During Apple’s “Time Flies” event, it shared a new Family Setup feature coming to iOS 14 on September 16th that will allow just one iPhone to both set up and manage several Apple Watch smartwatches in a family. Previously, each Apple Watch had to be tied to an iPhone, but now a parent or guardian can do it all from a single iPhone.
The feature lets you adjust who each family member can call and message from their Apple Watch, and you can also set up location alerts so that you stay in the know of your family’s whereabouts. There’s a Schooltime feature that works similarly to a Do Not Disturb setting, and the Family Setup function is also optimized for older adults.
This feature will be available for iPhone 6S and later phones running iOS 14 and Apple Watch Series 4 and later models (including the new Series 6 and Apple Watch SE models that debuted today), though one big caveat worth mentioning is that it requires each Apple Watch to be connected via cellular. The GPS models of Apple Watch are the most affordable, so you’ll need to spend more to get the LTE versions of each watch. The feature will be available on carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
