Best GPS tracker for kids in 2021
Prizewinning GPS tracker for kids in 2021
Enclosed in that guide:
The best GPS trackers for kids are a vital part of back-to-school technology. After all, with students heading hind to classrooms afterward more than a year of remote control learning, a good GPS tracker can give excited parents peace of thinker about whether their kids made it safely to campus.
Trackers are easy to carry, clipping along to a backpack operating room slipping easily onto a articulatio radiocarpea, and they get you know your kids' fix. In some cases, the best GPS trackers for kids can even send alerts to you and other caution-givers if in that location's trouble.
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All of that info pot come in W. C. Handy whether your kids walk aside themselves to school, shuttle between after-cultivate activities, or are reasonable playing around the neck of the woods.
We consider every these factors to find the best GPS trackers. (And if it's an aging congenator and not a youngster you want to keep cover of, these devices — OR variations aimed at experient users — will work meet as well.) Here's what we establish in our search for the best GPS tracker for kids.
What is the best GPS tracker for kids?
Jiobit has been the best GPS tracker for kids, thanks to a nipper-proof innovation that can withstand the elements, though the company has started arrogated orders on a new version. The original Jiobit worked seamlessly with the smartphones you or a caregiver mightiness carry around, and so you non only knew the location of your child merely WHO they're with — a valuable boast if you rely connected a nanny or sitter and want to learn in on how everyone is doing.
If you prefer a watch to a clip-on tracker, Lil Tracker is not single prosperous for kids to wear, it's likewise affordable, though its app is pretty perplexing. While non a time-honored kid tracker, the Apple Watch SE is an intriguing option thanks to Apple's Family Setup feature for trailing the location of somebody wearying an LTE-enabled model of the smartwatch. Relinquished the Apple Watch's cost, though, we'd only recommend IT for experienced kids or aging parents.
You may be thinking just about difficult out past options same a acceptable GPS tracker instead of one designed specifically for kids, but we'd care against that. The foremost GPS trackers for kids are designed specifically to be worn and sometimes operated by children. Dedicated Global Positioning System trackers, the like the very accurate the Spot Gen3 keister cost overwhelming for youngsters to use.
Likewise, we'd steer you absent from using Apple's new AirTag to track anything otherwise objects. That tracker's use of Radical Wideband Crataegus oxycantha make IT tempting to use with kids or pets, but the range International Relations and Security Network't every bit good arsenic a dedicated people tracker; what's to a greater extent, Apple discourages that kind of manipulation case.
The go-to-meeting GPS trackers for kids you bathroom buy today
Our pick for the unsurpassed GPS tracker for keeping tabs along kids, pets and older adults has been the Jiobit, which is small and light (2 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches, 0.6 ounces). A loop lets you attach the tracker to a backpack, shoe, belt eyelet, keychain or necklace, and we found we only had to charge it every five days operating room so.
The makers of Jiobit throw pronounceable out a new version, the $129 Jiobit Next. It promises better battery life and more accurate trailing, thanks to a new antenna design. Support for low-power wide area networks should serve the Jiobit Next perform better in areas without great cancellous coverage. We design connected testing the device shortly, then come back to see where it lands in our rankings.
As for the original Jiobit, with no screen, microphone or utterer, information technology feels selfsame serviceable. It's shock-resistant and waterproof with an IPX8 rating — I doubt my 6-year-senior could destroy it without a holy, sustained effort. We threw it on the ground, stepped happening it and left it on the driveway during a rainwater shower, and it unbroken on the job just small-grained.
The best portion for parents is how the Jiobit app for iOS and Android lets you know non only where your child is but besides who she's with. If your child has two-fold caregivers and they all use the Jiobit app, the tracker and the caregiver's phone bequeath connect with Bluetooth whenever they're in cast. That room, you can see in the app that your son left school at 3 p.m., accompanied aside his dad, or his stepmom, or his babysitter, or whoever was supposed to pick him up.
Even better, you aren't notified when your child arrives at or leaves a trusted place with you. After every, you father't need a push notification to separate you that you evenhanded picked up your tiddler from shoal. But you do require a notification if she leaves school solitary or with someone else. Trusted Places are easy to mark up in the app, and you can choose to personify notified when the tracker enters, leaves or both.
You total other caregivers to your Worry Team by phone number. They'll receive a link over SMS (text) to download the Jiobit app, and when they set up an account, they enter their own phone list. Care Squad members tin choose to be notified when the Jiobit enters and leaves the trusted places you've set up, and they can see the Jiobit connected the map and which caregiver is in range. They just can't set sprouted additive trusted places or change whatever of the Jiobit's settings.
With a combination of Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS and Wi-Fi, the Jiobit got a good bespeak inside and outdoors — the app always found it within a second or two of launching. Tapping the top of the smartphone screen lets you enter trailing mode, where the location updates along the map as the tracker moves, leaving a course 'tween points. Live trailing for long periods will wear land the Jiobit's battery, so the app asks you after 2 transactions if you want to keep tracking or go back to the map, which ease refreshes all few seconds if the tracker is moving, fitting without creating a trail.
Even though Jiobit's app looks majuscule, information technology could have got a few more features. There's no Chronicle to show where the tracker has been during the day. The master Jiobit lacked an SOS button that your child could press if there's disquiet, but the fres version of Jiobit rectifies that omission.
If you'ray trying to locate the Jiobit, there's no augmented-reality aspect to guide you to its exact spot. But when you're paired by Bluetooth, you'll notice a little bar in the app that connects your photo, representing your telephone, to your child's photo, representing the Jiobit. That bar grows longer or shorter based on how close you are, which can help you domicile in on the gimmick. Then, you can tap the little bell ikon, and the Jiobit will make a stochasticity and flash its LED, just in case you've preoccupied it low-level the bed, for example.
The original Jiobit costs $149, with a service contract available for $14 a calendar month. Sign upbound for two years of Service and you bring dow the cost to $9 a month. (In either sheath, your first 30 years are unrestrained.) Additional Jiobit trackers can be added to either plan for $6 a month, with the selfsame pricing for the device. The tracker uses AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks to send the GPS information.
The original Jiobit was the best GPS tracker for kids, with a yearn battery life and an easy-to-use app that make this gimmick easy to commend. We hope that the sequel lives up to the high textbook this variation set. Check back for our updated review.
The Lil Tracker is a full-featured GPS watch aimed at kids, but it may be a little too full-featured one time you get a look at the app. You have to provide your own SIM card (more on it in a piece), but that enables GPS tracking, as well as two-part vocalization calls, texts and unidirectional calls in which you can barely listen to what's active on at your fry's location.
Weighing merely 1.5 ounces, the see is light, with a rich silicone polymer band and a metal clasp. It has a 1.2-inch color touch screen with a friendly spirited fiddle that accompanies the time display. It's rugged and splatter-proof, and there's also a completely waterproof version for $20 more. Battery life depends on how untold you use the gimmick, of line, but the Lil Tracker is organized to last 12 hours; I had to reload it every Nox.
The Lil Tracker stands out from new trackers with its deuce- and one-way calling. For two-way calls, you call the watch from the app on your smartphone; the watch accepts calls only from numbers you've authorized in the app. Kids terminate song those approved contacts too, by swiping and tapping the touchscreen. Holding down the SOS button on the side of the watch will call capable three preprogrammed numbers, ready, until someone answers. (We reviewed the classic version of the Lil Tracker, only there's a waterproof version visible for $20 more. As for seniors, on that point's a $99 version of the watch available in much mature colors.)
Calls between the watch and the app connected chop-chop in my tests. The sound prime was only so-sol, only it was good enough for a hurried check-in. My 6-year-old son could understand Pine Tree State just fine over the watch's Speaker, but I sometimes had a hard time apprisal what he was saying when he was outdoors. When atomic number 2 was indoors and speaking right into the lear, the call sounded a lot best.
One-way calls, known as "Sound Guardian" in the app's menu, are kind of like the Drop In feature on Amazon Echo devices. Parents use the app to call the watch, and they seat hear what's going connected or so it, but the watch doesn't ringing or make any indicant that someone is hearing in. This worked well: My son's lookout called me right away, and I could tell he was at educate — but he didn't have intercourse I was vocation, so He didn't say anything to me. The healthy quality was simply so-so and varied settled on ambient noise.
The app (which, weirdly, is named SeTracker2, non Lil Tracker, connected iOS and Android) has a good deal of other features, too. Just about are a lot more important than others. Useful features include the ability to hard ten-fold geofences, track itinerary histories and remove signal detection alerts (though mine went off when my son took off the watch because his wrist was getting sweaty). The watch can track steps taken and distance, calculate calories burned and count how many times your child turns over in her rest. (Simply the watch is pretty bulky to keep on at night, and you pauperization to charge information technology overnight.) You prat send text chats to the watch, including emoji if your child isn't a reader even so. They can't text you back, though.
Unfortunately, the app is riddled with spelling errors and messages that make No sense. (An point called Stimulate Friends brings up a content that reads: "Take down: app delete function only for friends to pay a one-person protagonist devices; devices can grumpy multiple friends need to device the end cancel." Huh?) Time zone pick is confusing, as you have to calculate how far away you are from Greenwich Poor Time. And the app's main riddle has a decorative banner above the map that flips through five images that Don't add anything to the app — they'rhenium just distracting. Worse, though, is that the app often displays an actual full-screen ad upon launching, smooth if you're launching information technology by tapping a crusade notice.
The see runs connected the 2G network, which means it's using GPRS in the U.S. because 2G networks are being squinched low. (The company told United States it plans to tone ending a 3G version of the watch.) For a SIM card, any GSM/GPRS network should influence. Cheap SIM cards from America Mobile, Ting, or SpeedTalk are a good count, but Lil Tracker leaves the research and buy in entirely up to you; the troupe doesn't offer a package that includes a SIM card or service. (Still, our review unit came with a SIM installed and pre-active.)
The make for-your-own-SIM model substance you can shop just about for cheap service. Your carrier may be able to add a SIM for this to your family plan, so tally with them first. And keep back in mind that Ting offers SIM cards where you pay single for the information you expend from each one month, with plans as low as $9.
The Lil Tracker watch is passable — and affordable — but the app is disappointing and hampers the experience. It's too bad, because with an all-new app, the Lil Tracker would be a contender for the best GPS tracker for kids. The one-elbow room calling, which lets you eavesdrop on what's happening more or less your child, is a compelling feature for parents who want to know more than the kid's location.
The Lil Tracker can buoy be challenging to find on online retailer sites like Amazon, but you can e'er buy directly from Lil Tracker itself if you decide that this is the GPS tracker for you. We reviewed the 2G version of the Lil Tracker, but there's now a 4G version available for $129.
Apple could introduce its latest Apple Watch atomic number 3 soon as incoming week, but don't overlook the value of the get down toll Apple Watch SE arsenic ane of the best Global Positioning System trackers for kids. Apple's Kin Setup feature article lets you manage an Malus pumila Vigil for some other mortal — a nestling, say, or even older parent. And rather than being overkill, should you grab a cheaper option like the Apple Watch Southeastward, you can monitor locations from afar.
The Apple Watch SE features an aluminum case with silver, gold and blank space gray finishes, and it comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes. Alike the Apple Follow Series 6, the SE version has an accelerometer, gyroscope, and the always-on altimeter. Unlike the even cheaper Apple Vigil 3, you get fall detection, noise monitoring, multinational exigency calling and emergency SOS. That latter boast testament be particularly attention-getting to parents who see the Apple Watch SE as a potential trailing device.
To get the location tracking abilities for the Malus pumila Watch, you'll need to buy the LTE interpretation, which costs $329 for the 40mm model and $359 for 44mm model (as well as the additional monthly fee from your phone flattop). With Family line Frame-up enabled, you're able to track the location of soul wearing an LTE-connected Orchard apple tree Watch SE. You can also pose fitness goals, get off allowance money and trammel features during school hours via Category Setup.
The Malus pumila Watch SE can't match other dedicated GPS trackers for kids in terms of battery life, arsenic Apple only promises 18 hours of use. That means you'll have to charge the Apple Watch Southeast every night. But the Malus pumila Watch also offers more features than the typical kid tracker, including natural action trailing, a dedicated Fitness app and a hand-washing pass over.
The Apple Watch Se certainly isn't the ideal solution for everyone World Health Organization just wants elementary tracking features. But for older kids who balk at some of the to a lesser extent intelligent looks of ordained trackers or for older parents World Health Organization need to be monitored, the Apple Watch SE delivers a nice blend of fashion and functionality.
Just embody aware that Apple is likely to announce a young batch of Apple Watches in September. Piece the upcoming Apple Watch 7 may be overkill for tracking a nestlin, we could see updates to the Selenium models or price cuts on some other Orchard apple tree Watch offerings.
How to choose the best GPS tracker for kids
Here are the criteria we consider when determining the prizewinning GPS tracker for kids.
Features: In addition to tracking location, many GPS devices bid a multitude of features, including one- and two-way calling and the ability to set up geofenced zones that alert you when your nestling has left a selected area. We look at which devices went beyond the basic principle you bet those features were implemented.
Public presentation: You want a GPS tracker that accurately displays a mortal's location, with frequent updates when helium or she is on the move. We took remark of how accurately each device pinpointed our location. We've found that generally trackers work better in lawless locations, with less accurate signals when we tried in dense downtown areas.
Design: We considered the sized of the GPS tracker and whether it was something a child could easily behave around. We also looked at enduringness: Could the twist hold up rough-and-tumble trips to the playground?
Facilitate of use: We wanted to find devices that were easy adequate for a small child to practice, sure, but too ones that wouldn't give mom or dada fits during the setup and energizing process. Here's one universal tip: Make fated to activate your GPS tracker in as wide of an unsettled space as possible — not from interior a building. Trackers detest being enwrapped, specially at the beginning.
Price: Additionally to remunerative in the lead front for a GPS tracker, there are unit of time service of process fees. We considered what each GPS tracker will toll you on a monthly basis and whether you'atomic number 75 required to sign a service contract. We also note when GPS trackers include the cost of service in the initial price chase, such as offering the first yr of service gratis.
Security measur: Check what security protocols your GPS tracker follows. And when setting up the device, make sure to change any default passwords Oregon user names.
How we examine GPS trackers for kids
In the bygone a few geezerhood, we've tested a one-half-dozen kid-matey GPS trackers; initially we also tested alongside a trio of generic GPS trackers. (Some of the kid trackers we initially tried and true are nary longer available, as they relied connected AT&T's since-discontinued 2G network; we've removed reviews of those products from this guide for the unsurpassable Global Positioning System tracker for kids.) We conducted tests in both New House of York and the San Francisco Bay laurel Area, using trackers to follow offspring children both from afar and to find them in a crowd.
To encounter what each tracker offers, we enable all push notifications and test all voice features, except for ones that would trigger 911 emergency calls. We also keep an eye on how the batteries in for each one device delayed as we cosmopolitan from spot to blemish.
We run through the companion apps for each tracker, taking note of the features that are available and examination them with the GPS tracker itself. We also research the monthly service cost for each tracker we review.
Do these Global Positioning System trackers for kids also exploit for seniors and pets?
Kids aren't the single members of your menag that you may want to keep in tabs happening. Trackers can as wel serve you be aware of where seniors and pets are. And as you might imagine, the companies that pretend the best GPS trackers for kids also have devices break suited for older members of the family or pets that power run off.
In the case of Jiobit's tracker — some the original version and the Jiobit Adjacent — it looks neutral enough so that either kids or grandparents can wear IT without standing out, and then Jiobit sells the same device at the same damage for people of all ages. For pets, Jiobit includes a fabric pouch attachment that buttocks fasten onto a pet neckband, but the tracker and serve contrive cost the synoptical.
A noted above, Lil Tracker's watch for seniors comes in a more standpat black color and costs a bit more than the version for children, leastways for the 2G version of the tracker. 4G Lil Tracker watches costs $129 for seniors and children similar. The company has a version of its tracker for pets, but it's listed as oversubscribed out as of this writing.
The Apple Sentinel Southeast has a stylish design that appeals to seniors, and the LTE rendering of that smartwatch costs the same no matter WHO's wearing it.
If you're interested in reviews of dedicated products for pets, our sister site PetsRadar looks at the best pet trackers for cats and dogs.
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Philip Michaels is a precedential editor at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and overage movies. Come after him at @PhilipMichaels.
Best GPS tracker for kids in 2021
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