Ask Lemmy

26734 readers

1842 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

What non-SMS non-Apple app can I use to "text" my younger kid on their iPad (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi! My less-than-10-year-old has their own iPad (registered under my apple id) and wants to be able to "text" with the rest of the family. Most of us are not Apple people though: Android phones, using some combo of SMS, Discord, and Signal. The little one doesn't have a phone, so I think that prevents us from signing them up for Signal. I could probably install Discord on the iPad, though it doesn't feel ideal. They use iMessage (or whatever it's called) to text a couple other friends/grandma/etc who also have Apple stuff, but what should we use for our mostly-non-Apple family that wouldn't require a phone number?

An internet search pointed me to WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber.... stuff I've never used but it seems popular. Facebook Messenger also, but screw that. Google Chat/Hangouts (or whatever it's called now) is another option, which would require creating a google account.

If nothing else appeals to me we'll probably go the Discord route, and I'll just have to be clear, don't join random servers :) But, anybody out there use WhatsApp with your kid, and does it not require a phone number? I'm open to other ideas! Thank you...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Step 1 - create a child account for them. Do not share an AppleId with them.

Second - this may feel a bit old fashioned - but have a look at downloading Skype

Free
Cross platform
No phone number needed
chat as well as audio/video calls.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ok, I took your advice, bit the bullet and created the child account. Much better! I now have "Ask to buy" set up, and screen time and all that good stuff. I should've done this earlier. thanks for that! Skype seems like a decent alternative too.. I'll definitely consider it (though the easy option right now is seeming like Discord, just because the rest of us are on it already). Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Enjoy. Feel free to message me if you get stuck. Also check out the screen time and parental control options in iOS Settings - they are pretty good for setting limits on what a little’un can do and for how long.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Yes! I've started using those already. Good stuff. Unfortunately the Content Restrictions seem to block Roblox completely, no matter how I configure it... so I'll have to leave those off, but that's probably ok. The iPad is mostly used supervised anyway. Thank you again!