Support — Plain and Simple Toddler
Questions people actually ask. If yours is not here, write to help@plainandsimple.app and a person will answer.
Can I stop my child leaving the app?
Partly with the lock in this app, and properly with a feature your iPhone or iPad already has.
The lock in the app hides every button — the way out, the settings, the category picker — so a child cannot tap their way out of the activity. Tap the padlock to switch it on. To get back, press and hold the circle in the top corner for two seconds; a ring fills as you hold so you can see it working. A short tap does nothing at all, which is deliberate: anything that responds becomes a game.
It does not stop a child swiping up to go home. No third-party app can. Apple does not let one turn on the setting that would, and an app that implied otherwise would be misleading you about your own device.
Guided Access does stop them, and it takes about a minute to set up once:
- Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access → turn it on.
- Tap Passcode Settings and choose a passcode.
- Open the activity here, then triple-click the side button and tap Start.
- To finish, triple-click again and enter your passcode.
The app notices when Guided Access is on and stops mentioning it.
My child finds the tracing too hard
Open Settings and change Guide width to Wide. That makes the grey line thicker and lets a finger stray further outside it before the mark stops counting — the two are the same setting, so what your child sees is exactly what the app is judging.
Wide is the right starting point for a child under three. There is also a quiet rule you will not see: a figure that has been struggled with for a while becomes easier by itself, because an activity a child cannot finish is worse than one that is too easy.
The pictures are too much for my child
Switch to Outline — it is in the bar at the top of any activity, and in Settings. Every picture becomes plain black-and-white line art with no colour at all. That mode is the reason this app was built; colour is the option, not the other way round.
You can also set the background to always light or always dark rather than following the device, which helps if you use the app both at nine in the morning and at bedtime.
Is there any sound?
No. Not in either activity, not on the menus, not on finishing a picture. There is no sound anywhere in the app and no setting to turn any on.
There are optional small vibrations, and they are off unless you switch them on.
Why is there no score, and no stars?
Because there is nothing to score. The child finishes a picture and the picture appears — that is the whole reward, and it is about what they did rather than about a number.
The app also keeps no record of which pictures they have finished. That is deliberate: see the privacy page.
It does not go to the next picture by itself
That is right. A two-year-old who wants the same tulip nine times gets it nine times. Tap Next when you want to move on, or Again to do the same one over.
In the flip book, a tap anywhere turns the page, and so does a swipe. Tapping past the last picture goes back to the first.
Why do I have to do a sum to open Settings?
Because a child who finds Settings can undo everything you set up. The question is written out in words rather than numbers so that an older child who can read digits still cannot pass it.
Nothing is being bought, and nothing leaves the app. It is guarding your settings and nothing else.
Does it work without the internet?
Entirely. Every picture and every letter is in the app when you install it, and the app makes no network requests of its own at any time.
Is it free? What is the catch?
It is free, there are no adverts, there is nothing to buy and nothing to subscribe to. There is no catch, and nothing about you or your child is collected or sold. If that sounds implausible for a free children's app, the privacy page says exactly what is and is not stored.