Verizon's app shutdown is about to brick two-year-old kids' watches
Jeff Kaufman's two kids wear Gizmo watches so he can reach them at the park. On July 6 the app that makes those watches work disappears, and its replacement can't handle his account.
On July 6, Verizon retires GizmoHub, the app behind Jeff Kaufman's kids' Gizmo watches. Its replacement, Verizon Family, can't yet handle watch-only accounts, so texting, location and adding contacts all break.
Kaufman tried to migrate and hit a wall: his line reads 'ineligible,' and 2FA codes route to a Google Fi number that never delivers. Three support tickets in, nothing has moved.
The app that runs your kid's watch is being switched off
On July 6, Verizon shuts down GizmoHub, the companion app for its Gizmo Watch. In his post, Jeff Kaufman spells out what that does to his family: he bought two of the kid-tracker watches two years ago, and without the app he can't text his kids, see where they are, or add new contacts. The watch blocks calls to anyone not already on the list. Verizon's replacement, Verizon Family, does not yet support watch-only accounts like his.
Kaufman tried to migrate early. His watch line came back marked "ineligible," and when he used social login the 2FA codes went to his Google Fi number and never arrived.
The support trail is a slow drip: on June 17 an associate agreed the new app can't handle a watch-only setup; on June 19 a rep called it a known issue; on July 2 he got a ticket number and a promise of contact within 24 to 48 hours. His one ask is simple: postpone the deprecation until Verizon Family actually supports these accounts.
The real trap wasn't the watch, it was the phone number
Readers who had lived it pointed past the hardware. The whole migration hinges on 2FA, and that is where Google's numbers quietly fail:
"the author probably could have migrated if he hadn't used a Google Fi phone number for 2FA. Some banks and businesses … will detect a Google Fi or Google Voice number and not let you use them." — a reader who hit the same 2FA dead end
Others doubted the escalation would land anywhere. On Kaufman's request that a rep push the date up the chain:
"There's no way a CSR has any power over this." — one commenter on the support-call ask
A device hacker whose bio lists stops at Apple, Google and VMware was blunter:
"Prediction: absolutely nothing will happen about resolving this. Ever. And eventually they will find a line in the ToS allowing this …" — a longtime hardware hacker
Not everyone sided with Kaufman. One reader framed it as a lesson relearned:
"anyone in the 2020s buying a carrier-branded piece of cellular hardware should have expected this … Apple Watch Kids Mode is what you want." — a commenter recommending a non-carrier watch
The detail that lingers is the age. The watches are two years old and go dark the moment the hub does, which left one reader asking the obvious question about warranty:
"It's broken without access to the hub, right? And it's only 2 years old." — a reader on the two-year-old hardware
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