Support

Getting started

What age is this for?

From two years old. The app is built so that a child who cannot read yet can play without help: buttons are pictures, and instructions are spoken aloud.

Older children are covered too. The later games include first sums, letters and their sounds, a small piano and a working circuit board, and the levels in every game keep going until they are genuinely challenging for a six or seven year old.

Does my child need to be able to read?

No. Nothing anywhere in the game requires reading. The only written text is on the parent screens.

Which languages does it speak?

English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch. That is everything a child hears, not only the parent screens.

You can also give a child a second language, and the game will then ask some rounds in it. An answer spoken in either language counts. The microphone itself still listens in the main language, because a recognizer told to expect one language and given another does not do a slightly worse job, it fails.

Do I need an account or an internet connection?

Neither. The game is fully playable offline with no account at all. Signing in is optional and exists only so progress can move between devices.

Parent controls

How do I open the Parent Dashboard?

Tap the settings button on the home screen. You will see three numbers written out as words and a keypad to type them on. Young children cannot get past this; you will clear it in a couple of seconds. One unlock lasts for the rest of your visit.

How do I limit how long my child plays?

Parent Dashboard, then Profile. Set a daily limit for each child. If you have entered a birth month the app will suggest a length for that age, but the choice is yours.

The limit counts across the whole day rather than per session, so closing the app and reopening it does not give your child more time. When the limit is reached they see a sleeping octopus rather than anything that looks like a failure, and you can grant extra minutes or switch to another child's profile.

Can two children share one tablet?

Yes. Give each of them a profile, and stars, levels and the daily limit are all kept per child.

Switching between them is the one grown-up-looking action that is deliberately not behind the gate: a four year old has to be able to become themselves again without fetching an adult. Creating, editing and deleting a profile all are behind it.

Can I hide games my child is not ready for?

Yes. The app already hides games that are too advanced for your child's age, and you can turn any individual game on or off yourself in the Parent Dashboard.

How do I turn the microphone off?

It is off unless you turned it on. It lives in the Parent Dashboard behind the gate, and you can switch it back off at any time. Your child can still play every game: tapping is the answer everywhere, and speaking is only ever a second way of giving it.

Sound and speech

There is no sound on my iPhone or iPad

Check the side switch, or Silent mode in Control Centre. On Apple devices that switch can mute a game even with the volume turned up, and since every instruction here is spoken, a silent app is close to an unplayable one.

If the switch is not it, check that sound has not been turned off in the Parent Dashboard, and that the volume is up while the app is actually open.

The spoken voice sounds different from before

The recorded voice is downloaded separately for each language from the Parent Dashboard. If it has not been downloaded, the app uses your device's built in speech instead. Everything is still read aloud either way.

My child spoke the answer and it was marked wrong

Background noise and a very quiet voice both make recognition harder, and a two year old is not reliably either loud or clear. Voice answers are optional and tapping always works, so switching them off in the Parent Dashboard costs nothing.

If you have added a second language, the answer counts in either one. The microphone still listens in the main language, so a word said in the second is understood less reliably than one said in the first.

Devices and purchases

How do I move everything to a new phone or tablet?

Sign in with a Google account in the Parent Dashboard on both devices. Profiles, stars and settings then travel between them. That is the only thing signing in does, which is why the game is perfectly usable without it.

The purchase does not travel that way. It belongs to the app store account that paid rather than to a child's profile, so use Restore on the new device instead.

I paid for the full version but another device still shows it locked

Open the Parent Dashboard on the second device and choose Restore.

Make sure that device is signed in to the same Apple or Google account that made the purchase. A different store account on a shared family tablet looks exactly like never having bought it.

The browser demo lost my progress

Progress in the browser demo is kept in that browser only. Clearing site data, a private window, or opening it on a different device all start it fresh. The app on a phone or tablet keeps its progress properly.

Your data

• Delete a profile. Profiles, then Manage, then the bin icon. This removes that child from the device, and from the cloud if you had signed in.
• Reset progress. Parent Dashboard, then Settings. Clears stars and levels for the child who is currently playing.
• Uninstall the app. Removes everything held on the device.

If anything remains that you want erased, email the address above and it will be deleted. Full detail is in the privacy policy.

Reporting a problem with the content

If something in the app is wrong, please say so. A word pronounced oddly, a clumsy translation, or a picture that does not match what is being said are all worth reporting, and they are difficult to spot from the inside.