Garmin Jr.™ Reviews

by Tegy7

So yesterday i went to the pool with my spiderman garmin vivofit jr 2 and i've unlocked all the step icons and the badges and completed all of the adventures. It took a whole year to complete. So they say its waterproof and it can handle swimming but i went to the pool with it and i got in the water and a few minutes later, it stopped counting my steps. I thought that was just something happening then but after that i checked the time and thats when it froze and then the screen turned white and purple and started flashing. We get home and we tried to unscrew it and get the water out, but when we screwed it back together, it turned off completely. We put it in some rice to see if that would work and its been a whole day and its still not working. I've had this for more than a year and it was really great and it took me alot of work to unlock everything and now its all gone. Not happy.

by Cstroman

My children each got a vivofit jr. For Christmas. They love them but GarminJr and syncing has not been so good. I have to sync to their watches manually anytime I give them points or for me to see their up to date activity. So the only time I can see their active time or give them points is when they're right beside me and we sync. Kind of pointless when we're not near each other 24/7. GarminJr also has not let me see their activity by day or sleep patterns at all. When I go to the activity page it constantly says loading.. the only thing it will tell me is how many minutes they were active that day. When I go to the sleep page, it says no data. And when I try to do the adventures it tells me an error has occurred. So pretty much the only thing GarminJr has been good for is giving them points for chores... otherwise it's useless.

by MaciejZadlo

We have been using Vivfoit Jr. for many months and we were very happy. Few months back however, our Vívofit Jr. 2 started zeroing out the progress my daughter made during the day. She can close the loop multiple times a day and when syncing it would zero out her steps and active minutes. We communicated with Garmin Customer Service, even received a replacement tracker. Today new tracker zeroed out the progress again. I uninstalled GarminJr and after new installation it turned out that my daughter’s progress accumulated during almost a year has been erased and she needs to start from the first mission! She has unlocked 24 out of 26 missions and has badges to show for it, but has to start over now. I don’t believe she will be interested anymore. It is a great app when it works, but inability to address issues and loss of months of progress is crushing for me as a parent and for my daughter as dedicated and enthusiastic user.

by Montay Ga

Could have updated features along with a more smart watch characteristic for children so parents wouldn’t have to upgrade to smart watch for old kids ages 8& up. Because my 8 year old wants an Apple Watch now or any smart watch for that matter. Garmin can come up with a version of smart watch for kids that has gps for parents to track, games to teach time and play for fun, activity tracking, chores, games, rewards for kids the current watch does some of those things but it’s outdated and great for younger kids but now bring something for older technology children. Parents will pay for things that could help make life easier and learning bound for the children at the same time. I can say that this watch helped my kids with daily chores a lot.

by Tdhammy

I think this product is a fantastic idea. Both of my girls have the Minnie Mouse Band. They have to get 60 minutes of activity each day to unlock different parts of the story on GarminJr ...

However, when they get 60 minutes of activity, all that happens on GarminJr is a “pin” moving to a different spot in the game, and a new “card” which gives them a very short blurb of what happens next in the story , opens for them to read... a blurb as short as “Pete steals a piston from Mickey’s car”.... for 60 minutes of activity, that’s not very exciting.

They also get to play a quick game, but it’s been the same game every time.

GarminJr would be sooo much better if there was animation that opened with each card, where the characters acted out what he kids were reading on the cards... Different games, or surprise gifts that pop up. We’ve only had this 3 days, and they’re getting bored with the story already.

They run around the house trying to get their minutes, and when they finally hit their goal, all they get is a new card to read... I’d love more interaction, greater details in story, and animation of characters interacting with each other. It would definitely make it more exciting and motivating for them to get their activity.

by Apple05

My son has a vivofit jr. I saw an update for GarminJr last night (version 2.6) and updated GarminJr . The update mentioned a new tap challenge when you’ve earned your 60 minute activity goal. This included a picture of what I believe the tap challenge looks like. Thanks My son came home and we synced his vívofit Jr. to GarminJr on my phone. It showed that he had earned the 60 minute goal and could make his move on the adventure trail. He made his move, but then we couldn’t figure out how to get to the tap challenge that was highlighted in this update. I tried looking for help on the website, but was unable to find anything on how to get to the tap challenge once the 60 minute activity goal has been met. I chatted online with two different support center chat agents. Nether of them could help me because neither of them had heard of this tap challenge. Clearly I’m missing something or they highlighted a new feature in GarminJr that they didn’t actually add to GarminJr .

Other than this issue, my son loves loves loves his vivofit jr. He asked for it for Christmas and we were a little hesitant (thinking why does a 6 year old need to count his steps- he’s a super active kid). But it’s so much more than just a step counter. We love it!

by Monica Stout

I have been buying Garmins for 10 years. I have always bought forerunners. I bought the Garmin Jr for my son when he was 7. We are an active family. I wanted him to understand recommended activity and steps but more important I wanted to use the rewards section to help him become responsible. I love the Garmin Jr. but we need more now.

He is now 10. I haven’t upgraded because to me there isn’t many features added that I want or need in the Jr 2 or the 3.

I would like to see a Gamin built for ages 10-12 Middle School. Or I would like to see access to the Garmin Jr site from another Garmin device. The most important item I would like to see added for that group is workout activity like swimming, pace. I could buy him a fancy one like the one I have but then there will be no rewards system to use and we love keeping track of that. In middle school responsibilities are SO important. He will also be joining track we would like to see his baseline mile 400 etc.

I look forward to new items. Thank you Garmin.

by TabithaDePaolo

My kids really enjoy GarminJr . They like to see how they slept, and they love getting clues to discover new animals. It is motivating.

The problem I have is that the watch doesn’t always register movement. For example, my daughter is on a swim team and her practices are 90 minutes long. She will get out of the water afterward, and not even half of her practice will register. Same thing happens for other activities, too.

It would be nice if there was a way for a parent to go into the activity timer on GarminJr and manually adjust it when things like this happen. It is very discouraging thinking you are getting a clue only to have it come up significantly short through no fault of your own.

by Wittleblades

So far, I absolutely love this product! I bought this for my 7 year old in hopes to get her more motivated and to be more consistent with her every day to day tasks. So far, it’s doing well! She gets really excited about the rewards system. I love that I can choose any amount I want for her to get per task. I really love that it tracks her sleeping as well. My daughter had sleep apnea and being able to know how much deep sleep she’s actually getting and when she is struggling to sleep is very amazing!

She really enjoys wearing it. It took some getting used to, but now she’s all about it! I set alarms to remind her to do things like brushing her hair and teeth and to wake up in the morning for school. I give her points for staying on task. It’s working wonders for my baby! I love it!

My only complaints are that I really wish it automatically updated more often. Occasionally it does when I’m in close proximity to her and GarminJr is open... but more often than not, I have to manually update it multiple times a day in order to have accurate information... but it’s really not that big of a deal, given all of the other cool perks. I also wish their were more picture icons to pair with the alarms. But ultimately... I’m very satisfied!

by Toolski

Our boys, 13, 11 & 8, love this. They want to see their sleep record every morning. I, their mom, also like looking at how they slept, helps me gauge if they are having sleep disturbances (or staying up all night reading ;) ).

They also enjoy having their steps tracked. They are innately competitive with each other and the leaderboard taps into that in a positive way. I appreciate it counting their steps, especially during the school year. It gave me a clear picture on how much exercise they were receiving at school. My one son’s teacher found recess a great time for catch up work in her classroom and it was definitely reflected on my son’s vivofit.

I would definitely purchase this again. I have given it 4 stars because GarminJr is sometimes temperamental when syncing.

by Jkherms

My kids love this watch! They are always proud by their active minutes and steps each day. It’s a great way to keep them active. I also like being able to add chores and for them to be able to earn stars. I wish the “chores” section was more general and could be edited to allow for for different rewards. I like to acknowledge other positive things too. It’s nice for their dad to be able to track, too. The only downfall is that it needs to sync with my phone so if I’m not around the data isn’t accurate. Also, had an issue with my daughter’s not syncing and I had to delete and reinstall her profile which lost data. I do like that it also tracks sleep. Overall a great product, and app, for the price.

by Jet Pack Unicorns

GarminJr is excellent for motivating my kids to track their responsibilities. It gamifies their daily routine and helps them set goals, track them, and stay focused.

The problem is that I can’t turn off deleting rewards from their phones. This may be because Garmin doesn’t intend my kids to have the tracking app on their own devices, but I do (and honestly I didn’t know that wasn’t intended all along by the developers).

So they have access to GarminJr and can track their chores and check them off on their own phones. But they can also delete rewards and add coins to their amounts.

I feel this is a feature that could make GarminJr better for parents and kids. The honor system is ideal, but a dream. I turned on kids mode so they can’t redeem rewards on their own, but they can still do it in the phone. If this stuff was only meant to be accessed through the Vivofit watch, then they should specify that somewhere in GarminJr or other literature about the program.

Anyway. Excellent app. I love it. But I’d sleep better knowing they can’t simply add coins. It just needs a parental control upgrade. And if it exists somewhere in GarminJr , I can’t find it.

by MotivatingFreedom

When you do this in a routine, you have a cleaner house in my responsible children! There coin redemption is for things like going to the park, pick out a movie for family movie night, another quality time redemptions. My eight and six-year-old love it and have helped me keep the house more tidy on a daily basis. Our bedtime routine includes awarding their points for the day. I just wish that it would sink better. I always have to turn my Bluetooth off and back on. Also, I have turn all alarms off of one of theirs and it still goes off three times in the morning even after checking all settings. I wish you could deduct points too. Like if someone get sent to the room and they get a point taken away. Overall, because my children are rewards driven, this has enhanced our life!

by Vbjoseph

Update - now that Garmin outage has been resolved we finally have full functionality with the watch. My son loves it and is constantly tracking his activity. I find the chores/rewards functionality very helpful and it’s easy to setup a goal and reward for my son. My only wish is that we could track steps history. You can track history of activity and sleep times but I don’t see steps anywhere. You can only view current days steps.

Old -Bought the watch several days back and still unable to connect to GarminJr . Servers have been down (1 star for actually having an outage message in GarminJr ). However, not being able to resolve a such a critical issue after so many days seems odd. I guess my 5yr can just stare at the watch till Garmin gets it act together

by SailorZ

Originally I had thought the latest app update had broken the ability to pair, but I was mistaken as our other boys unit pairs and unpairs with ease.

We contacted Garmin support and they are sending us yet another device that will hopefully be able to pair with our devices.

That being said we have had the Vivo JR since they came out last year and are excited to use the new kids mode app.

Oh and with the SW bands, I’m very surprised that the bands do not also bring new band icons to the devices. Come on we paid $40 for just a new adventure? I just assumed new icons would come but no big deal.

What I have learned from this whole ordeal though is a new feature to allow complete removal of devices from your garmin connect account. With “grown-up” devices you are able to log in on a “real” computer and completely remove or suspend devices, really helpful for troubleshooting etc.

The device has enough hardware features for the price point please do not change this! Especially now that Vivofit Jr. units for now less than $50 in stores! Makes for a great addition to garmin households.

One “magical” feature I would adore, but would kill your profits would be to perform a “one-time” “hack” for the Vivofit Jr into a Vivofit. With the amount of bands available your child could conceivably have the same device forever!

Our house is full of Garmin so keep them coming!

by JBondu

We ordered this watch for our 5 year old to help with bathroom reminders at school. She was very disappointed when the watch failed to work upon opening it for Christmas. However, Garmin’s customer service was prompt and sent us a replacement watch immediately. No issues with the second watch. She loves it and it has decreased the number of battles around self care tasks (brushing teeth, going to the bathroom and picking up toys). It has made parts of our day run more smoothly. It is a product I’m happy we purchased.

Some suggestions for improvements -
*allow for unlimited reminders
*more pictures to choose from for reminders - it would be really cool to download your own pictures. At a minimum have pictures that match up with chores (a toilet, a toothbrush, toys, comb, medication etc)
*allow chores to be viewed from the watch instead of just the number of chores assigned.
*make a Wonder Woman, rainbow or unicorn watch (my daughter and her friends would go crazy over these).

by Beav3333

I love this watch an app for so many reasons. I use it with my seven year old and he is very motivated to meet and exceed his exercise goals daily. He has a friend at school who has one and they like to compete to see who can get more steps. I also love the fact I can set a chore list and can give coins to reward when things are complete. I love that it tracks sleep patterns. We also use the timer to help with transitions such as getting to the bus on time and brushing teeth before bed. I love that it’s simple and there is no camera on it or distracting games. Everything is controlled from GarminJr on my phone. He’s also more aware of keeping time since he got the watch. I would highly recommend it and am planning to get one for my daughter.

by Prof Org

Updated review: I was contacted the same day I left a review by tech staff. They worked to resolve my issues and followed up twice. I’m raising my stars to 4, as I still preferred an older version of GarminJr. But I really appreciated the responsiveness of their staff.

We’ve been using GarminJr and the watches for my 7 and 8 year old since March of 2017. The recent updates (in Oct 2017) that change the way chores are added and removed is frustrating. I’ve had to add and subtract chores twice for each child to try and recreate the list we had before the updates started coming.

My children and I review chores at the end of each day, before we read bedtime stories. They are keenly aware of their coin count and which chores they are responsible for. It’s aggravating to keep receiving updates that don’t seem to add value to the experience. Instead they add labor on the parents’ end and confusion for kids. Like other parents have mentioned, having an option to go back and give kids credit for chores on a previous day was a helpful feature. Every so often we miss a night of reviewing and they still deserve to receive their coins.

It was a super app until the middle of Oct. when these changes kept rolling in. What gives?

by Dutchwife62

My six year old’s vívofit Frozen Elsa watch is the best thing ever! She enjoys it so much. She races to brush her teeth with her two minute timer and then makes her bed dresses and combs her hair within minutes of waking up! She loves earning her chore coins. It has been fun watching her get so excited when she reaches her 60 minute activity goal. She loves unlocking more of the frozen story and playing the games. It is the highlight of our evening watching her enjoy it so much. This girl is use to playing wii and Xbox with more elaborate games. But with the frozen incentive games she is so proud and happy to do because she earned them! I love that she is learning to do her chores with a happy little spirit and getting exercise. She watches her watch and says oh, I better start moving! I love it. This is a great watch for where my six year old is at right now in her young life! Great job!!!

by Tropical Vegan

8 year old has wanted his own since he saw my Garmin Vivofit 3. Our deal was - learn to tell time in analog first with accuracy and it is yours! He loves it and he loves challenging me. App works well, game functions are fun. Only drawbacks -only way to mark off a chore is on app (not his device) and (as a parent) I was looking forward to getting a better sense of his sleep. I can not find a way to manipulate the time to sleep (this is easy to adjust on my Garmin app for my Vivofit 3). There was one night I know for certain (he was sawing logs!!) he was asleep by 8pm. GarminJr said he was asleep after 10. I know it isn’t intended for that function, but was delighted it would gather some data (ish)....except I really can’t count on it being very accurate.

If these two things were improved I would give this top marks. This kid is ALWAYS moving...and he loves seeing the steps rack up!