Verizon is about to break our Gizmo watches
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Verizon plans to deprecate the Gizmohub app on July 6, but its replacement does not support watch-only accounts like the author's.
Jeff Kaufman bought Gizmo watches for his kids two years ago. The watches rely on the Gizmohub app for texting, location tracking, and contact management. Verizon announced it is shutting down Gizmohub on July 6 and moving users to a new app called Verizon Family. However, Verizon Family does not yet support accounts that have only Gizmo watches without a Verizon smartphone. Kaufman has called support three times since June 10; the latest rep would not commit to a fix before the deadline. Without the app, he will lose the ability to text his kids or see their locations.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are split. Many criticize Verizon for anti-consumer behavior and poor software, noting the watches are only two years old. A few defend Kaufman, arguing consumers should expect purchased devices to work. Others shift blame to the technical complexity of cell-enabled watches, calling them "a pile of hacks" and noting that watch RF and eSIM standards are compromised compared to phones. One commenter shares a similar nightmare with Apple Watch eSIM provisioning on a different carrier.