Safe Messaging Apps to Use With Your Grandkids

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As a grandparent, you want to stay in touch with your grandchildren as much as you can. However, this can get a bit tricky when you don’t live in the same place. Sure, you can schedule 

phone calls, but it’s easy for busy life schedules to get in the way, and throw off your call plans. One of the best ways to communicate with your grandchildren is through messaging apps for grandparents. These are apps that allow you to communicate with your grandchildren in a variety of ways, whether it be through text messages, emojis, video sharing, or games and puzzles. If you’re looking for new, effective, and safe ways to communicate with your grandchildren on a more regular basis, read on for some of the best apps for grandparents on the market. 

Text Messaging Apps for Grandparents

If your grandchild is of reading and writing age, it might be easiest to communicate with them via texting-based app. Texting apps are especially great for kids who are old enough to have a tablet, but have yet to reach the tween/teen years of needing a phone to communicate. You can install a text messaging app of your choice on your phone, and have your grandchildren’s parents install the same app on their table so you can easily communicate with them. With a text messaging app, you can send messages throughout the day to your favorite little one, so you two can stay as connected as possible. Just be sure to brush up on your emoji vocab, as kids are big fans of using emoticons in order to communicate! 

Many texting apps for grandparents also come with the ability to send pictures, so your grandchildren can send photos of things like their first day at school, or a recent art or science project that they completed. Some apps allow you to even send hand drawn messages to each other (this is typically done with a stylus or wand attachment you can pair with your phone and the app that you’re using). With hand drawn messages, you and your grandchild can do a creative activity together, even when miles apart. 

Video Messaging Apps for Grandparents

If your grandchild isn’t of texting age yet, or prefers to talk on the phone with you, consider a video messaging app. Video messaging apps are similar to text messaging apps, but allow you to send videos back and forth instead. Video messaging apps are great for recording birthday and holiday greetings, as well as recording short videos to wish your grandchild good luck on the day of a big event. Video messaging apps allow you to send longer video messages than most other messaging apps do, so you can record longer events to share with your grandchild, like a video of a concert that you went to, or a video of you reading them a bedtime story. Plus, you can easily save your video content from most video messaging apps, so you can look back on your grandchild’s sweet greetings if you’re ever in need of a pick-me-up. 

Puzzle Game Apps for Grandparents

Another great way to stay in touch with your grandchildren is through the use of puzzle game apps that you can play together. For instance, if your grandchild is a big vocab fan, you could play a word search or crossword puzzle game together. Or, if your grandchild is a pop culture trivia fan, you could play together on a trivia app, and test just how much you both know about a particular subject.

What Apps for Grandparents Should I Be Wary Of? 

Of course, there are a number of apps that you should keep an eye out to not use with your grandchildren. When it comes to text and video messaging apps, you should make sure that your grandchild is only messaging you and other friends and family members, and has a private account that doesn’t accept messages or friend requests from strangers. For puzzle game apps, you’ll want to be cautious of apps with in-app purchases, which require you to buy certain things in the game. If unmonitored, there’s a chance that your grandchild could rack up in app purchases for a costly fee without knowing the consequences. As with anything you do online, be aware of the security and financial features of the apps that you use with your grandchild. 

In Conclusion

Using different apps is a great way for grandparents to stay in touch with their grandchildren. If your grandchild is of writing and reading age, you might want to use a text messaging app for easy, frequent communication. You can also use video messaging apps to share videos of holiday greetings and important life events. Lastly, you can use puzzle game apps to keep both you and your grandchild’s mind sharp. What apps do you love to use to connect with your grandchildren?

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