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goleyrob
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Thursday, January 21st, 2021 5:00 AM

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Apple Watch Family Setup - When will Xfinity Mobile support this?

Good morning,

 

I had chatted with an Xfinity representative a month ago who confirmed that Xfinity Mobile supports the new Family Setup for Apple Watch GPS + Cellular.  I purchased an Apple Watch for my daughter only to find out that Xfinity Mobile doesn't support Family Setup.  This is unfortunate; as we wanted to be able to communicate with her outside the home.

 

Is Xfinity Mobile planning to support this in the future?  Is there a proposed time-frame?  

 

Thanks

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3 years ago

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DaveO3

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761 Messages

4 years ago

Below is a link to carriers who support family setup:

https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/#table-family-setup

 

I don't see any MVNOs in the list, so I doubt that XM will provide family setup anytime soon, if ever. XM doesn't even support any watches other than Apple watches. 

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DaveO3

Problem Solver

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761 Messages

4 years ago

Apparently there is at least one recent solution available from Truphone, and maybe even other providers? It's $9.99 per month for unlimited data, voice, and SMS. See below:

https://www.truphone.com/about/newsroom/how-to-add-a-mobile-plan-to-your-apple-watch/


If you are really brave and have eligible watches, then go for it, and let the rest of know if you are successful. 

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momodou82

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1 Message

4 years ago

Same thing happened to me. I even threatened to switch carrier if in the next few months if they don’t remediate that

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goleyrob

New Poster

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2 Messages

4 years ago

I ended up purchasing a plan through Truphone and it's working fine.  Thanks for the advice.  

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user_094ce4

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1 Message

I'm looking at the same problem. So with Truphone you keep your phone with XM, your personal watch can be paired with your phone, and then you can set up another family member's watch with a Truphone account? Do I have this right? If that works it's genius! I was going to have to switch to one of the major carriers but it would cost 2x-3x the XM plan. 

4 years ago

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user_7c92e4

Visitor

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1 Message

4 years ago

I have the cellular plan for an Apple Watch on my daughter’s phone but occasionally want my son to use the watch as well, unpairing it from her phone and setting up the watch as “for a family member” from my phone. Even so, my phone says the xfinity account won’t work in this way. Too bad! I’m glad I didn’t buy him a watch too! Xfinity, please add this!

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Morohtar

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1 Message

3 years ago

This feature has been available to implement for ~11 months now. It's long overdue for a company trying to be a tier I cellular carrier. If there's a technical issue prohibiting Family Setup then communicate it! The inability to find any reference online, and support having no knowledge, is unacceptable. Give us the tools we want, or explain why we can't have them so we can decide if Xfinity should keep our business.

Someone somewhere within Xfinity has details on Family Setup. Have them write a knowledge base article and then instruct support tiers to reference it. Customers deserve to know if this feature will ever see the light of day. Please, Xfinity, start communicating.

4

DaveO3

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761 Messages

@Morohtar Just use Truphone as referenced in earlier posts. The biggest benefit is that their family lines will not count against your maximum XM lines!

3 years ago

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JLPicard1

Visitor

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2 Messages

@DaveO3 I have signed up for Truphone, but when I go to settings for the family watch->Cellular, “Set up cellular” is grayed out with a message in text underneath that says: “The Xfinity Mobile account on this iPhone cannot be used to add a cellular plan to “Joe’s Apple Watch“.
For more information about Apple Watch cellular plans visit https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular.”

I tried erasing the watch and starting over to no avail. I’m stuck as to how to get the settings to allow me to use another provider.

(edited)

3 years ago

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DaveO3

Problem Solver

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761 Messages

Now I am confused? You should not have been asked to set up a Truphone account until after you had selected Truphone, and they were offering a free 7 day trial based on this earlier link. 

https://www.truphone.com/about/newsroom/how-to-add-a-mobile-plan-to-your-apple-watch/

Go to: Buying a Truphone Watch cellular plan

Here is the link to the family setup providers (which is different)

https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/#table-family-setup

NOTE: Truphone uses AT&T in the U.S. so coverage for a family watch will be different than your Verizon coverage for your other devices. Any questions or problems need to be addressed with Truphone, not XM. 

(edited)

3 years ago

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JLPicard1

Visitor

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2 Messages

@DaveO3 I was able to resolve the issue with a call to the Truphone support line (which, I thought was quite good). They said something was misconfigured on their end regarding my account.  As soon as they made the change I could tap on the “Set up cellular” option which was previously grayed out. 

Im not sure about the ordering of when to do what. I signed up for Truphone and then paired the watch for initial setup. Maybe that was my mistake? The message about xfinity mobile in the set up cellular area was very misleading…as xfinity had nothing to do with the issue. I was surprised it was a remote setting. 

3 years ago

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