Wiley Buddy Review | A Safe Home Phone For Kids

Home phones are back, but with a modern twist. Instead of connecting to a landline, the latest home phones send and receive calls via WiFi. This internet connection lets parents set up some controls to protect kids from unwanted callers. The rest of the home phone experience — from the handset to the curly cord — remains largely unchanged. 

Several WiFi phones for kids are currently available for pre-order or dropping limited launches. Wiley's flagship product is one of the first to market, having shipped April 2026. They sent me a complimentary Wiley Buddy to test and review.

I'll get into the details below, but suffice to say: it does what it's supposed to do, I like it overall, and I don't see any reason not to buy it. 

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The Wiley Buddy comes with the following:

• Handset and cradle
• Curly cord
• Ethernet cable (only needed during setup)
• Power cord
• Stickers
• Tips for kids
• Contact card

Yes! I had no issues setting up the Wiley Buddy. The online portal walks you through each step. No troubleshooting was necessary to get the phone up and running.

1. Scan the QR code included in your box.
2. Create a Wiley account if you don't already have one.
3. Log in. Set up should automatically start.
4. Type in the MAC number found on the back of the cradle.
5. Enter your WiFi network and password.
6. Pay for the monthly service.
7. Enter the phone's location for faster 911 response times.
8. Choose your phone number.
9. Plug the curly cord into the phone.
10. Plug the Ethernet cable into the phone and into your internet router. Make sure the handset it firmly resting in the cradle.
11. Attach the power cord and plug it into an outlet.
12. Wait for the light to stop blinking on the phone.
13. Unplug the Ethernet cable.

Then you're all set! Pick up the handset and listen for a dial tone.

Next, you can go back to the Wiley portal to adjust some settings. 

• Choose to allow incoming and outgoing calls to any number, or to restrict calls to approved numbers only under Contacts.
• Add approved contacts under Contacts.
• Set up the speed dial menu under Dashboard.
• Set up the spam blocker under Dashboard.
• Set up a voicemail PIN under Voicemail.

You can also do the following on the Wiley parent portal via the Call History, Voicemail, and Settings tabs:

• View call history
• Choose whether to receive voicemails via email
• Listen to and manage voicemails
• Confirm that the Wiley Buddy is connected to WiFi
• Enable and adjust quiet hours
• Change the caller ID info and 911 address

The phone itself has several function keys:

• Hold/Unhold (pause button; elevator music plays on the other line)
• Redial (phone icon with circle)
• Volume up or down
• Speaker phone 
• Voicemail
• Flash (phone icon with lightning bolt; used to initiate a three-way call)

For the most part, yes. Audio sounds great from the Wiley Buddy's microphone and speakers, and the ringer is loud and unique. (It would be nice to be able to adjust the volume of the ringer, though.)

However, I did run into a few hiccups. The biggest one allowed incoming and outgoing calls from unknown numbers, which means the phone's key safety feature wasn't working. According to an email sent to all Wiley customers, this was a widespread glitch that was fixed soon after launch.

Unfortunately, the fix didn't seem to work for me, so I reached out to Wiley customer service. They did a great job keeping me in the loop, and a couple days later I was unable to place a call to an unapproved number. Hooray! 

Growing pains are to be expected with any new device. Here are a few more issues I noticed.

Call history logs show the call's date and time, duration, whether the call was inbound or outbound, the other party's phone number, and who hung up first.

However, I noticed these logs weren't always accurate.

• Some inbound calls were incorrectly labelled as outbound.
• Sometimes the Wiley Buddy's phone number was listed instead of the other party's number. I don't need to know that the Wiley Buddy made a phone call — that's already implied. 

You're supposed to have access to voicemails via the Wiley parent portal. Go to the Voicemail tab and scroll down to Voicemail inbox. I used my cell phone to call the Wiley Buddy and leave a voicemail, but it never appeared in the voicemail inbox.

I chose to receive an email any time someone left a voicemail, and I got that instantly. It didn't transcribe the message, but it did attach the audio clip so I could listen to the message. 

After setting up a voicemail PIN in the parent portal, you can press the envelope icon on the phone to listen to and manage voicemails. The prompts here could use some work. The first time you access this area, it asks you to immediately say your name and record a message, but it's unclear if you're recording a greeting. Later, it tells you to press a number to manage greetings and walks you through different prompts in order to do so. 

The first thing I did on the Wiley Buddy was access the voicemail menu. I used speakerphone mode to make it easier to use the keypad while listening to prompts. When I was finished, I returned the handset to the cradle ... but the phone didn't hang up. I could still hear the voicemail menu rattling off through the speaker. I picked up the receiver and tried again, but it kept happening. 

There's no physical button on the cradle that allows you to hang up the phone. It must sense that the handset is on the cradle. After panicking slightly and pressing all the buttons to try to hang up the phone, I firmly placed the handset on the cradle to ensure a tight connection between whatever sensors lie below. That worked. Phew! 

I didn't run into any other problems after that, but I've been firmly hanging up the phone ever since. 

There are a few buttons on the Wiley phone that didn't work as expected when I first pressed them. 

• The pause button (it doesn't confirm that your caller has been placed on hold, and the elevator music that plays on the other end starts off very soft and quiet)
• The redial button (it didn't seem to work the first few times I pressed it)
• The lightning bolt button (customer service told me it's called the flash button and is used for three-way calls)

I may have gotten a little overzealous in pressing buttons to try to make them all do something. When I hung up the phone, it immediately started ringing. Huh? I just made this number! And I have parental controls! 

When I answered, a robotic voice said something to the effect of, "You have reached the limit," then hung up. 

It was a little creepy and unexpected. I don't think it means this phone is unsafe for kids, but be aware that a younger child might get scared if this happens. 

I think a home phone like the Wiley Buddy is a fantastic way to let kids call their friends. Believe it or not, kids smartwatches don't always make it easy for kids to talk to other kids. Giving them a home phone can help them foster social connections the old-school way. 

Even though Wiley has a few minor kinks to work out, I think it's a great option for families. It's a durable, well-made product with all of the features I expect from a kids home phone.