Parents' guide
Tumbly is built so you set things up once and your kids can explore on their own. Here's where every control lives and what it does.
The grown-up area
Tap the lock in the corner of the app. You'll see a parent check: "Grown-ups: type four, nine, one" (the numbers change each time), which is easy for adults and hard for young kids. You can set a 4-digit parent PIN instead in Grown-ups → Settings. The parent check also appears before anything that leaves the app, any purchase, and before the phone asks for location or microphone permission.
Kid profiles
- Add up to 5 kids in Grown-ups → Kids. Each has a nickname, an avatar and an age range (3–5, 6–8 or 9–12). Use a nickname, not a full name.
- The age range picks story length and vocabulary, and turns off features that aren't right for the youngest kids.
- Delete a profile at any time. Its island, stickers and history are deleted with it.
Controls you can turn on and off
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Live AI questions ("hold to ask") | Kids hold a button and ask a question out loud; a narrator answers. Off hides the button. | Off until you turn it on |
| Tell me about here | Makes a brand-new story about wherever the car is. | Off until you turn it on |
| Generated stories | Adds AI-written, fact-checked stories for places our team hasn't written yet. Off means hand-written stories only. | On |
| Narrators | Choose which voices your kids can pick. | All kid-friendly voices |
| Daily time limit | Stops new stories after a set number of minutes each day. A story in progress always finishes. | No limit |
| Location | Lets stories start by themselves as you drive past places. | Asked the first time you start a trip |
Right now, before these switches arrive in the next app update: turning off microphone access for Tumbly in your phone's settings turns off live questions, and turning off location access switches RoadStory to the map and simulated drives.
How location is used
- Location is used only during a trip, only while the app is open, and only to start the story for the place you're passing and to find stories nearby. An on-screen indicator shows whenever location is in use.
- We don't store where you drove. Our servers only see a rounded area (about 5 km) to find stories, plus the spot where you ask a question or request "Tell me about here".
- Turn it off any time: iPhone, Settings → Tumbly → Location → Never. Android, Settings → Apps → Tumbly → Permissions → Location → Don't allow. RoadStory still works with the map and simulated drives.
How live AI questions work
- Recording happens only while the button is held. A glowing ring shows it's listening.
- The recording is turned into text and deleted. The question goes to an AI model with instructions to answer in a few short, kind, true sentences for a young child; answers are checked by a safety filter before they're spoken.
- Tumbly doesn't remember the question afterwards, can't hold a conversation, and has no personality that pretends to be a friend. Each answer stands alone.
- Free plan: 3 questions a day. Tumbly Family: 50 a day.
In the car
- Put the phone where the driver can't reach or see it, and keep the volume low enough to hear the road.
- Back-seat screens: open tumbly.ai/t on a tablet or a Tesla's rear screen and type the 4-digit code from the phone. Codes change every trip. See Tumbly in a Tesla.
Subscriptions
Buying always needs the parent check. Cancel any time in your app store's subscription settings, or in Grown-ups → Plan for web purchases. See our terms for renewals and refunds.
Your family's data
Read the Children's Privacy Notice, request a copy of your data at tumbly.ai/data-request, or delete your account. Questions: privacy@tumbly.ai.