Relay Kids Phone Alternative: A Screen-Free Smarter Phone with 4G LTE Nationwide Range, Walkie Talkie Ease, and a GPS Tracker for Kids, No Contract (Slate)

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.

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.

I loved the idea and wanted to love this product, but unfortunately couldn't. 2 stars for design and concept.1. Device constantly had trouble connecting to the network.2. When my phone (Android 8) didn't have the app running, the device said "No users online" if my child tried to speak to me. I would expect an immediate notification on my phone that my child was trying to contact me so I could open the app.3. GPS (one of the main reasons for purchasing) was inaccurate. Not grossly inaccurate, but by about 1,000 feet.

It’s cool but if you don’t have the app actively open with your screen on it can’t two-way your phone. It will send your phone a notification but my iPhone won’t allow me to change the notification ring so it’s not loud at all. If you want your child to instantly be able to get ahold of you you need to purchase a second relay. As long as your not in a dead zone it works great and sounds clear if you don’t hold it right up to your mouth. I bought it for my seven year old and will be purchasing a second for myself. Battery life isnt very long FYI!

So far so good. My son is not old enough for a phone though he needed a device to contact us. With all of his after school activities, sports, etc., this device will allow us to stay in contact. No screen-time issues and no internet browsing. Great starter “phone” for my 9 year old son. With they sold the accessories through Amazon as I’d like to purchase the case and lanyard.-Screen-less-Push to talk-GPS tracker-USB charger with magnetic hook up-$9.99 monthly fee

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!