User Guide

Welcome to Kiddo AI — the app that turns your child into the hero of their very own illustrated storybook. This guide walks you through the app from your very first sign-in to reading a finished story at bedtime, step by step.

Kiddo AI is made for children ages 2–12, it is 100% ad-free, and Koda the Koala is here to keep you company along the way.

Getting Started

Step 1 — Take the welcome tour

The first time you open Kiddo AI you'll see five short welcome cards that introduce what the app does: personalized stories, profiles built around your child, the reading experience, family sharing, and the promise that Kiddo is free with no ads.

Swipe through them and tap Next, or tap Skip at any point. On the last card, tap Get Started to continue.

You can watch this tour again any time from Menu → Watch Onboarding.

Step 2 — Sign in

Kiddo AI has no passwords to remember. On the sign-in screen you'll see two buttons:

• Continue with Google
• Continue with Apple

Tap the one you prefer and confirm with your existing account. That's it — your Kiddo AI account is created automatically the first time you sign in. By signing in you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, both of which you can read right there on the screen before you tap.

Step 3 — Get your bearings

After signing in you land on Home. Along the bottom of the screen there are five buttons you'll use constantly:

• Home — your welcome screen, trending stories, and quick shortcuts
• Library — every story your family has made
• Create Story — the big round purple button in the middle; this is where new stories begin
• Explore — discover stories made by the wider Kiddo community
• Menu — profiles, family, settings, your plan, and help

The Home screen greets you by name, shows a bell icon for your notifications, and offers a big button that changes depending on where you are: Add Your First Child, then Create Your First Story, and after that Create a New Story.

Setting Up Your Family

Kiddo AI needs to know a little about your child before it can write for them. This takes about a minute.

Step 1 — Add your first child

Tap Add Your First Child on Home, or go to Menu → Children Profiles and tap Add.

The Add Your Child form asks for four things:

• Profile Photo (Optional) — tap Pick Photo to choose one from your device, or Take Photo to snap a new one
• Child's Name — the name that will appear inside their stories
• Birth Date — pick the Day, Month and Year; Kiddo uses this to keep vocabulary and themes age-appropriate
• Child's Interests — type an interest and tap the + button to add it as a chip. Not sure where to start? Tap Refresh under AI Suggestions to cycle through ready-made ideas like Dinosaurs, Space, Animals, Music, Robots or Swimming

Tap Add Child to save. The more interests you add, the more the stories will feel tailor-made.

You can add more children at any time from Menu → Children Profiles. The Free plan covers one child profile; adding a second and beyond is part of Plus.

Step 2 — Fill in the details later (optional)

Tap a child's card on the Your Children screen to open their profile, then tap Edit Profile. Here you can change everything from the Add form and two extra fields:

• Gender — Male, Female, or Not Specified
• Reading Level — Parental Read, Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced

Reading level is worth setting once your child starts reading independently, because it shapes how complex the writing is. Tap Save Changes when you're done. From the same profile screen you can also tap Delete to remove a child profile permanently.

Step 3 — Look at your family profile

Menu → Family Profile is your household at a glance: your family name, how long you've been with Kiddo, how many members and children you have, and a Family Activity panel with Total Stories, Stories This Week, Total Reading Time, Reading Streak and more. Quick links at the bottom jump you to Manage Members and Children Profiles.

Step 4 — Invite other caregivers

Kiddo AI is built for whole families, so a second parent, a grandparent, or a nanny can share the same children and the same library.

1. Go to Menu → Family Members
2. Tap Invite in the top corner
3. Enter their Email Address
4. Tap Send Invitation

They'll appear under Pending Invitations until they accept, and under Active Members afterwards. There are two roles:

• Admin — can invite people, remove members, and change roles
• Member — can use all the children's profiles, stories and creation features, but cannot manage the family

If you're an Admin, each member row gives you Promote, Demote and Remove. Pending invitations give you Resend and Cancel.

Creating Your First Story

Tap the round Create Story button in the middle of the bottom bar. You'll see a short welcome screen showing how many stories you have left this month, then tap Start Creating Magic.

From there it's four steps, and a progress line at the top always tells you where you are — for example "Step 1 of 4 · Choose Children".

Step 1 — Choose Children

"Who is this story for?" Tap your child's card to select them. If you have more than one child and you're on the Plus plan, you can select several so they all star in the same adventure together. On the free plan, one child stars per story.

If you haven't added anyone yet, there's an Add Child card right here so you don't have to leave the flow.

Tap Next: Story Purpose.

Step 2 — Story Purpose

"What's this story about?" Choose one of seven purposes — this is the heart of what the story is trying to do:

• Superhero Adventures — cast your child as a cape-wearing hero with special abilities
• Fun Quests & Adventures — a high-spirited journey of discovery
• Learning Important Values — kindness, honesty, sharing, responsibility
• Life Lessons & Growth — choices, consequences, and personal growth
• Facing Fears & Obstacles — help your child overcome a common fear or challenge
• Comfort & Understanding — emotional guidance and support
• Celebrating Special Moments — milestones, holidays, and family traditions

When you tap a purpose it opens up to reveal Additional Instructions (Optional). This is where you can steer the story in your own words — up to 300 characters. Something like "Include a friendly dragon character" or "Set the story in our neighborhood park" works beautifully.

Not sure what to write? Tap Generate Ideas with AI. The AI Story Ideas sheet suggests three ready-made prompts built around your chosen purpose. Tap Use on the one you like and it drops straight into the instructions box, or tap Regenerate for three fresh ideas. Clear empties the box if you change your mind.

Tap Next: Story Details.

Step 3 — Story Details

"Make the story perfect for [your child]." Four things to set here:

Story Language. Pick the language the story will be written in. Kiddo AI writes in eleven: English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. It starts on your saved default, which you can change in Preferences.

Where does the story take place? Swipe sideways through the setting cards:

• Let AI Decide — chosen by default; the AI picks the setting that best fits your purpose and characters
• Real World — home, school, the neighborhood, the city
• Fantasy Realm — fairy kingdoms, enchanted forests, magical castles
• Space Adventure — planets, rocket ships, alien worlds
• Under the Sea — coral cities, deep-sea exploration, ocean creatures
• Historical Time — dinosaurs, medieval times, ancient Egypt, the wild west

How should your story look? This one is required — pick one of six illustration styles:

• Pixar-Inspired (Most Popular) — a bright 3D animated look
• Watercolor Dreams (Peaceful) — soft, painted, gentle
• Comic Book Hero (Exciting) — bold and graphic
• Classic Storybook (Timeless) — traditional picture-book illustration
• Anime Adventure (Trendy) — Japanese animation style
• Realistic Photos (Immersive) — lifelike imagery

The same story looks completely different in each style, so it's worth experimenting across your first few books.

Supporting Characters. If you leave this empty, the AI picks the best companions for the story by itself — that's the default and it works well. If you'd rather choose, tap Add Character. Free plans allow one supporting character per story; Plus allows three.

Tap Review & Create.

Step 4 — Review & Create

Now the fun part. Kiddo starts writing immediately and you can watch the words appear on screen, paragraph by paragraph, under the heading "Writing a story for [your child]".

When the writing finishes, Kiddo generates a title and adds a The End divider. If the title doesn't quite land, tap Re-create title for another one — there's no limit on that.

Two buttons appear at the bottom:

• I Love It! — accept the story and start creating the illustrations
• Regenerate — throw this version away and have Kiddo write a completely new one. The button tells you when you've used them all. Free plans get 5 story rewrites, Plus gets 10.

When you tap I Love It!, a message confirms: "Your illustrations are on the way!" Illustrations take a few minutes to paint, so you're free to close the app. Tap Done and you'll be taken to your Library, where the story appears as soon as it's ready.

If you step away mid-story

Stories you started but never finished are saved. Open Library, switch to the Drafts tab, and tap the story to pick up exactly where you left off.

Reading and Listening

Step 1 — Open a story

Tap any story from your Library, from Home, or from Explore. This opens the Story Details screen, which shows the cover, a Story Summary, the story's rating, page count, read time and age range, the Story Characters who appear in it, safety reviews, and Similar Stories at the bottom.

The big button at the top starts the reading, and its label tells you what will happen:

• Start Reading Adventure — you haven't read this one yet
• Continue from page [number] — you're partway through
• Read Again — you've already finished it

Above it sit four small icons: a star to rate the story, a share icon, a heart to mark it a favorite, and a bookmark to add it to a collection.

Step 2 — Read

The reading view fills the screen with the illustration, with the story text in a card over it.

• Swipe left or right to turn pages
• Tap anywhere to hide all the buttons for a clean, distraction-free view. Tap again to bring them back
• The page counter sits at the top; a slim progress bar shows how far along you are

The very first time you open a story, a short five-step tour points out swiping, tapping for a clear view, the audio controls, the settings, and Child Mode. You can replay it any time with the ? button at the top.

Step 3 — Listen

Under the story text there's a row of three buttons: previous page, play/pause, and next page. Tap play and Kiddo narrates the page aloud in your chosen voice. The narration for the next page is prepared while the current one plays, so it flows without waiting.

Step 4 — Adjust the reading experience

Tap the gear icon at the top of the reading view. The settings sheet has four tabs:

Display — "Customize your reading experience"

• Theme — light, dark, or sepia
• Text Size — six sizes, with a live preview so you can see the change before you close

Audio — "Set the mood with music and narration"

• Background Music on or off, plus the track list
• Background Music Volume and Narrator Volume
• Reading Speed
• Narrator Voice (changes apply to your next story)

Controls — "Configure playback and navigation"

• Auto-advance pages — turn pages when the audio ends
• Auto-play stories — start narration and music automatically
• Show progress bar

Child Mode — "Safety and age-appropriate settings"

Every tab has a Reset above settings link if you want to go back to how things started. Your choices are remembered for every story you read afterwards.

Step 5 — Hand the phone over safely with Child Mode

Child Mode locks down the controls so your child can enjoy a story on their own without wandering off into the app.

To turn it on, press and hold the shield icon at the top of the reading view. A ring fills as you hold, and Child Mode switches on. Hold it again to switch it off.

Configure how it behaves on the Child Mode tab of the reading settings:

• Tap Duration — how long the shield must be held, from 1 to 5 seconds (2 seconds by default)
• Show story text — off by default, which gives younger children a pictures-only experience
• Auto-advance pages — on by default, so pages turn themselves when the narration ends
• Allow page skipping — off by default, so swiping won't jump them around the book

While Child Mode is on, the back, help and settings buttons are inactive. Only the shield responds.

Step 6 — Finish the story

Swipe past the last page and you'll reach a celebration screen: THE END!, "You completed [story title]", and three stats — Pages Read, Reading Time, and your Day Streak.

From here you can tap Read Again, Back to Library, or Find Similar to jump into Explore. If the story is a public one, a Rate Story button appears so you can leave a star rating and a comment for other families.

Picking up where you left off

You never have to remember your page. Kiddo tracks your progress as you read. Unfinished stories show up in the Pick Up Where You Left Off card on Home and in the Continue Reading card in your Library, both of which drop you straight back on the right page.

Setting Up Audio and Voices

Go to Menu → Audio & Voice (also reachable from Menu → General Preferences → Audio & Voice). Everything here applies to every story you read.

Choose a narrator

Under Voice Characters you'll find a list of named voices. Tap the play button beside any of them to hear a short sample before you commit, then tap the voice to select it. Voices marked with a purple PLUS badge are premium voices available on the Plus plan — you can preview them on any plan.

A note under the section reminds you: changes apply to your next story.

Tune the playback

Under Playback Settings:

• Reading Speed — from 0.8x to 1.2x. Kiddo plays a short sample each time you move the slider so you can hear the difference
• Narrator Volume — 0% to 100%, also previewed as you drag
• Reset to Default — puts the voice, speed and volume back to how they started

Add background music

Turn on Enable Background Music and pick a track from the list. Tap the play button on any track to preview it, and use the Volume slider to set how softly it sits behind the narration — it's independent of the narrator volume, so you can keep the music gentle.

Check your audio quality

The Audio Quality section shows your Current Provider. Standard narration uses Google's text-to-speech and is available on every plan. Premium narration uses ElevenLabs for more natural, expressive delivery, and comes with Plus.

Managing Your Library

Tap Library in the bottom bar to open your Family Library — everything your household has created.

Browse your stories

The tabs across the top let you filter:

• Completed Stories — finished, illustrated stories, ready to read
• By Child — appears once you have more than one child; tap a child to see only their stories
• Drafts — stories you started but haven't finished creating

Tap See all under the Completed Stories or Drafts list to open the full grid.

Below the stories you'll find a quick stats strip (Stories, This Week, Day Streak), your Continue Reading card, and your Family Collections.

Mark favorites

On any Story Details screen, tap the heart icon to mark a story a favorite. Tap it again to remove it. This is perfect for the stories your child asks for again and again.

Organize with collections

Collections are custom shelves — "Bedtime Favorites", "Dinosaur Week", "Stories About Being Brave".

To add a story to one:

1. Open the story's Story Details screen
2. Tap the bookmark icon
3. Pick an existing collection and tap Add, or tap Create New Collection
4. If you're creating one, give it a Collection Name and an optional Description, then tap Create Collection

To manage them, scroll to the Family Collections section at the bottom of your Library and tap See all. On the Family Collections screen you can tap New to start a collection from scratch (name up to 50 characters, plus an optional description), open any collection to see its stories, tap Remove on a story to take it out, or tap Delete Collection to remove the whole shelf.

The same screen shows Top community collections — shelves other families have made public. Tap Follow on any of them and they'll appear under Collections you follow for easy access.

Share a story

Tap the share icon on a Story Details screen. Kiddo builds a shareable story card — you can choose from four looks (Magic Purple, Clean Light, Sunset Warm, Ocean Blue) before sending it on through whichever apps your device offers.

Discovering New Stories

Tap Explore in the bottom bar to browse beyond your own library.

Browse

Three tabs at the top switch the main list between Trending Stories, New Releases and Popular Stories. Tap See all beside the list to open the full set.

Scroll down and you'll find, in order:

• Editor's Pick — a single hand-chosen story
• Perfect for [your child] — recommendations shaped by your child's age, interests and reading history
• Trending Now — with Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly pills so you can see what's popular over different stretches of time
• Story Series — multi-part stories that continue across several episodes. Tap the arrow to see them all, then open a series to read its description and browse its episodes
• Community Favorites — the stories other families love most

Search

Tap the search bar at the top of Explore — it reads "Search stories, characters, or themes..." Type what you're after and press search to open the Search Stories screen, where results refresh as you type. Type at least two characters to see results.

Tracking Progress and Earning Rewards

Reading analytics

Menu → Reading Analytics is the full picture of your family's reading habits:

• Reading Stats — Stories Read, Reading Time, Avg Session, This Week
• Listening Stats — Stories Listened, Listening Time, Completed
• Reading Streak — your current streak, your best streak, and when you last read
• Weekly Trends — bar charts you can switch between Stories and Minutes per day
• Per-Child Breakdown — tap a child to see their own stories, read time, streaks and average session
• Recent Activity — a running list of what's been read and listened to

Milestones, badges and rewards

Menu → Achievements & Rewards is the hub. It shows your overall progress, how many achievements you've Unlocked, and how many rewards you have To Claim.

Milestones come in five categories, each with Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers that get more ambitious as you go:

• Tales & Adventures — creating stories
• Community Spirit — rating and commenting on stories
• Friends & Family — inviting people to your family
• Daily Adventures — creating stories on consecutive days
• Premium Journey — long-term membership

Tap View All Milestones to open the full list. Use the category tabs at the top — starting with All — to narrow it down, and tap any milestone card to see How to Earn, your exact progress, and the Rewards on Completion. Milestone goals run on a quarterly cycle, so there's always a fresh set to chase.

Badges are a separate collection of awards, grouped by theme. Tap View All Badges to see which you've earned and how close you are on the rest — tap any badge for its description, progress and rewards.

When you unlock a milestone or badge, its reward becomes claimable. Tap Claim on the achievement itself, or tap View All Rewards to open the Claim Rewards screen. There, everything waiting for you is listed under Ready to Claim, and if you have more than one you can tap Claim All Rewards to collect them in one go. Rewards arrive as Read Credits and Write Credits — extra allowance on top of your plan.

Recent achievements also surface on your Home screen with a Claim button, so you rarely have to go looking.

Visiting Koda's Corner

Menu → Koda's Corner is a small daily ritual with your koala guide. Koda greets your child by name, shows off today's outfit, and offers:

• Daily Check-In — "How are you feeling today?" with Happy, Excited, Calm and Sleepy to tap
• Koda's Wisdom — a "Did You Know?" animal fact
• Koda's Tips for You — friendly suggestions for getting more out of Kiddo
• What would you like to do? — quick shortcuts to Read, Listen, Create and Explore

It's a lovely thirty-second stop to make with your child before a story.

Settings and Notifications

General preferences

Menu → General Preferences holds two language settings:

• App Language — the language the app's own menus and buttons appear in
• Story Language — the default language new stories are written in, and the language Explore shows you stories in

Both offer the same eleven languages. There's also a shortcut here to Audio & Voice.

Everything about how a story looks and sounds while reading — theme, text size, auto-advance, auto-play, progress bar and Child Mode — lives in the reading settings inside a story rather than here. See "Adjust the reading experience" above.

Notifications

Tap the bell icon on Home, or go to Menu → Notifications, to see your notification centre. Alerts are grouped into Today, Earlier and Last Week, and cover things like a story being ready, new illustrations finishing, milestones unlocking, reading streak news, family invitations and subscription updates.

Tap any notification to open what it's about — it's marked as read at the same time. Tap Mark All Read at the bottom to clear the unread count in one go.

Your Plan and Subscription

Kiddo AI is free to use forever, with an optional Plus subscription for families who want more.

Check what you've used

Menu → My Plan shows your current plan, your billing period, and This Month's Usage with a bar for each of:

• Stories Created
• Illustrations
• Audio Narrations

Each one tells you how many you have remaining, and when your allowance resets. Below that, Your Plan Features lists what's unlocked on your plan and what Plus would add.

Compare the plans

Menu → Compare Plans puts Free ($0) and Plus (from $11/mo) side by side, row by row. Here are the differences most families care about:

Free plans get a beautiful cover illustration for every story. Plus turns each story into a fully illustrated picture book, page by page.

Upgrade

Tap Upgrade to Plus from My Plan, from Compare Plans, or from any upgrade prompt in the app. You'll see the plan options — monthly, quarterly and annual, with annual working out cheapest per month. Payment goes through your device's App Store or Google Play account, and Plus features unlock immediately.

Manage billing or cancel

Menu → Billing & Payment opens your subscription management centre, where you can view your subscription, update your payment method, or cancel. You can also cancel directly in your device's App Store or Google Play subscription settings.

If you cancel, you keep Plus until the end of the period you've already paid for, and your plan shows "Cancels at period end". Nothing you've created is ever taken away — all of your stories stay in your library on the Free plan.

Getting Help

Search the FAQ

Menu → FAQ has answers to the questions families ask most. Use the search bar at the top to jump straight to a topic, or browse by category.

Contact support

If the FAQ doesn't cover it, go to Menu → Contact Us and fill in the Send Us a Message form:

1. Choose a Topic — Bug Report, Feature Request, Account Issue, Billing Question, or General Feedback
2. Write a Subject — a brief summary of the issue
3. Write your Message — as much detail as you can give us
4. Tap Send Message

We reply to the email address on your account. Your conversation also lives in the app: the ticket appears under Previous Tickets with its status shown as Open, Resolved or Closed. Tap it to open the full thread — you'll see a note that says "Waiting for Support" until we answer, and typical response time is within four hours. Once we've replied, a reply box appears at the bottom so you can continue the conversation.

To keep things clear, you can have one open ticket at a time. If a ticket is still open you'll see a View Open Ticket button in place of the form.

Learn more about Kiddo

Menu → About KiddoAI has our mission, the app version you're running, and links to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. You'll also find us on Instagram at @kiddoaiapp, and on the web at kiddoai.net.

Sign out

Scroll to the bottom of the Menu screen and tap Log Out. You'll be asked to confirm before anything happens.

That's everything. Add your children, pick a purpose, choose a look, and let Kiddo write. Made with love for families.