are assigned a unique cellphone number) as well as weather info and mapping. It supports tracking so invited followers (literally) can see where you are via a webpage. There is a relatively high monthly subscription for the service but it could save your life in remote areas or when there is a natural disaster (or human-made disaster!).
The Inreach device talks to the Garmin Earthmate iOS app that provides several more features but the UI is pretty clunky on both the Inreach “satellite radio” and the iPhone.
Needless to say I have invested in one for trips in Australia where cellphone coverage is woeful. I understand that it will work in any country since it is not tied to the cellphone network or internet. However it might be illegal to use/have in countries like China.

The wifi-only model can make surreptitious 911 calls and can call for help if you fall, as long as your phone or wifi is nearby. If you pretty much always have your phone with you, these are not reasons to get a cellular model. My wife has a cellular Watch because she likes to run without her phone My mother-in-law has one because my wife insisted that we pay for it.

I’m pretty sure when I bought mine that the cellular had a larger battery (perhaps that’s no longer the case).