Relay Kids Phone is a Screenless Smartphone
Relay is the smarter phone for kids and the perfect way to stay connected to your little one. The Relay Kids Phone is a small device that your child can wear or carry on them. When they need to speak with you they simply press the single button on the device and have instant nationwide push to talk conversations with you. As the parent you can track their location via the Relay app, and setup geo-fencing to alert you when your child travels out of predetermined areas. The Relay also features an SOS emergency function that your child can activate in an emergency situation.
- SIMPLE PHONE FOR KIDS: Press and hold the middle button to talk, just like a walkie-talkie. Use voice assistant to choose contacts. Add up to 10 Relays and multiple trusted app users on 1 account. Communicate 1-on-1 or create group chats. Battery lasts 1-2 days, depending on the level of usage. Durable and splash-proof. Comes with charging cable, USB power adapter, quick start guide, and 1 year product warranty. Our wearables make carrying Relay easy (sold separately).
- CELL SERVICE REQUIRED: $9.99/month prepaid per device, no-contract subscription. Nationwide range, just like a cell phone. Service is provided by Relay. U.S. service only. International service not available.
- RELAY APP FOR ADULTS: For iOS & Android. Turn your smartphone into a walkie talkie and talk to anyone on your account. Manage Relay settings, and be able to set the device to “Do Not Disturb” mode remotely to keep Relay from going off while your child is in class.
- NEVER MISS A MESSAGE: App does NOT have to be open in order to receive messages. A notification will come through on your phone telling you that you have a message waiting for you in the app. A green light on your Relay will flash to indicate messages. You can play messages on your Relay device and in the smartphone app.
- SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY: Use GPS tracking to locate your child in the Relay app. Set Geofences such as “home” and “school” and receive automatic notifications when they enter/leave any of these set locations. Kids can send SOS emergency alerts to everyone on the account, which will continuously go off until the account owner has resolved the alert.
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Andrew Birrenkott –
I’ll try to keep this short.After seeing these on a morning show I started to look into them. They seemed like a good alternative for my 9 and 4 year old so we ended up snagging them for Christmas.The pro? They are smaller than I thought so they were easier to fit in their little pockets.Unfortunately there’s more cons than pros.Starting with the set up. Not only did it take way too long, the servers were down so we couldn’t set them up all day.The other thing was the sound. It was horrible quality.We were really disappointed with the fact there isn’t a way to record messages at least to the app on the parents phones. So your app has to be open and on to get the message.Im sure these will work for some hence the two stars, but for what we were looking for it was a let down. We will definitely be sending back.
P. Callaway –
We got these for both my boys over Christmas, and I am glad I did! I got them primarily to be able to contact my boys as they get older and go over to friends houses and stay home while I make trips to the store, and generally become more independent, WITHOUT giving them access to a cellphone with a screen and all issues that can happen with kids and unsupervised cellphones. The boys like them for all the fun features – joke channel and translating, but mostly they like being able to chat with their cousins anytime. We were able to get all our family, including my brothers, in one channel, now I know a lot more about what preteen boys talk about 😂😂😂.Functionally it works like a walkie talkie, rather than a cell phone. One big button – push to talk. A smaller button for changing channels. All the channels and settings are done through the phone app. The phone app notifies me when people are talking on any of the channels. My husband has the app also, we are logged into the same account, but he has a different username, so he can monitor them too. It’s nice that it’s a limited set of people who can talk (I get to choose!) – the phone won’t become a distraction or a source of trouble. There’s also a track feature which you can optionally enable to get info about where the phone is. They just made a lanyard to go with it that has a clip that fits into the phone hook. And the price is right for a kids phone as well.Overall we have been very pleased! There’s room for improvement in the phone app, but the functionality is all there, and the boys have been making great use of them!
lissalle –
We were thrilled to find the Relay and thought it would be the perfect, simple solution to our 8 year old being able to get ahold of us when at sports practice or away from home. The videos on the website make this product seem perfect. Unfortunately, we had it for about 24 hours before returning it and cancelling the service. The app is so poorly designed. It doesn’t give you notifications that your child is trying to reach you unless you have your phone unlocked, the app open, AND refresh it every 60 seconds. I mean, really, how is that supposed to give you peace of mind? Here are some bone chilling scenarios: 1) You’re in a client meeting with your phone next to you, but locked. Your kid is locked out of the house and messages you with increased franticness and you have no idea until after your hour long meeting when you pick up your phone again. 2) You’re driving somewhere and have google maps running on your phone and connected through your bluetooth. Your kid got left at soccer practice due to carpool miscommunication and keeps getting a “no users connected to the channel” message when she tries to reach you. Meanwhile you think she’s safely in the backseat of the other carpool mom’s car. Listen, the developers of Relay clearly had a great idea, but totally failed to understand the primary drivers and behaviors of their target audience. Why they would choose to release an app with so many obvious function deficits is beyond me. To make matters worse, the cancellation process of the $9.99 monthly service fee was cumbersome and annoying. You have to send an email requesting cancelling, after which you’ll be contacted by CSRs who try to talk you into keeping it. Just let me cancel online like any normal tech company! Our advice is avoid the Relay for now, until they get their act together on the technology side. It will stress you out more thinking about your child desperately trying to reach you than anything.
Miranda Jae –
After an emergency with our 5 year old being left by the school bus in negative 27 degree windchill weather, I did a lot of research and decided to give this a try.We really like it but there are some things I’d love to see updated/changed.Pros:- Size is great, a little smaller than what we thought we would get based on the video.- Sound quality is good- Magnetic charger (no port to worry about getting dirt in)- Love the color options- Customer service is absolutely AMAZING. I needed a carrier switch because we are very rural and they checked on me multiple times.Cons:- The volume button is finicky. It’s also the same button used to request/page the app. So my daughter tries to hold it down for 3 or 5 seconds to page me (not sure how long it takes officially) but because of how the button is she usually just messes up the volume setting. The button is too small for her to keep depressed without her thumb wiggling a bit and having to start over. It’s kind of frustrating.- The GPS is only spot location. I assumed because of the monthly price it would be fluid GPS like you have on your phone while driving. You have to constantly refresh.- GPS map is only basic and auto zoomed,not satellite so it’s hard to figure out where the Relay (my daughter) is. Because it’s auto zoomed all I see is her dot and white space.- Monthly price is so so. For the price I’d expect better GPS and features.
Matt Welch –
I bought this to keep tabs on my kids, and have ended up using it for that and so much more. This is a great product for being able to stay in touch with my kids (ages 8 and 11) and to know where they are. We have been trying to limit their screen time and have been delaying getting them iphones based on all of the articles about how bad screentime is for kids, so this is just the product we have been looking for.But it turns out we use it for so much more than this – it has a built in English-Spanish translator that I used extensively in Mexico last weekend (my high school Spanish isn’t great), and my wife and I use it all the time in our small business to talk to each other when we’re in different parts of the store – it is just much faster for quick communications than a cell phone – you’re talking instantly, kind of like the old Nextel phones. So cool. And the battery seems to last 3 days or more….Plus I have dropped this thing a dozen times on cement and it seems indestructible. A real A+ product….
lvw407 –
I work in tech and this device was impossible to setup. I spent over an hour trying to get it to connect. Once it connected, it wouldn’t hold the connection and kept throwing strange errors. The company sent a new SIM card but it still didn’t help. I’ve found it to be pretty much useless. I was coming here to return it only to realize my return window closed 5 days ago.