[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Tappity (YC S20) - Keeping kids entertain...
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Launch HN: Tappity (YC S20) - Keeping kids entertained with science
Hey HN -- I'm Chad, and I co-founded Tappity
(https://www.tappityapp.com) with my friend, Lawrence. We're
building a healthy alternative to Youtube that entertains and
educates kids (4-10) with interactive lessons--starting with
science! Tappity's story began ten years ago when I developed an
app for my Biology professor to teach kids about evolution. It was
my first time building a product for kids, so I learned a ton about
designing for an audience who couldn't read or sit still for very
long. Also, their brutally honest feedback was refreshing! We ended
up getting 20,000 downloads, and I learned kids _love_
interactions. After that great experience, I continued to create
apps for kids on the side for fun. About two years ago, parents
started paying for one of these apps. Kids loved a segment we had
shot on a whim at our friend's house, in which they could interact
with a real live science teacher. Parents were excited, too. We
gave them something engaging, fun, and educational for their kids,
which is shockingly rare. The sad reality is that 99% of kids apps
fall into three buckets: ad-riddled games, cheap & buggy ABC/123
apps, or YouTube. We wanted to do better. Shortly thereafter,
Lawrence and I quit our jobs (where we had met) to start Tappity!
We leaned into this idea of live-like experiences. We felt it'd
enrich screen time without sacrificing the fun. So, with Tappity,
kids don't just passively watch, they play along and direct our
live-action characters on screen. For example, you could tell Haley
--our version of Bill Nye--what she should do next in her science
experiment, and she would actually do what you say. Unlike
traditional TV programs or videos, where you know the person on
screen is talking to a million other people, Tappity makes it feel
like characters are interacting with _just_ you in real time. Turns
out, this format is super engaging. Best of all, kids don't feel
like they're learning--they tell their parents they 're hanging out
with Haley! So far, we've produced ~40 hours of original content,
and we're rapidly building out our library. While we shot much of
our content initially with an iPhone in my garage, we've now
graduated to filming with an actual crew at a studio in Los
Angeles! We're excited to share Tappity with the wider HN
community, especially those of you with younger kids. With many
families still spending a lot of time at home, we're hoping to make
at-home learning a bit more fun and bearable. You can download it
for free on the App Store [1]. Would love to hear what you think!
Chad, Lawrence, & Tanner P.S. We also just launched the first
online science fair for kids [2] hosted by Kari Byron from
Mythbusters to encourage families to do more science experiments at
home (and win prizes)! Check it out! [1]
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tappity-interactive-stories/...
[2] https://www.juniorsciencefair.com
Author : tappityapp
Score : 80 points
Date : 2020-09-09 17:31 UTC (5 hours ago)
| mncharity wrote:
| > teach kids about evolution
|
| The possibility of a children's picture book serving as
| immunization against misconceptions, BU's "How the Piloses
| Evolved Skinny Noses", seems intriguing.
|
| [1] reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud1Q_q4f-hQ
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUyVd1pO3nIh [2] paper
| https://www.bu.edu/cdl/files/2017/10/Emmons_et_al-2017-Journ...
| [3] press release https://www.bu.edu/federal/2017/09/29/new-book-
| by-bu-researc...
| [deleted]
| Zippogriff wrote:
| We just found this the other day! It seems great and my kid's
| really into it!
|
| But I tried to give you money to access more than the demo
| lessons and couldn't. Hit the 3-month sub on my kid's ipad, sent
| request to parent ipad (mine) to authorize, authorized it, and...
| nothing. No payment occurred, no access granted, and now even
| after a re-install that middle option and "restore" both seem to
| be non-functional. Can still select the other two, but I don't
| want those and anyway I'm not sure they'll do anything.
|
| [EDIT] I just went to try it again but I created an account a
| couple days ago in the process of trying to fix it (though it
| already had one, I think, but I have no idea how it got set up; I
| guess my kid must have just clicked through some things, so I
| replaced that nonsense with a real account) and it seems to have
| reset progress, so, to be allowed to try to pay, now I have to go
| through some lessons first, unless there's some secret way to get
| to the payment screen.
|
| Minor issue report uncovered in the process of the attempt: the
| app uses both portrait and landscape orientations depending on
| the view, but seems to hardcode which direction is "up" for both
| rather than letting them flip with the physical device
| orientation, which is annoying if, say, your device is connected
| to a charger and needs to sit a certain way. It doesn't even seem
| to use the current up/down orientation on initial render and then
| stick to that, which would at least be better than just having up
| and down hardcoded to specific sides of the screen.
|
| [EDIT 2] Made it through the free part of Human Body, confirmed,
| 3-month option is still not responding to touches at all.
| ltran wrote:
| Lawrence from Tappity here.
|
| Excited to hear that your kid is enjoying Tappity so far! Also,
| thanks for the feedback about the payment page. We'll be adding
| an access point from the Parents Menu soon.
|
| So sorry to hear about the bug, though. Would you mind emailing
| us at hey@tappityapp.com? Wanted to ask you a few questions to
| help us figure out what's going on.
| Zippogriff wrote:
| Sure, will do.
| mrkurt wrote:
| Oh this is great. My kids _love_ educational videos. I've been
| looking for a way to get them more access minus all the garbage
| on Youtube.
| tappityapp wrote:
| Awesome! Try out Tappity and let me know how it goes. Email
| hey@tappityapp.com with any feedback.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| shireboy wrote:
| Looks great, but why iOS only? Certainly this could be hosted
| online for kids on Chromebooks, laptops, etc.
| ltran wrote:
| Right on :) We're expanding to desktop in the coming months!
| [deleted]
| mgraczyk wrote:
| Great content, glad to see something for kids that is more useful
| than YouTube Poop Nursery Rhymes.
|
| I wonder if someday you could use automate some of the video
| using something like this Tennis video generator that was shared
| here yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24398474
| ltran wrote:
| Yes! It's astonishing how many views those types of videos get
| and how many downloads app developers would also get for
| producing apps with a similar vibe.
|
| Our advisor, Bjorn Jeffery, does a fantastic job breaking down
| the kids app market, and in this section, summarizes how
| developers must do better in his blog. [1] The entire four-
| parter is a great read. [2]
|
| As a team, we've actually talked about how technology can maybe
| one day _create_ content but we feel there 's still something
| very powerful about a real person talking that can't be
| replicated with technology yet. That being said, we are
| building technology that enables us to automate a lot of the
| interactive video production, which has been fun learning
| experience so far!
|
| [1] https://www.bjornjeffery.com/2019/06/20/the-kids-app-
| market-... [2] https://www.bjornjeffery.com/2019/05/31/the-
| kids-app-market-...
| tappityapp wrote:
| Thanks Michael!
| guillaumerose wrote:
| Looks good! Maybe it's time to translate the content? If so, I
| vote for French :)
| ltran wrote:
| Noted! :)
|
| We think we've created an experience that has universal appeal
| for almost all kids, so we'd love to expand to other languages
| in the future.
| robot wrote:
| This is the ultimate app idea for covid times parents, I will
| definitely check it out.
| ltran wrote:
| Awesome! Feel free to email us with any feedback at
| hey@tappityapp.com
|
| As awful as the situation is, it has certainly helped us
| connect with parents who really need a lot of help right now.
| But we built and designed Tappity long before COVID and we
| think it'll continue to be great for families long afterwards,
| too! :)
| mncharity wrote:
| Does anyone know of any efforts or fora encouraging innovation in
| the "scienceness" of content? I'm picturing a pipeline from
| science research, to exploratory/researchy content creation, to
| deliverable content creation, where the middle bit gets little
| attention. For examples...
|
| Most intro astronomy content, K thru undergrad, gets the color of
| the Sun either simply wrong, or handles it misleadingly.
| Resulting in even first-tier astronomy graduate students likely
| knowing it wrong. Clips from Tappity show false color photos and
| art of the Sun. Which if not handled carefully, is setting kids
| up for this morass of common misconceptions around Sun color.
| What might "handled carefully" look like? Good question. Do you
| know of any context where that gets discussed?
|
| Similarly, the Tappity "exploded" layers of Earth graphic[3] is
| variously misleading and aphysically colored (better than many).
| Which is pervasive for such graphics. Do you know of any
| community which might say "variants of this common graphic
| abound, variously wrong - let's put in the collaborative effort
| necessary to create one correct, and open license it"?
|
| Education content for kids often says the Sun warms the Earth.
| But that's only half the story, and I've never seen content which
| does the whole. Earth is doing a bbq roll between too hot Sun and
| too cold deep space. Even young kids might grasp the concept that
| with something uncomfortably hot, and another uncomfortably cold,
| you can attain comfort by alternating. But we don't say that.
| Does anyone know of a setting for "here is a commonly taught
| story that's incomplete - let's create exemplar content that
| fills it out"? Cold at night, at altitude, with cloudless skys,
| especially when dry... it's a story that's actionable, if not cut
| short.
|
| Chemistry education content is famously bad. Chem ed research
| describes it using adjectives like incoherent, leaving both
| teachers and students steeped in misconceptions. But now XR
| content is coming. And some of it is nifty. But much of it is the
| usual wretched, now in 3D.
|
| There seems a body of _badly_ needed effort and work, very poorly
| incentivized, that 's not getting well addressed. Do these
| examples bring to mind any efforts to address this need? Thanks!
|
| [1]
| https://www.facebook.com/480316135473139/videos/821231864714...
| https://www.facebook.com/tappityapp/photos/a.803595309811885...
| [3]
| https://www.facebook.com/tappityapp/photos/a.803595309811885...
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| Hey, we tried Tappity on my 7 year old and it became his
| preferred app for a while. He burned through all of the content
| in a matter of weeks.
|
| The little achievements and interactive bits were very effective
| at keeping him engaged. I'm not sure how much he's retaining, and
| for the multiple choice questions he seemed to just choose things
| randomly until he could proceed forward, but he definitely picked
| up at least a handful of random factoids that he'd tell us about
| later.
|
| I couldn't have been happier about his interest in that instead
| of Youtube Kids videos. So much content for kids is just dumb
| stuff that is focused on keeping kids' eyeballs but not on
| anything else. The educational apps seem to be mostly focused on
| random simple math problems or spelling. Science-focused content
| for young kids has been practically non-existent, so we tried
| Tappity because it was pretty much the only option. We were very
| pleasantly surprised.
|
| Thanks for making engaging content that I don't feel bad about
| exposing my kids to. Please make more content.
| ltran wrote:
| Thank you for your kind words! We're working super hard right
| now on getting our newest form of content live soon, and we're
| excited to share it. It's a lot closer to the live-like
| experience we envisioned originally, plus we're introducing new
| characters!
|
| Also, a great point about kids swiping randomly in order to
| proceed forward. One thing we're getting better at is
| explaining why an answer may not be right, so even if a kid
| chooses an answer randomly, they'll learn why that's not the
| correct answer.
| nihilanth wrote:
| My kid loved it! Great job!
| tappityapp wrote:
| Yay! Thank you! Any topics that they would especially like
| added?
| vtuulos wrote:
| I just installed it for my daughter. Most educational apps are
| quite boring but Tappity was immediately engaging, thanks to
| genuinely funny videos and well designed content. Great job!
|
| Quick user feedback: My daughter tried a course about building an
| animal. She made choices that produced surprising results ("the
| eyes are too ugly!") and wanted to go back but she couldn't
| figure out how - there's no clear back / restart button.
| ltran wrote:
| Well, you can't restart evolution! ;)
|
| Joking aside, thanks for the feedback and excited to hear your
| daughter's enjoying Tappity. We're working on improving
| navigation in our next iteration, taking into consideration
| usage behavior like kids who may want to pause or restart!
| sharemywin wrote:
| Any plan for android support?
| kyriakos wrote:
| I came here to ask the same thing. There's a mailing list for
| the Web / Android version at the bottom of the page. I will
| definitely forget about it until then.
| tappityapp wrote:
| Thanks for the question! We will be launching a web version in
| November 2020 and an Android version summer 2021.
| leomayleomay wrote:
| not available in New Zealand market :(
| leomayleomay wrote:
| Unavailable in New Zealand market? :(
| tappityapp wrote:
| It should be available in New Zealand. Can you try searching
| "Tappity" on the app store?
| spiderfarmer wrote:
| Any plan for other languages?
| ltran wrote:
| We'd love to in the future! We have quite a few kids around the
| world using Tappity, and it's still honestly surreal when we
| get fan mail from kids in Vietnam or Oman, for example.
|
| But at the moment, we're focused on making the Tappity
| experience and product as amazing as possible first before
| expanding to other languages.
| ultrasounder wrote:
| This is so cool!. This could be huge for home-schooled kids like
| mine. He is very interested in science and building legos. I am
| sure he will dig the Machines. Also thanks for sharing the link
| to junior science fair. Keep calm and science on!. Good luck with
| Your venture and I sure do hope You guys go onto become an
| immense platform for STEM education just like KA.
| ltran wrote:
| Thank you for the kind words! We admire KA a lot. They've
| helped so many families pull through during the pandemic.
|
| Also, as a team, we're really invested in sparking scientific
| curiosity beyond the screen as well, so it'd be great to have
| your kids participate in the Junior Science Fair!
| p2hari wrote:
| I do not see it in the Denmark store. It says KS1 science and not
| the latest one.
| ltran wrote:
| That's the correct app! It's named differently in that region.
| rapind wrote:
| Looks great! I'd use it with my kids if it was in arcade (I don't
| install anything with ads or in app purchases, but I'm sure I'm a
| minority)
| ltran wrote:
| Totally understandable! We've spent a ton of time talking to
| parents, and not including ads was one of the first (and
| easiest) decisions we've made. The other was always offering a
| set of free and re-playable content that we expand every time
| we have a release, so families can experience Tappity before
| they ever have to commit to purchasing a subscription.
| jain_chirag04 wrote:
| Minimum supported os is ios 13 :( Couldn't install it on my old
| ipad which is stuck on ios 12.
| ltran wrote:
| Ugh, I'm sorry. We are expanding to web fairly soon, though, so
| hopefully you can give it a try when it's live there!
| GraffitiTim wrote:
| My 3 year old daughter really enjoyed this! Very nicely done.
| tappityapp wrote:
| So glad to hear! Thank you. :)
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(page generated 2020-09-09 23:00 UTC)