TinyTap: Kids' Learning Games Reviews

by Theoilwhisper

TinyTap looked appealing at first glance, and a friend ended up purchasing a subscription for my daughter for her birthday years ago. Well, TinyTap ended up being a complete fluke. There was too much pressure to purchase other things, ads, and pop ups. She would get frustrated when trying to play a single game. Anyways, well here we are almost 3 years later (the subscription the friend bought under her name was only for ONE YEAR) and they randomly get my Venmo account info and charge my venmo card $50+ for who in the world knows what. We didn’t use TinyTap after the first week and again nothing was under my name, my daughters name, our apple id’s, nothing. So I have no idea how they got my venmo card number now being 2-3 YEARS later, very sketchy. I got no emails about renewing or canceling, this app does not show up on my apple ID or any other accounts— and I even went to redownload TinyTap and “log in” but when I put in my email it said, start your free trial here— meaning no current account. The robotic emails throughout customer support try to blame you/me for “not canceling my trial” to which would mean, i’d have to have one in the first place and I didn’t. And then I think that would mean I would have received other charges or even notices of cancel/renew over the past 2-3 years and none of that either. Just one charge today, $50 for a subscription renewal from 2019…very shady and not a great app to begin with. Just dont!!! :)

by Naty0818

I had TinyTap for a year I didn’t cancel after a 1 week free trial so I stayed with TinyTap for one year I didn’t like TinyTap I stopped using it so I forgot about it then I was charge for another year which I didn’t want I asked that I wanted a refund they said OK we will give me your money back within 5 to 7 days it has been a month I have messaged them like 10 times and I get no answer so I filed a complain with my bank and hopefully they can get me my money back so if you get TinyTap be careful when you want to cancel because they make it extremely hard to cancel they send you to iTunes you won’t find it in iTunes and now you’re stuck with TinyTap and the only way to maybe or hopefully solve your problem is by getting in contact with your bank and seeing if they can help I do not recommend TinyTap at all like I said they will give you a hard time canceling and they will take your money and tell you they will refund your money and never do so I have The emails to prove it

by Sheenasheen24

Such a shame we have to put at least one start to leave a review... I REALLY wish I would’ve read further reviews before downloading TinyTap. I’ve never had any other issues with apps when signing up for free trials and canceling it before the week was over. I downloaded this and cancelled it the same day once I read that someone, a few people actually cancelled and were still charged the ANNUAL cost and for some reason which I am still trying to figure out I was charged this ridiculous annual fee as well. I think this is absolutely disgusting and I want my money back! I have emails stating my subscription would be ending by April 9th and it shows under my Apple ID expired so I thought I was good to go until April 10th I saw I was charged. Completely disgusted

by Bangbangbarbie

I’m not sure how TinyTap is rated at 4 stars when the first word I heard it say was “ Doggie” that is not a word, and definitely not something I want an educational app to encourage my child to say. Fault number two I noticed within the first five minutes, TinyTap gave me a grade because I moved through it too quickly. Given the lack of challenge within the content, I should have moved through it quickly and so would’ve my child. TinyTap is for children who don’t need to be challenged in any way and are behind on the learning curve. Also there is no reason to give grades and if I have to pay for TinyTap then every portion of it should be unlocked. My children go to school to grade themselves they don’t need an app to do that for them. Starfall is better. I downloaded this because I was excited about the offline play but I see TinyTap is just another pay for play game that if not monitored will rot your kids brains.

by Jacq91382

I received this email first: “when I saw your feedback, I decided to write you a personal email, hoping to talk and learn from your experience for us to improve. Do you mind sharing more with me?”
I responded questioning this “feedback” as I had provided none. I didn’t get a specific answer. Instead, this:
“How are you?
I would love to see your little one in action! Some parents send me videos of their kid playing, so I can see what they’re experiencing. Others I Skype-call them and play live together. Even though I think it goes without saying, everything is confidential and will not be shared or published with anyone outside of my team.
As a token of my appreciation for the feedback, I will gift a FREE annual subscription to this app ($66 value) to your account. I am attaching my parent manual for more details about the videos.”

by Yorkydog13

I kinda like the little games but you can only play so much until the sign up screen pops up. It doesn’t even have an exit button to push to return to play some more games. I have to close TinyTap and then get lucky that the sign up screen doesn’t auto pop. My kids love playing these games, but now they are unable to. So why can we play just the few free games anymore?

Also it is hard to navigate. Not really user friendly. I get confused as to why 5-6yr old stuff pops up for my selected 2-3 yr old. I seem to have to navigate in the separated subjects to get the right age group; but then the whole sign up for free trial pops up again and the screen is stuck. You can’t exit that screen. So repeat process. Close app and get lucky to play more before free trial, sign up page appears.

by Madeline_harvey

I chose the 2-3 year age range as I have a 2 year old. It is honestly way too difficult for him. I basically sit there and have to hold his finger and do the games, since his dexterity is not necessarily what the games require. It causes a lot of frustration him, because he is not touching the screen absolutely perfectly or may drag his finger to go the the object rather than “tap” and it doesn’t register what he is doing. I really feel the games are much more geared towards 3 year olds. They are much more advanced than I would expect a 2 year old to understand, it’s actually weird how they do it. I have already been charged the almost $70 and even though I may purchase next year, I don’t want to spend that for games he cannot do on his own.

by Khanhsten

I signed up for the 1-week trial and cancelled this before the week was over. Or at least I thought I did, until I was charged for the full year. I logged into the website to cancel since going through TinyTap wasn’t working (glitch on their part), but I’m now told I need to cancel through iTunes. Neither this app or iTunes is willing to give me a refund.

The games are okay, some are better than others. As others said, the navigation is not very intuitive and needs some work. It took me awhile to figure out how to download games to play offline. Even their own help articles are not accurate on how to do this.

Im pretty disappointed with their customer service. I contacted them immediately after being charged. I understand it was partly my mistake for not knowing how to cancel the trial, but if I go through TinyTap and hit the “cancel subscription” button, you would think that would...cancel the subscription. Reputable companies would understand this mishap and refund my money.

***
After writing this review, they have agreed to refund my money through PayPal. I may give TinyTap another shot if they clean up the UI and curate the content a bit.

by MORNINGDEER

I have a 2 year old who loved some of the games but it’s extremely hard to navigate, even for me. There’s no set order you do the activities in for his age group. We just had to pick random ones because there would be two for 2 year olds and the next one in line is for 5-6 year olds. It was just crazy. Also, you do realize that toddlers don’t always hold the phone without touching the screen, correct? My son would get so frustrated because even though he was picking the correct answer it wouldn’t register if a smidge of any other skin contact was on the screen. He would have to sit with me so I could move his other hand off of the screen so it would register. And when he had to drag something to it’s right spot he would get it pretty close but when he would let go it would go back to where he grabbed it from and say he got the answer wrong! It’s not teaching kids, it’s frustrating them! One more thing, the voice overs are terrible. Like, really bad. Some are ok, some seem like they don’t speak very good English and others sound like they were recorded in a warehouse with all of the echos! Please get it together.

by Kssskm

I got this for my 4 yr old. We did the 7 days free and now I am a paid customer. Some fit eh game’s still does not load. Also it shows the same game’s everyday. There is not new content, considering the fact that 4 yr kids have very little attention span and can go thru a lot in a day. I wish there was new content everyday. As the kids finish a particular game or level it needs to auto update to next game / level. For a price tag this big it is unacceptable that some stuff does not load and there is so much repetition of same stuff. I might not renew.

by Les5005

So far, We like the majority of TinyTap . Some of the chosen wording for certain items are too difficult for a three year old.
When working on the heart puzzle, it did not let them finish, so that was disappointing for a young one.
During the flash card / word match, (A card flashes up and a voice will give either the correct or incorrect word), I cannot understand what the voice is saying at times. And the word is so similar to the correct, a three to four year old may not understand. I.e.— gog for dog or cack for cat. When your using from a phone it’s not the best word selection. And for young ones, it’s so close to the actual word.

by Msbossmysugarlips

I downloaded TinyTap on IPhone X and on our IPad Mini2 and with each device experienced a glitch when select an activity the option screen for the annual monthly or try it for free screen appears I figure no biggie and select the X on the top right and and click on the refresh button when you try to input your answers the screen just freezes up worse kids think they are doing something wrong so I try to click on the refresh button again hoping it would clear up but screen remains frozen so only thing I could think of to do is to exit activity and try another one so when you do the very same thing happens. I see great potential and it captivated my kids attention but as soon as they could not move foward they lost interest.

by MrBojangle

As a parent, the concept sounds great. But my initial experience with TinyTap was really poor on iPhone X. First of all, the resolution is for an older iPhone and the UI got stuck a couple of times within the first 5 minutes of use. The subscription pop up is really annoying for a first time user who just wants to understand how TinyTap works. I tapped on the playground detective and the subscription thing pops up, I close it and go to the learning plan tab and tap start. What do ya know it starts with playground detective. There’s no instructions so I tap around the screen a few times and the subscription pops up again. I close it once more and the game is frozen. In that moment I decide TinyTap is broken on my phone. Let me know when it’s a normal experience on the latest iPhone.

by ToriePr

TinyTap would be absolutely great if the teachers were all using the same diction. We are from southern part of the USA so when my 4 year old is trying to finish a task with someone from Australia or any other place where their diction is not distinguishable it makes it extremely frustrating and hard for him to figure out what they are asking. One teacher from Australia I believe provides the souls for L and sounds like she’s giving the sound for U instead. You all need to revamp TinyTap especially since we pay for it to help our children grow mental. Oh and some of the audio exercises when the child has to repeat does not accept what the child says when they are repeating. That is disheartening because my son repeats the words perfectly and is told he is incorrect.

by Katz Power

My two year old loves TinyTap. The option to filter by age allows me to find games just challenging enough to help him learn. I love how many options there are, seemingly endless.

The only flaw I see is while playing on our kindle fire many games will freeze- requiring me to close TinyTap completely and restart it. Which is not awesome with an impatient two year old. This is the only app i have the currently does this on the tablet. Also occasionally games will not advance to the next screen automatically and then I have to help click “next” or my child get frustrated.

by Myrishka

I absolutely love TinyTap for my 3 year old. She started playing it just before she turned two and has done great with it. I would like to continue using, but I am getting tired at how often it freezes. Her individual pathway won't load for days at a time but the game search page will. I want her to be able to keep going with the curriculum it sets for where she is at, but I'm not always able to reach it and it's getting frustrating. I haven't decided if TinyTap is worth keeping without it..

by Micmarmic

I really like TinyTap for as far as learning goes. My children find it very easy to use and really seem to like it. My only complaint so far is that I have it set up as a family account by can’t seem to figure out how to get my two boys set up under my account. Their ages are 5 & 9 so I keep having them login with my user name but I have to keep changing the age preferences. I also am not able to track how they are doing by doing it this way. Still trying to figure it out but frustrated that there isn’t a clear way to do this.

by Adnanisguilty

My son is 2 and we’ve been looking for more ways to help him learn and grow. Well, I came across TinyTap and figured, why not give it a shot. I love how all of the games are designed with learning and children in mind. We have tried so many toddler games that were just sort of meh. My son has fallen in love with TinyTap . Since using it he has been able to recognize more colors, he knows quite a bit of the alphabet, and his vocabulary has grown. We do not rely solely on these games as we have puzzles, flash cards, etc that we also use. But these games have been beyond helpful and he actually enjoys them!

by Ape0803

I’m a parent of 4 daughters, their ages range from 2-18. When I ran across TinyTap for my 2 year old, I figured I’ll take advantage of the free trial and cancel when the trials over. I handed her the phone and let her play while I cooked, 5 min went by and she hadn’t called me to switch her game, after 15 min she was still interested in what she was playing and was having no problems maneuvering around on TinyTap . So I had to sit down and watch her, I’m very impressed with the simplicity of the games but the endless amount of information being taught with each mini game. After watching my daughter play the 7.99 is definitely worth paying each month considering the lessons she’s learning from TinyTap. My 6 & 7 year olds have yet to play since my 2 year old loves it!

by Vjanik

My son has dyslexia and is a visual learner. I was looking for an app that I could take his printed study guides and create an interactive study guide so he can master the material independently. Tiny tap is that app! Studying with this app has helped him to maintain his A average, improved his self-esteem, and how he feels towards school. Dyslexia is more prevalent than you would think, one in five students have some form of it. It is considered to be a specific learning disability, however these kids are enabled to learn, just in a different way!

by AyeMarquis

I downloaded TinyTap because the ad I saw on instagram looked nice for my 1 yr. Once I download TinyTap I saw I had a few days before I would be charged so I figured I would test TinyTap to see if I wanted to commit to the price. While unlike what the ad made it seem, that TinyTap was for children of all ages, it apparently is for children 2 and up. Not a problem but it would have been nice to know this before I signed up for the trail. I go to the setting and click subscription so ai can cancel and it takes me to iTunes where it doesnt show and information that ai had signed up at all. I search online for the website so ai can cancel and that was even more confusing. the login I made it kept saying was wrong and I have to do forgot password over and over again and once inside it was confusing on how to cancel. Then I received a receipt on March 29 at 11:55pm showing I was charged already when my trail was to end on March 30. I am giving this product a one star rating until I get a refund at which point I will update the review and give one on my child's experience with TinyTap , but at the moment very unhappy with this company.