Traveling parents and distant relatives know how frustrating it can be to communicate with the kids in their lives while battling technology and timezones. Phone calls are clumsy, video chats are technically challenging, and while text messaging is perfect for short attention spans, giving a member of the Yo Gabba Gabba set a smartphone is a great way to run up a $952 bill on Candy Crush. Enter Toymail, a startup that has created a kind of intergenerational Twitter that connects adults and kiddos through talking toys.
>The goal was to provide small doses of communication.
Toymail consists of two components—a roster of five quirky plastic animals that connect to the web via Wi-Fi and an iPhone app that allows adults to record voicemail messages. The messages are passed through audio processing filters on Toymail's servers so it sounds like the child's companion animal is delivering the message, though senders also have the option of having their voice come out of the device untouched.
The goal isn't to read a child a bedtime story or to have a mailbox-shaped pig act as an avatar during that all-important T-ball game, but to provide small doses of communication throughout the day. "It wasn't about missing milestones," says Toymail co-founder Gauri Nanda, "but missing the daily interaction we would have."
Nanda has previously launched a hardware product called Clocky, a passive-aggressive alarm clock that wheels away from you when you try to press snooze, but for this project she partnered with long time friend Audry Hill. Hill has no product development experience, yet brings expertise that only a stay-at-home mother of three could deliver.
For instance, the creatures will convey message to kids only between 6am and 9pm, so a message sent from a European relative won't mess up the carefully planned bedtime ritual of a kid in California. Instead of cold, mechanical pings alerting kids when a new message is available, the Toymail menagerie growls, whinnies, and snorts. "We're creating another messaging system," says Nanda. "But this one goes through toys, so it's got to be playful."
For a generation weaned on iPhones, learning the $55 toy's two-button UI was a cinch and the little tykes were constantly suggesting new features during play tests. Some ideas, like having the toy characters address the kids by name, made it into the product while more off-the-wall aesthetic direction was filed for future consideration. "One child suggested we make the characters combinations of animals, like a half eel, half antelope," says Nanda.
>The Toymail menagerie growls, whinnies, and snorts.
A striking aspect of the Toymail system is how little it does. In an age where Toys 'R' Us is selling Android tablets to kids, a two-button, screenless toy seems like a throwback to the era of Teddy Ruxpin and Furbies. The simplicity is very much by design. "Toys that work with apps are an emerging technology, yet most still feel overly complex to parents," says Nanda. "We spent a year exploring everything that Toymail could be, and then another 6 months peeling off layers until we had exposed only the essential elements."
Despite the cute appearance and clever UI innovations, the question is if we really need to start kids on the quest for inbox zero before they reach the first grade? "Our goal wasn't to create email for babies!" says Nanda. "We're pretty sensitive to giving kids more stuff they don't need and we're taking them away from screens and phones. We're not putting kids to work. Toymails are fun and loving voice messages sent from friends and family."
Toymail is raising funds on Kickstarter until December 2nd and will ship in time for Christmas.
