For parents
Does Storyball need a phone or tablet to play?
A phone is needed to set Storyball up and to load new stories and games onto it, but not to play them. The app pairs the ball over Bluetooth, downloads the content and keeps the profiles; the game itself runs on the ball, out loud, and a child plays it without looking at anything.
What the phone is for
Three things. Pairing the ball the first time, which takes a minute and happens once. Choosing what to play and sending it to the ball. And, for a grown-up, the profiles, the progress and the settings — who is playing, what they have finished, how long they have been at it.
The app is free, there is nothing to buy inside it, and it does not need an account.
What it is not for
Playing. Once a story or a game has started, the ball is doing the work: it is the speaker, it is the sensor and it is the thing giving instructions. A child is not being asked to look at the phone, and there is nothing on the phone for them to look at while the game runs.
In practice the phone is usually face down on a kitchen counter for the whole thing. That is the intended arrangement rather than an accident.
How far away the phone can be
Bluetooth holds about thirty feet with a clear line of sight, and rather less than that through walls. Games that run entirely on the ball keep going regardless; if the connection drops in the middle of something, bring the phone back into the same room and it picks up.
If sound is coming out of the phone instead of the ball, the phone is paired to the wrong Bluetooth device — there are two, and the one you want is the speaker. The support page has the two-line fix.
Storyball is our answer to this
A screen-free ball that children have to move to play. The app is free and pairs it in about a minute.
Free. No account, no in-app purchases, nothing collected about your child.