My BuddyTag

Have you ever had the fear of your child slipping away from you? I didn't when my girls were smaller but now that they are a bit older I worry. My oldest is friendly and she is becoming more independent. She also gets distracted easily and tends to wonder at times. We got to try out the My Buddy Tag. It is a bluetooth child tracker. Its bluetooth so the range is not super far especially in a building with lots of walls. http://www.mybuddytag.com/. But because they are blue tooth they are affordable. They sell for around $39.99 and you can get a silicone wrist band, a Velcro wrist band, a terry cloth wrist band or a disposable wrist band. We received the silicone wrist band and a Velcro wrist band. They come in a bunch of different colors that are crazy cool.

Features:

Out of Range Alert: Uses bluetooth technology to send an alert to your phone when your child is out of your proximity. 

Water Safety Alert: It alerts you when it is submerged in water.

Panic Button: Located on the wristband your child can push it when they are in fear or a threatening situation and it sends a loud alert to your phone. 

Personal ID: The wrist band has a place for you to put a contact name and phone number in case your child is ever separated from you.

Email with last seen location: It can email you a map location and time in which you child was last picked up by the BuddyTag app.

It is Iphone and I Samsung compatible. It works with Iphone 4S and newer and Samsung Galazy S4 and newer, Note2 and newer with android 4.3 or higher. 

So basically you download the BuddyTag app. It is a free app I put it on my Iphone. While its is downloading you take the BuddyTag button which is a little disk shaped piece and insert it into which ever wrist band you bought. Be sure to align the panic button on the BuddyTag button to the one that's on the wrist band.  Then you open the app you will see a New Device icon. You swipe the Icon to connect the BuddyTag. You can connect more than one buddy tag to the app. The Icon will turn yellow when it is connected then you should test it.  To test your BuddyTag you simply press the panic button on the BuddyTag and the app on your phone should sound. 

From the app you can then adjust different settings, You can turn the alarms on or off, set a distance alarm, check the battery, get the last seen location and disconnect the BuddyTag. 

You always want to disconnect the BuddyTag when you are not using it. This shuts the BuddyTag button off so the battery will last longer. The batteries are not replaceable you just buy a new BuddyTag button that's why the come out of the wrist bands. The Bands are all reusable except for the disposable bands. The Silicone bands have a little pin the screws together to keep it on. Terry cloth one just slips on like a bracelet. The Velcro one Velcros on. The Disposable one has a plastic snap and must be cut off when you need to remove it.

How well it works: This is not a GPS device its not going to find your kids at long distances and it doesn't give you pin point location detection. But it does get you close to there last known location. The alert lets you know they are getting to far way so you can find them before they are lost. We tested this out both in a store and out side. We tried it out in Walmart the range is not as good in a place like that. Then again I don't want my child getting very far from me in a busy place like that any way. It sounds off when she started to get too far away. It did not really show her location in the store but I had the alert if she started moving away from me. We then took it out side and I let the girls run around. The last location part worked decent enough it showed the general location they were in. It how ever was not super accurate in rural area where there were no roads on the map it was a little hard to figure out where they were. The best part of it really is the Range Alert and the Water safety feature. It worked well enough when we were out and about and in crowed areas like festivals and the park. The Water Safety feature was also cool. It sounds when the BuddyTag is submerged in water. I didn't want to throw the girls into the river to test it so we just plunged them into the bath tub. My phone started alerting me very quickly. It would be handy if you have smaller children and you are out and about where there is a water source. Its not a replacement for watching your child but its a little extra something.

I found the BuddyTag to be worth the price it was handy and I can see if being great for smaller kids just starting to toddle around. I can also see it being handy for an elderly person who might tend to wonder. Both my girls thought the Silicone band was the most comfortable and they really loved the bright colors. My 8 year old said it was stylish and she didn't feel like a baby wearing it.