Bark Watch Review

My daughter and I spent a week testing the Bark Watch, a child smartwatch for elementary- and middle school-aged kids that keeps them online in a limited, monitored way. I’ve been looking for a good, safe way to introduce my children to the internet, so I jumped at the chance to write a Bark Watch review and learn what the device can do for families like mine.

Turns out that the Bark Watch can do a lot. While the user experience could be better, the monitoring features are incredible. My daughter loved calling and texting family on her own — and I loved giving her a smidgeon of online freedom without exposing her to the wide-open wilderness of an unmonitored device.

But you don’t have to rely on what I’ve already said to know if the Bark Watch is for you. Keep reading this Bark Watch review, and I’ll share more about the pricing, features, and overall experience.

The Bark Watch device costs $240 plus monthly subscription fees, which is significantly more than the average kid smartwatch ($157.76 plus monthly subscription fees). However, you don’t have to pay for your child’s Bark Watch up front. If you buy directly from Bark, you can instead pay in monthly installments of $10 over two years, interest-free.

The subscription price is average ($15 a month) but delivers tons of safety features, some of which aren’t included with other smartwatch brands. And if the costs don’t add up for your family, you can return the Bark Watch within 60 days for a money-back guarantee.

Here’s a quick look at what Bark Watch offers.

Communication features:

• Phone calls
• Voice messages
• Text messages plus the ability to send emojis
• Support for many languages
• Talk to Text and Text to Talk

Emergency features:

• Emergency Call button
• Automatic Escalation calling (will call the next emergency contact if the first doesn't answer after 20 seconds)
• Option to call 911, 1911, 112, or 1112

Location-tracking features:

• On-demand location tracking

Fun and practical features:

• Step counter/fitness tracker
• Heart rate monitor
• Alarm and timer
• Conversation starters, family quizzes, and family moments feature
• Find Watch function on dashboard/app

Parental control features:

• Contact list approval
• Contact blocking
• School, sleep, and free time mode schedules
• Remote watch pausing
• Remote alarm schedules
• Email, device, browser, and app monitoring through Bark Premium
• Downloadable call and text log

Setting up the Bark Watch was not quite as easy as I hoped.

First of all, because the Bark Watch is hosted on an already-existing smartwatch (the Samsung Galaxy Watch8), the design isn’t kid-specific. So the device navigation was a little more complicated than I expected and took some time to figure out.

To set up the watch, I created a parent account to use on the Bark Watch app and the web dashboard. Most parents will find everything they need in the Bark app. It’s convenient while you’re out and about, and you want to quickly check something while you’re on your phone. I prefer my desktop for most online activities, but unfortunately, the desktop dashboard doesn’t have all necessary parental control functions.

The Bark Watch worked as expected. At first, I was hesitant to hand my young child a smart device, but the Bark Watch really came in clutch. My kiddo could call family members without stealing my phone, and she enjoyed setting timers and tracking her steps. Meanwhile, there was no music or games on the device and no way for her to access content I didn’t want her to see. (Except the settings. She kept changing the battery and GPS settings, which interfered with some of the tests I did.)

I was also impressed with:

• The extra monitoring that came with Bark Premium
• The Find Watch feature (like Find My Phone on an Apple Watch)
• The option to pause the watch remotely

With most devices, the battery can be drained by constant usage or environmental conditions like very hot or cold temperatures. With the battery lasting for at least 22 hours, this means you can charge it every night and have it ready to go the next day.

The Bark Watch takes safety seriously. The watch itself offers GPS features and parental oversight of contacts, calls, and texts, but the real star is the extra monitoring features.

Bark Premium, which is included with the monthly subscription cost, offers monitoring for:

• Apps
• Email accounts
• Browsers
• Devices including phones, tablets, and smart TVs

With these features, you can truly keep an eye on your child throughout all corners of the internet. You can even set up additional monitoring accounts for other children who aren’t using the Bark Watch, all at no extra charge.

The Bark Watch is hosted on a Samsung Galaxy Watch8, which is a cool piece of tech. But unlike some kids’ smartwatch hardware, the Watch8 wasn’t built specifically for children, and it shows. Even something as basic as answering a phone call requires a tap-and-swipe rather than a simple tap.

Since the Bark Watch’s target audience starts at 5 years old, it would also be nice to have a voice assistant, as children that young often can’t read and would be better served by voice-activated commands. There are, however, accessibility settings where you can set the watch to read texts aloud and kids can dictate replies.

• The Bark Watch uses premium hardware (a Samsung Galaxy Watch8)
• The Bark Watch offers many different languages
• The Bark Watch subscription includes Bark Premium, a comprehensive monitoring service that goes beyond the watch

Below are the top smartwatches for kids:

After letting my child try the Bark Watch, I can honestly say it’s a safe way for kids to connect with loved ones without online distractions or dangers. As a huge bonus, its subscription allows parents to track not only the watch’s activity but all internet activity for all kids in the family.

The Bark Watch is the perfect choice for:

• Kids itching for some internet independence
• Parents who prefer a smart device with GPS tracking
• Parents who want visibility into all of their kids’ online activities

For this Bark Watch review, my daughter spent a week wearing the Bark Watch while I ran tests and tried out different features. Some of the things we tried out include:

• Taking the Bark Watch away from home (including into the mountains) to test reception and GPS capabilities
• Sending calls and texts
• Switching languages
• Going hours without charging to check the battery life
• Signing my daughter’s email account up for monitoring through Bark Premium