Toucan Talk

Toucan Talk is a fun, safe, parent-moderated, simplified communication app that helps kids cultivate friendships with the people they love by sharing videos, pictures, and messages.

Have you ever dreamed of a world where everyone you love lives right next door? Well, we have! Welcome to Toucan Talk, a communication app that lets kids and families send messages across the miles, in a fun and safe environment. It’s the neighbourhood children create for themselves. And just like neighbourhood buddies who talked years ago with two cans on a string, Toucan Talk grows strong friendships over distances of two feet to two thousand miles. Toucan Talk was created to fill a need: While many kids today are lucky to have networks full of supportive friends, many families also face the challenge of staying in touch across distance, busy schedules and the pace of life. These loved ones can play a tremendously valuable role in supporting children’s development and confidence. For grandparents sending a goodnight kiss, aunts and uncles sharing life advice, or friends just sending silly tales from school, Toucan Talk provides a place to explore relationships in a way more akin to what children will face as they graduate to more open social spaces later in life.

As we explored the base problem of friends and families spread apart by distance, we also noticed many parents struggling with another problem: How should online experiences be introduced to kids of different ages, and how can they learn to navigate small networks in a healthy way? Of course, there can be real costs and benefits to online engagement as kids grow up, and we are still weighing countless opinions about the best ways to grow positive and successful relationships with technology. We made sure that this app was built with the direct involvement of a specialist in child psychology, who is also an educator and mom of two, so that every decision weighed how this app might help strengthen kids’ positive self-concept and self-esteem. We think it is vital that parents take an active role in helping teach their kids about online behaviour, yet most popular apps simply don’t allow parents the ability to participate and help their young ones navigate the best ways to engage with friends, to consider their friends feelings, to build them up. Toucan Talk was designed with the parent in mind, so that they can be the ones at the helm as their kids learn.

Toucan Talk has a playful, game-like atmosphere in which children can personalize a little house and “visit” friends on their street through shared pictures, videos, and emojis. It is designed specifically to meet the needs of young children, through parents setting up safe and private accounts on their own devices, and sharing them with their children. All conversations can be easily reviewed by parents, and messages can be read and answered at your own pace, unlike the intensity and demands of video chat. Your child can learn the benefits of building friendships and maintaining relationships by taking small steps. Imagine helping a friend who moved away to feel included, all by yourself! Lifting barriers for the youngest kids, Toucan Talk is focused on video primarily, making it easily accessible to users of all reading levels and languages. And the Toucan is always there to guide you, every step of the way.