Fitbit Ace LTE now lets kids use Google Pay for smartwatch tap-to-pay

Summary

• The Fitbit Ace LTE is a top smartwatch choice for kids, with great parental controls and features.
• Google Pay is teaming up with GoHenry and Greenlight for financial learning, offering tap-to-pay functionality on the wearable with either brand of kid-friendly debit card.
• In another update coming soon to the Ace LTE, the School Time feature is getting a Lunch Break toggle for flexibility in usage.

August marks back-to-school season, and while it may be daunting for some and exciting for others, there are ways for parents to make the time as comfortable for their kids as possible.

We recently reviewed a smartwatch that can help parents foster healthy habits in their kids, and it appears that the wearable is gaining new features just in time for kids to return to school.

The Fitbit Ace LTE is a wearable on every parent’s wishlist, not for themselves but for their children. In our review of the watch, we found that it offers easy-to-setup parental controls, location tracking, texting, and calling, while effectively encouraging kids to exercise via games, rewards, and daily goals. Google is now introducing a few new tricks to the wearable to help kids inside and outside the classroom.

GoHenry and Greenlight are popular debit card services with cards specifically designed for families and kids. They’re designed to give kids a head start at learning financial skills, like saving money, transaction limits, allowances, and more. Kids’ cards from both services can now be added to the Fitbit Ace LTE “to tap to pay anywhere Google Pay is accepted.

Elsewhere, Google is also partnering with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to bring more health content to Fitbit Ace LTE’s Daily Quests. These quests include tasks like having to complete a specific number of steps or climbing a certain number of stairs. While Google didn’t detail the new content, it did say that parents and kids can “keep an eye out for interesting new tasks and challenges in Daily Quests.”

A sweet update to School Time

Google introduced the School Time feature with the Fitbit Ace LTE earlier this year, before expanding it to Android devices last week. The feature essentially shows a stripped-down version of the smartwatch (and smartphones now) during preset timings—school timing, for example, and hence the name. In addition to limited app support during School Time, parents can also choose to permit calls or texts from specific contacts when the feature is enabled. Google is now making the feature a tad bit more flexible by adding a Lunch Break toggle, which lets parents set a predetermined time during the day when the School Time feature gets disabled, essentially allowing kids to use their watches during recess.

Later this year, the tech giant also aims to introduce a feature that would let kids add their siblings as contacts on the wearable, making it easier for the two (or more) to “communicate and coordinate with each other — like if they want to meet up after school.”

If you’re looking to pick up a Fitbit Ace LTE, it would be wise to wait a few more days, Google has indicated that the wearable will be $30 off on the Google Store starting Sunday, August 11.