Review: Vivofit Jr, an activity tracker for kids

The family that plays together, stays together… or should that be "the family that counts their daily activity, thanks to their matching activity trackers, stays together"? It doesn't quite have the same ring to it. But that's what Garmin is going for with its latest addition to its line of activity trackers.

The point of the Vivofit Jr is to encourage children to get an hour of activity a day. It does this through fooling them in a way, by getting them to unlock steps on an adventure trail, or fun facts, by completing activities. Make it seem like fun, and they won’t even realise that they’re exercising, right?

The Vivofit Jr is a step tracking hub with a small screen that comes with a stretchy band you can fit over most children’s wrists, and it’s snug without cutting off the circulation. They can also be changed to a larger band if needed.

It’s a single piece, that’s both durable and suitable for swimming – two very important things when you think of who it’s aimed at.

That stretchy, swappable band may come in handy. The Vivofit Jr is aimed at children between the ages of four and nine, a reasonably wide range. A four-year-old wrist and an eight-year-old wrist are vastly different in size, and that’s before you start taking account of different builds.

There’s nothing to stop you from giving it to a slightly younger child than four, but be prepared for them not to get the point of it at all. A good example: I put it on my two year old, who looked at the “pretty watch” for 10 minutes, and then decided it was better employed as Minnie Mouse’s racing goggles. So a slightly older test subject was found.

And things were a bit more successful; the band stayed on for one thing. It may seem like a bit of overkill to have a wearable targeted solely at children, but if you find you need to prod your kids into activity, this might be the very thing that helps.

There’s a free parent mobile app that allows you to track your child’s progress. It also lets you assign other not-so-fun activities, such as chores or the boring things like brushing their teeth, that your child can complete for a reward. Tap into their competitive streak if you must. Daily step challenges? They’re covered too, so you can get your own competitive streak going (just don’t take it too far, unless you want to be THAT parent). It’s easy enough to set up too, and if you have several children in need of motivation to get active, the one app will allow you to set up several children. The trackers sync wirelessly with your phone, so there are no docks to mess about with.

The good:

There’s no charging, which means that you won’t grab this band in a day or two and discover that it’s dead. That reduces the risk that it will get chucked in a drawer after a month or two because it’s just too much hassle. The battery lasts for about a year, and you can replace it after that.

The bands can also be replaced, which means as your child grows so too does the Vivofit Jr. The device is compatible with the Vivofit 3 bands.

The not so good:

It’s still an activity tracker for a child, so it looks quite bulky on smaller wrists.

The rest:

The stretchy band makes it easy to get on and off, and because they’re replaceable, you can change them if your child’s tastes change too.

The verdict:

It may seem a bit much to have an activity tracker solely for a child, but the Vivofit Jr provides a bit of extra motivation.