Does anyone have a positive experience with the Bounce?

Oh they can, I have been a Garmin supporter for years and have purchased every version of the kids watch, and upgrade my watch every 2 years. The Bounce is by far the the worst watch they have ever put out. In theory a fantastic idea with so much potential but they really missed the mark. We have had endless problems, from the watch not charging, to charging up to 100% and then discarding while connected to the charger. It is basically useless, as my son plugs it in before bed and it is often only at >50% when he wakes up. It doesn't last past a day as advertised, and its unreliable. The whole point for us was to give our son the ability to communicate with us and he can't do that because he's either not wearing it because it didn't charge over night, or the battery has run out. 

I read the reviews myself, and heard the problems other were having. I couldn't believe that Garmin would put out a garbage watch like this so I chose to ignore them, now this this is a source of frustration for me. 

What's most amazing to me about the Bounce is the far ranging types of experiences I read about.  We have 2 Bounce devices and have had very little issue with them.  We bought them for the girls' Christmas 2022.  They are both 9 yo now.  (girls not watches)

The Boundary  (geo-fencing) alerts work every day as the girls get to and leave school.  Also, have worked seamlessly at the two ski resorts we frequent each year.    The cell coverage in the metro area is pretty complete but the ski areas can be spotty.  But still no issues with battery drain or notifications.

We use the messaging several times a week and that has worked 95% of the time.  We have encountered a handful of times that the messages arrive delayed for some reason.

Typically the battery lasts 2 days.  The watches are on WiFi at home but cell connected at school and at after school activities.  The girls do remove the watches at night so we do not sleep track.

We did experience the battery drain issue but that was completely resolved with one of the SW updates.The Contacts implementation took us a hot minute to figure out.  But eventually got everyone sorted so that they only received messages when. the girls sent them and not Family or Location data that they don't need to know.

The girls still love playing the adventure game.  We originally started out using the Token?coin system but have fallen away from that lately.  But it was a good way for them to track their own chores and earn rewards.

The girls look at their steps every day and compete with each other.  We have also had fun with the toe to toe challenges.

My BIGGEST complaint is the durability of the screen.  We have replaced both watches 2x for broken screens.  Garmin was great and offered to replace them at a reasonable cost.  But we are sitting on one very cracked screen and the other slightly cracked.  I have not replaced them as I keep thinking a follow on must be on the horizon.  So just replaced the screen protectors as the watches continue to work.

If they plan to keep the Bounce around I would like to see some improvements/changes.

- On Screen Keyboard for free text writing is a BIG one!

- Ability to actually call a phone number for big and little emergencies.

-More control over school mode (what you can turn off and on)

-More activities to choose from

-Garmin Connect type UI for looking at tracked activities.

-Better integration with other Garmin watches.  Garmin Jr App for direct messaging perhaps, especially since my 945LTE is also cellular connected.

But as for what we bought at the time and the features advertised we have had minimal issues.

I really hope they continue to build the platform but it seems like it may be dying on the vine.  Very sparse SW updates with no new features and rare minimal updates to the Garmin Jr App.  If there is nothing new by next Christmas I will probably have to cave to the Apple Watch demands.  But my experience with durability there is not good either.

Oof. Thank you for taking the time to respond. The watch arrives tomorrow. I'm going to just hope it is one of the unicorns that actually works. 

This is one of the more hopeful responses I have read. I'm hoping our experience is more like yours! 

I would have gotten an apple watch if we were an apple family... seems like there is a huge market for this, yet all of the kids watches (gizmo, gabb, cosmo, xplora, bounce) have terrible reviews. 

I hope your experience is better than mine. My sons Bounce lasts less than a day even while it is sitting on his desk with no activity. Also worth noting that I do have it connected to WIFI, and it is updated to 7.40.  

How did you set up the contacts for messaging? Does the other person have to have a texting Garmin device or can they just text through the Garmin jr app? So far the only way we have figured that out is by adding them to our family but we don’t necessarily want others having access to all of their profolile, tracking and stuff like that. Would like to have certain numbers he can just text or they can just text him. 

It can only be done through the Garmin Jr App

Can contacts that do not have Garmin watch but have connect app n Garmin jr app text through the app to my sons bounce watch?

they don't need a Garmin device, however they do need a Garmin Connect account.