Bounce Lte battery drain

Obviously it will depend on the child and the school.  For mine and her school, all electronic devices need to be placed either in the child's school bag or turned off.  I suppose airplane mode is a form of "turning it off".  

Without me even prompting her (in fact I didn't even know the relevant school stipulations), she turns off the Bounce Every. Single. Period. while in class.  I actually had to remind her that her gym teacher probably wouldn't mind if she left the watch on during gym class.

How does she tell time during class?  Well I doubt anyone remembers the last time they set foot in a first- or second-world classroom with nary a wall clock.

During every recess period, and during the all-important after school, child simply turns on the watch.  Mind you, she's only had the watch for a week so the scent of novelty is still overwhelming.  I'd be surprised if she still turns it on/off like clockwork after 1 month.  But all I care is that she does so after school, or when she is out with friends. 

Why doesn't she (or I urge her to) use the "Airplane Mode" in class?  On this watch with relatively fast start-up and shut-down, compared to a regular smart phone, turning it on/off is easier and far more intuitive than diving 3 menus down to twiddle with the Airplane slider.  In fact the simple button operation of turning it on is more "tacitly satisfying" than pressing into that slim bit of metal on my flintstone Blackberry Key2 or on my wife's insufferable (to me), last year model of iPhone.  Moreover, just yesterday, as my child was still wearing the watch in the house, after playing for long outside, while battery was down to 30%, I simply turned it off remotely from my phone.  And I deleted our home Wi-Fi from her watch through the Jr. App after enabling it only briefly when I first got the watch just to update the firmware.

Of course, by having the child turn off the watch during class, you (or I) are deprived of the private relief of knowing our child is indeed planted where they ought to be.  But how do I know some "devious" senior pupil won't come along and "cultivate" the child's more devilish inclinations by pointing out that they can still roam some corners while leaving the Bounce in the school bag?   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, this battery conundrum is a genuine, perplexing, vexsome first-world problem we collectively face.  No two-ways about it.  However, ridiculing some far-away chatline help-agent with non-American names won't solve.  But applying a little "third-world solution" to your "first-world problem" (and mine) just might soften the blow.

P.S. #1, I acknowledge that there are children with special needs who really do need an always-on tracker, and who can't be expected to turn the watch on/off reliably by themselves, yet who still need/deserve social interactions outside their homes.  But that's a different population that requires a non-generic solution.  In a compassionate and resourceful society like America, where the streets below are teeming with autonomous cars and orbit above filled to the brim with Elon's Starlink cubes, and with a gazillion drones and what not in between, "da people" cannot come together to find a solution to lighten the load of parents with special needs children with a publicly-funded, but privacy-honouring tracking solution?

If not, regrettably, I don't think Garmin is to blame.

P.S. #2, Far be it from me to "defend Garmin" on this.  I am just a parent who got the Bounce a week ago (in Canada, where Gabb et al are not even players), and find this device to be absolutely a Gen 1 offering replete with the usual Gen 1 glitches and disappointments.  That's why I didn't sign the 1-year contract but am opting to pay month to month.  It does not work that well.  But well enough. 

At the end of the day, everyone acknowledges that any pay-as-you-go phone gives better conventional "value".  But I presume those of us who fell for the Bounce subscribe to the "less is more" belief, for our kids at least, especially since I am still on the losing end of my battle with the dumbest smart phone there currently is, my Blackberry Key2 on Rogers.  I kinda worry about myself when I have no choice but to "upgrade" to the new Pixel shortly.  If it wasn't for all of the obligatory 2-factor authentication stuff I have to juggle, I am sure to get a dumb phone to save my own sanity ...

I might try turning my phone on/off more often myself.

This.  A simple time-based airplane mode automated in the parent Garmin App would do wonders. School mode with an enhancement. Very simple development setting.

Agree with you 100%.  Another Bounce parent elsewhere mentioned "timed on/off" for the watch, like any ol' Windows PC could do through BIOS for decades.  Now in case Garmin's corporate law team objects to the company "fiddling" with "traditional airplane mode" for fear of having any device turn on during flight inadvertently, or whatever scenario they are paid to worry about, there are a myriad of other ways to give parents the control over timed low-power states, whereby the watch only "wakes up" to communicates with server, whether through Wi-Fi or LTE, once Q15 min or so to retrieve message, and nothing else.

Or something along those lines.

Lest anyone get the impression that I am somehow "excusing" Garmin.  I am NOT.  There are quite a few niggles with the Bounce I am willing to chalk up to "teething troubles" despite it has now been on the market for over 10 months, and willing to bide my time with iterative firmware upgrades.  That does not extend to the battery shortcoming, which is clearly a design problem.

This battery is a real shame.  Not a shame as in "regret".  But a shame as in disgrace on the company,  It is not some "unknown unknown" that has to be encountered and worked out by gamma users or early adopters.  The amount of juice required should be a "known known".  

Garmin should know the average length of time a grade-schooler is in class, factoring in drop-off, after-school wait, some extra-curriculars, etc.  

Garmin should know the power requirement for GPS function in major cities, including suburbs, in their main markets.  And should know the power requirement of connecting to representative LTE signals in these places, where most parents of younger kids live (not yet city centres, by and large).  

It shouldn't require any PhD EEE work to arrive at a required battery size with some "margin".  And then design a product around that watt-hour of battery.  I don't own any Garmin watch and don't plan to.  But I do still use two Garmin GPS units, one for each of our vehicles, simply because I like them better than the phones, as does my wife.  For one thing, Garmin's online phone selection, or rather proliferation, gives me a headache.  

But for all that proliferation, could they not have put our two versions of the Bounce, with one "Suburban" variant being 2 mm thicker and more battery juice?  Even Tesla has a long-range.  If they manage to bump the pathetic 7 to 8-hour battery life to 12 to 14 hours, half the complaints on this thread may vanish.  After all, neither Apple nor Samsung has solved watch battery life problem, yet.  Most will grudgingly accept nightly charging, if it gets their kids through the day, with some cushion.

I also suspect their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios in the Bounce are "always-on".  At least the Bluetooth for sure is.  Fine, the kid can't be burdened to fiddle with these radios.  But what's the point of your vaunted App if you can't let parents tweak such, especially if these radios materially impact battery life?

That's why it's a shame.  The only saving grace is that the watch is fairly easy and relatively quick to turn on and off.  Given the overall product presentation so far, I couldn't help wondering whether this small "advantage" was coincidental, rather than the fruit of thoughtful design.

Nonetheless, I am keeping the watch and subscription, because here anyway, the Bounce is the current reigning one-eyed king ruling over the domain of the blind.

Updated feedback: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/z27p3j/comment/kb7vare/

It's a pity that the Bounce simply didn't work well over 4G to pull off its fundamental duties.  I could use a wrist watch myself that does just simple 2-way texting and walkie-talkie style communications, preferably with a dedicated physical button, not unlike those "rugged" PTT cellphones field workers use.

And GPS for locating family would be the only 3rd function I'd need.  Even "live tracking" is gimmicky, which never really worked on my Bounce and in truth wasn't needed.  It's not like I was expecting the kid to deliver take-out to me (I might dream, though).  

The Bounce could've been that device, housed in a durable engineering plastic shell.

But sadly no.

P.S., it's not even the battery that I am complaining about.

Yes you have permission.

USA

Android 

We are in New Zealand and LTE is limited at school.  We get about 3 hours. 

Would be great if you could get Bounce to ignore trying to find LTE when connected to wifi.

Hi,  

My wife just bought a garmin bounce for our kid. Software version is 7,40. Leaving it on the desk battery drains from 100 to 0% in less than 8 hours. In order words, useless in the daily day life. Here my answers:

· yes

· France

· Android

Can you help me?

Lasts only 6-8 hours (8 when at school and school mode on)

Yes

Australia

Android

I have recently contacted service about this and am assuming the only thing to do is return as it is not fit for use.

My child's watch is the same. No more than 8-10 hours before watch is drained. She doesn't wear it at night as we have it on the charger all night. School do not disturb is set up for 9am to 320pm. The school and home are also det as location boundaries.

I am contemplating sending the watch back.