TaleTykes runs in a web browser, so there is no app to install and nothing to keep up to date. It works on a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop computer or a Chromebook, and one account works on all of them.
The devices we check
These are the devices and browsers we test TaleTykes on.
| Device | Browser |
|---|---|
| iPad | Safari |
| iPhone | Safari |
| Chromebook | Chrome |
| Android tablet | Chrome |
| Fire tablet | Silk |
| Desktop or laptop computer | Chrome or Firefox |
A few things are worth knowing:
- On a computer or a Chromebook with a keyboard, the right and left arrow keys turn the pages of a book, and the space bar starts and pauses reading aloud.
- On a Fire tablet, Amazon's own children's mode can block the web browser entirely. If TaleTykes will not open inside it, use the browser outside that mode.
- The pages you use as a grown-up work on a phone as well as a larger screen. On a phone, your menu is along the bottom, with "More" for everything else.
Keeping it on your home screen
If you would rather TaleTykes opened like an app, use your browser's own option for adding a page to the home screen. It then opens in a window of its own, without the browser's address bar.
If your child's sign-in screen then says "A grown-up needs to set this device up", sign in from the home screen icon and press "Set this device up". See Setting up a device for your child.
Setting a device up for your child
You can use your own pages on any device you sign in on. Your child can only read on a device you have set up for reading, and a device is set up for one account at a time. The setting belongs to the browser it was made in, so a second browser on the same tablet needs setting up as well.
Reading without the internet
Making a book needs an internet connection, and so does reading one most of the time. A book can also be kept on a device, so it opens with no connection at all, which helps on a journey.
- Your child keeps a book with the download button in the top left corner of its cover, under "Books you made" on their Home or in "My books".
- A device holds up to 8 kept books at a time, shared by everyone who reads on it. Keeping another takes off the one opened least recently.
- A book has to be kept while there is still a connection.
- Where a browser cannot keep books, the button does not appear.
Keeping books on a tablet to read offline has the details.
Sound
The reading voice and a book's sounds play through the device's own speaker or headphones, so if your child hears nothing, check the device's volume first.
When a book has no recorded voice, we use the device's own voice, which sounds different from one device to another. On a device with no voice at all, the book says "Let's read this one with our eyes." Pip's own lines are only read aloud when "Let Pip speak" is on; see Pip's voice.
No sound, or the highlight does not follow goes through the other checks, and A page will not load helps when a page does not open at all.
If TaleTykes does not work on your device, write to us at support@taletykes.com with the device and browser you use.