Speech Blubs’s earns a 3.2-star rating from 36 reviews, showing that the majority of parents and caregivers are somewhat satisfied with speech development tools.
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Waste of money
After the raving reviews I read about this app I was so hopeful of it’s effectiveness in aiding my child & I with a fun speech therapy option. After purchasing the lifetime subscription to allow us to utilize it to its “fullest potential,” I find myself sorely disappointed after using it for the past month.
To say that I am annoyed is an understatement. It is very limited in the variety that it offers, and we have already gone completely through the numbers and letters as well as the activities.
When my child chooses the incorrect photo to go with the appropriate word, you would expect a bell, or some sort of dingdong noise to designate that the choice was incorrect, but instead there are fart noises. After the seal slurps down a soda, it farts. What my child has learned from this app is not a better understanding of speech or fun new words, but crude fart noises and now after finishing a drink, feigns to pass gas. The world is crude & classless enough without selling “educational apps” to expand upon it. How exactly is this educational or offering assistance with speech delay? DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY.
Don’t bother - Trial is a trap!
Tried out the trial for my son since he was going to be enrolled in speech therapy this fall had the pandemic not occurred. Blub blub offered 6 months free in addition to a 7-day trial so I figured it was worth a look. Quickly realized that it was way too easy for my son so I requested a cancellation well before the end of the trial. After several days I received an email stating there was no record of my account, yet a day or two later I was charged $29.99 for 6 months. I contacted them again and received the same response that there was no record of my account and was directed to the iTunes Store to cancel my subscription. But since I signed up from the email offer, my subscription doesn’t appear in my Apple subscriptions to cancel. I continue to email Blub Blub for assistance and don’t receive anymore responses. Guess they’re good with the outcome since they got their $$$. Very shady!
Update - the email that they say they have no record of is the only email I have - the one they sent me the initial offer to and I signed up through. Interesting how they have no record of it. Language app with a language barrier?! I’ve contacted my credit card to dispute and refund the charge.
Deceptive practices
Cute enough app, I only got to use it twice. My 2 year old, speech delayed son liked it. I know it requires consistency to see results, so the jury is out as to whether this is a truly effective speech tool. I cancelled the free trial right away because I’m a busy mom and I didn’t want to forget to cancel it. I prefer to test it and sign up for the subscription, if I choose, on my own time.
After I cancelled it, I went back to use it and there was an 50% offer screen—with absolutely no way to get past it without making the purchase! But I noticed it said my free trial will end in 3 days. I really wanted to give the app a good try to decide if I wanted to purchase it because I had been looking for an app like this, so I decided to just to agree, especially considering it was only $30 if I forgot. I expected that after the 3 remaining trial days, my subscription would renew at the 50% off price if I didn’t cancel before then.
However, the annual subscription began immediately cancelling my free trial. Not happy about this, this is the only app I’ve used that blocks access if you cancel within the trial, isn’t that against apple’s policy? And then is falsely tells you you’ll keep your remaining free trial days but you don’t.
Scam
I did the free trial to see if this would help my son learn to expand his vocabulary. It was very apparent very quickly this was not helpful to him. I canceled the free trial and thought that was that only to find they charged me $60 for a whole year! This is a total scam. I would have been willing to try this again in the future but the way they handled this is totally sketchy and bad business 10/10 do not recommend. Hide your wallet and go somewhere else.
Update. Still no response from scammers. They took my money and ran. Will not answer my emails. Anyone know how to report an app to Apple?
Update: tried another email address and they didn’t even try to help. They just blew me off and refused to offer any solution. Seriously considering pursing legal action. You can not offer a free trial and then charge someone when they cancel before that trial period is even over. This is a scammy business with no customer service. Please for the love of everything so not give them a cent.
Update: after several very delayed responses from their “customer service” saying they could not locate my account I brought my case straight to Apple. I highly recommend if you have been scammed by them in bringing this to their attention as well.
It’s ok but not worth the price in my opinion
We are doing the 7 day trial on this and so far my daughter seemed to like it the first 2 days but by the 3rd day she was bored and not interested in it anymore. There are a lot of things that are pushing me to not purchase it. We were given a code online for 50% off the yearly subscription and as soon as we started the trial, it says that code is no longer valid. This app is not worth the $60 yearly subscription. For $30, we were considering it but I’m glad we did the trial because even $30 seems pricey for what you are getting. The videos with the songs are very fast and hard for her to keep up with. The editing also seems poor since there are parts where the kid messes up on the songs, their pronunciation isn’t correct or you can barely hear them even with the volume at the highest level. The video about the number 10, my daughter heard the girl saying “Ben”. I understand the appeal of having another child showing the content, but I feel like the content would be higher quality and worth the price if it was a grownup. Also not a fan of some of the content. Some of the sounds and noises are odd. And like others, I was not a fan of the emotion videos with ghosts or the kid getting angry about eating veggies. Overall we’ll finish the 7 day trial but will not be purchasing a subscription.
50% Off When You Cancel Trial
What a racket. I cancelled my 7 day free trial two days in. My daughter is delayed developmentally so I was excited to try this app with her to help her speak. My issue with the app is that it has to use the microphone to hear the child say the word. Well…if I’m saying the word to make her try to say it, it picks me up and acts like she’s done a great thing and moves on. There’s no back. There’s no repeat. There’s no review. Just “great, someone said dog. Let’s move on.”
So I cancelled. Didn’t work for me. No hard feelings. My daughter brought me the spare “kids phone” to play the app. Now it pops up, saying I’ve cancelled my trial (true) and that there are 5 days left in my trial (also true) and they’d give me 50% off the annual price to stay. I don’t want to stay. I would have kept trying it for 5 days and possibly reconsidered BUT*** the 50% off screen takes over the game. There’s no getting it to go away. So there’s really not 5 days left. I’m stuck staring at the 50% off screen. Deleted.
I’ve never written a review for an app but this is ridiculous. If I don’t want your app, let that be ok. Let’s go our separate ways. Don’t then hack the app so that it’s unusable for the trial period. I might have reconsidered after a few more days but not now. Plus knocking half off? How does that make others feel that paid full price? Lame. Very lame business practices.
Double charged
I downloaded the app to try the 7 week free trial to see if my son would like it and to try a different approach at learning to talk and interact. My son is about to be two years old and besides popping bubbles sometimes, he took no interest in it at all.
I downloaded it on my phone and on an ipad. I created an account and logged into both devices with it. I tried it with him for maybe 3 days and he just ignored it, so decided to cancel before I got charged.
In trying to do so, I accidentally ended up actually paying the yearly subscription. I requested a refund and to cancel the subscription with them, I ended up being refunded that amount and was told it was cancelled. A few days later I saw a charge for about the same amount on my bank account. Once I figured out it was this app, I contacted them to try to get a refund and cancel the subscription again. They told me since it was charged through Apple, that they wouldn't issue me a refund and that I had to contact Apple about it.
I contacted Apple and explained what happened and they denied my request for a refund. I didn't know that I could get charged for each app download on different devices while using the same account. I had figured when I requested the first refund and cancellation, that my subscription would be cancelled. Unfortunately, now I'm stuck with an app that I didn't want and that won't even be used.
My son absolutely loves this app! But…
This app is great! Love that other kids are used to voice the words- my son gets so excited about it! I believe it really has helped him learn. I recommend this app all the time! However, I do wish they add to it. He’s gone through each section over and over and I think he’d love to see new animals, shapes, numbers etc. ABCs would be a great addition too! Also- side note the cow snipet at the end (after they say cow and ask to repeat back or select which picture is a cow) is really creepy. He’s kinda scared of that one, and I don’t blame him! It says some cows get swept up in tornados and shows the cow getting picked up and blown away. Bizzare and kinda cruel thing to tell a kid when you could educate them that cows graze, are usually on a farm or basically anything else that is actually factual…. Lol Possibly consider changing that one. Otherwise we really do enjoy this app! Also think it may be more helpful if the app would say also “now you say” vs only saying “your turn” or “now you try”. Or when they guess the photos it would say “which one is a ____” vs only saying “now guess”. There is also a part in the rhyme section that shows a cat literally counting down going through all 9 lives by jumping off a bridge over and over. Then when you get to 9, it says “bye bye” to the cat insinuating it died. Definitely think you should reconsider that. Seems insensitive for ALOT of reasons. It’s a kids game!
Scam
TO ADD TO THE DEVELOPER’S REPLY: It is another lie that you stated no customer service numbers are given out but I still have the emails with the number to contact “customer service.” It instructs to contact blubblub.org OR call [protected]. That is not a working number. Every time you call it, a busy tone occurs or an automated announcement states it doesn’t work. My money was eventually refunded after YOUR service denied even having a record of my account UNTIL I provided proof. It was also this company that refunded me, NOT APPLE! Again, DO NOT subscribe to this service!
I believe that at some point in time, this service may have been legitimate and actually beneficial however my experience was awful. There is no where to cancel on their website nor the app. When I sent an email, they informed me that they had no record of any purchase and instructed me to contact Apple. Apple had no subscriptions from me for this service. During this time, Blub was taking payments from my account. I sent another email requesting cancellation. They gave me a “customer service number” which was not a working number. Every phone number I was given was a non-working number. After sending them a final email stating I was reporting them, they miraculously found my account and issued me all my money back. Something just didn’t sit right with me with this company. Non working phone numbers and account denials scream SCAM.
Remove the word “culo” from Spanish version NOW
You need to remove the word “culo” for “butt” in the Spanish version and this needs to happen ASAP, the word “trastero” is much more appropriate and much less offensive. This is not a good word, if fact many Spanish speaking cultures categorize it as a bad word. I will update my negative rating as soon as you do.
Overall it’s an ok app. My two year old likes it because she sees other kids saying the words or acting out the sounds. A few other things that need to be fixed:
-When used on an iPad, which is all the time for my daughter, it stays in the stand up position as supposed to turning to landscape like when you stream a movie. It would be more comfortable if we had the option of having it the option of portrait or landscape.
-Spanish version has a lot of videos that are not translate, they remain in English, you need to do a more thorough review of the entire system make sure the language feature is consistent.
-Please add Latino Spanish as an option, even if it’s just Mexican like Pixar’s Coco Spanish. Not everyone likes or speaks the Spaniard version.
-I bought the membership via online website and took the assessment for my daughter in the web based portal and once I downloaded the app and logged in, I had to do the assessment again because the website and app didn’t synchronize.
These are some of my observations and I would be willing to update my review to 3 starts as long as you remove that word.
Sincerely, a yearlong paying member
Thankful for this app but —
I originally got this app when my son was 20 months and he immediately was very into it. At the time, he definitely was interested & enjoyed seeings the kids mimicking sounds. He wasn’t yet understanding to repeat and click. Fast forward 2 months and he began understanding the apps way to interact and motivate kids to repeat the words or sounds.
We used the app everyday consistently for atleast 10 min a day, for about 5 months. He began to refuse and lose interest so I unsubscribed. He is now 2.5 years old, just came across the app on my phone and I re-subscribed. It got pricy, $16/month? I’ll let him enjoy this month but I’m getting rid of it for now unless I see a better deal.
I see that they added more activities, new features and I am impressed. Glad they changed the cow being swept away in the tornado to a cow pooping… somethings before were a little
Inappropriate and morbid for kids.
I think this is a well developed app overall, great and educational content. Very helpful to children and keeps them interested. Smart to have kids teaching kids! Being silly helps with learning more than when we’re serious! Positive for children.
I think an app like this should be affordable and available for all families because this is fundamental for our children and really a great resource. But unfortunate when so many can’t even try it, 7 free days just isn’t really enough time.
I just think y’all should make this more affordable because many parents want the best for their kids and when we have so many different apps and things to pay for, it’s just really difficult.
My son enjoys the app but it needs some serious tweaking…
I am giving this app 3 stars because my son enjoys it and for a 1.5 year old, it keeps him engaged! I have also noticed as an emerging speaker he has picked up some animal sounds from this app which is fantastic and means the app is working as intended.
Just some specific feedback I wanted to give: for animal sounds, the little girl that does the crow sound and the goose sound, the sounds she makes are so nuisanced that it’s ridiculous to expect a young speaker to mimic them when as an adult, I couldn’t even mimic the sounds she produced. She needs to be omitted or a new child needs to make the sound.
I also think many of the categories could be expanded and improved. The outdoor wonders section is seriously lacking and I don’t know many people in America who refer to a body of water as “the sea.” It’s surprising to me that there aren’t things like flower, tree, and slide in this category. I also think there could be much more added to the food and toys category.
I also want the creators of this app to keep in mind how important it is to be somewhat straight forward when a word is introduced that the video following should actually be a video of that word. For example for the word, car, I would expect to see a video of a car to emphasize that word, not a video of a horse and carriage with a horse pooping. The actual meaning behind words is even more important than pronunciation and I would hate for my son to develop misconceptions that need correcting because of this app.
All in all, we will continue to use the app but will also be on the look out for further improvements and tweaks.
Good Concept, but Concerns
We’ve been using this app for about 6 weeks with my 3-year-old who’s been professionally evaluated and has a 13-month speech delay. He was approved for speech therapy, but hasn’t been able to attend because of Covid-19. We decided to give this app a try in the meantime. While I like the concept of this app and feel it’s fairly well done, there are several issues that have made me decide to cancel our subscription:
1. Mixed in with basic words like “car” and “boat” are much more complex words like “motorcycle.” If my child struggles to say “car,” how is he expected to repeat “motorcycle?” It leads to frustration.
2. Some of the spoken examples are very mushed together (the syllables are not distinct). For instance, the boy speaking “giraffe” makes it sound more like “jraff” - while I understand this might be how most people actually say it, I feel like the syllables should at least be made clear for someone learning the word for the first time. This is not the only instance of this in the app.
3. The humor in this app relies fairly heavily on thinking flatulence and poop are funny. Many cartoons following the exercises have animals passing gas or talk about how big their poop is. I’m not trying to be a snob, but I really don’t want my son adopting a crude sense of humor from this.
4. There was one cartoon following the “I’m scared” portion of the feelings section that had a haunted house with a ghost coming out. I found it to be creepy myself - not fun and cartoonish. I exited that one quickly. Hardly appropriate for my 3-year-old.
All in all, the app is fairly well done, but it would need some changes as stated above for me to consider re-subscribing.
Unable to customize & glitchy
My 4yr old son has problems with specific sounds/letter formations. He is in speech therapy at school, but I thought this might be a fun way to work with him at home. I downloaded it for the free 7day trial thinking that I might be willing to pay the steep 9 bucks a month if it was very useful. However, it was glitchy and the glitches caused it to actually be frustrating for my son.
I don’t think the glitches were my phone as I have a brand new IPhone 8 with 64gb and tons of left over memory. The app should run fine! Instead, the little games/illustrations at the end of the practice had the child’s voice over on top of them and the speech bubbles telling me how to use the app from the intro kept popping up and obscuring the game/illustration. And they also didn’t match the content. For example, we were practicing “square” and after practice a little robot made of squares came into the screen. Meanwhile the little boy saying square was still voiced over the top and a speech bubble telling us about gorillas was obscuring the robot. Another glitch was that the recording function has a little progress bar. When he was practicing the sounds, the progress bar’s movement did not match up to what he was doing. For instance, he would make sound and the bar did not move but sometimes when he paused it would all of a sudden jump forward. These glitches were problematic bc when it comes to speech, my son is particularly easily frustrated. Having the app not work correctly made it so he felt like he wasn’t doing it right.
Besides the glitches, I disliked that I couldn’t specify what sounds we wanted to work on. For a subscription based app of 9 bucks a month there should be the ability to customize in that way.
Yuck! Shady free trial practices
I may very well end up paying for this app, however be extremely wary of the way they have their free trial set up. I like to cancel free trials as soon as I begin them, then use the remainder of my access to the app to determine whether I like it or not. This way, no accidental charges when the free trial runs out. Most apps honor this and let you continue using the app until the free trial period regardless of the cancelation.
This app decided to use the predatory strategy of locking the app after you cancel your free trial, hoping you forget to cancel in time and get charged the annual rate unintentionally. I saw someone else mention this in their review and instead of changing this on their app, just gave a cookie cutter response to email their team, essentially a nice way to say no, why would we change this when we can accidentally bill parents the cost of a box of diapers?
Needless to say, I strongly disagree with this practice, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth in association with the app and I feel pressured to risk forgetting and accidentally being charged a large amount since my child actually does like the app.
Please don't give me a hollow response about this, just change your app's behavior when a free trial is cancelled. You can still offer the 50% off deal, but give an option to decline instead of entirely locking the disappointed child out of the app. Yuck, what a gross attitude towards free trials. Focus on making the app good vs trying to steal money from parents, we're all sleep deprived and it feels like you're betting on us forgetting something like this.
Otherwise an OK app, I know my son likes it so I'd totally pay for that. Change this weird cash grab ploy and I'll gladly update my review.
Do not get this app!
First o want to start off with saying that the crashes on this app ARE REAL!
My phone was on child lock, for my child, and the app froze and I was unable to access ANYTHING on my phone or do anything. The app DOES FREEZE A LOT. Definitely not worth paying a lot of money to have you continuously and completely locked out of your phone.
As for content, NOPE TO THAT TOO.
I have an 18 months old who has a expressive and receptive delay. They have you specify what your child may be diagnosed with. They program did not tailor to her needs at all.
Also. Once again, I have an 18 month old. Instead of teaching kids words in their everyday language they are trying to teach them more complex words and it assumes that they already have a basic level of understanding.
Why have me put in that my child has a receptive language delay and the ask for certain things or literally speak to her IN PARAGRAPHS!
There is no “mom” “dad” “milk” “juice” “dog” “cat”. Nothing like that. But has a monkey and chimpanzee blasting off in a rocket in space.
Why are we teaching words like “chimpanzee” is children can’t even say the word mom! Or milk! We are trying to get our kids to learn the basics and this stuff seems like it is made for a 4 year old who has great receptive skills but just refuses to talk!
Please do not waste your money on this app. Unless your kid is 3 and older and ZERO receptive delays and all just expressive.
This does not teach basic at home language that could help you in your everyday life.
And the constant freezing, crashing, and the inability to get into your phone is just the icing on the cake! It’s not worth $60 dollars a year or 15 dollars a month
But here’s some advice if money is an issue, if your child is between the ages of 0-36 months they can qualify for Early Intervention Services through the state! These services are free for the most part. My daughter is it and a lot of ppl don’t know about it. You can get them evaluated for free and I know for at least California, North Carolina, and Kansas (places I have been) it is FREE. So if you have any concern, please start there looking forward EIS near you. Please skip on this app. It isn’t worth it.
I don’t get it, basically unusable
I don’t understand why this app has such great reviews. We have several issues with it that makes it basically unusable for us. 1. Segments take forever to load. Regardless of internet connection. We don’t have this issue with other apps so it is definitely an internal problem. The issue with this is mostly that my son completely loses interest and walks away during the long load time so he ends up not benefitting 2. Not clear instructions/confusing chain of events. For instance, when going to practice saying a word, the sequence is: see the picture of the item/word, see a child saying the word, then a blank screen with the participant’s character. This is confusing! Every time we try, it goes like this: my son sees the picture and says the word. But the app doesn’t hear him. Then, the kid comes up and says the word, then the blank screen comes up and he has no idea what to do. It never asks him to say it. It isn’t showing the picture anymore, so I can’t even help him along by pointing and saying “what’s that?” and the voiceover just says “now you try!” It would be so much more helpful if it showed the picture again or the voiceover said, “can you say _____?” Then, the app doesn’t even give them a chance to get it. It starts pointing at the arrow to move on and if you don’t click it, it just moves on anyway? I don’t even have time to encourage him to say it before the app takes away his opportunity. I thought maybe this issue was because my son is the youngest recommended age - 18 months and just needed some time to learn. So I tried it out with his 3 year old cousin and his 2 year old friend. They both also did not know what to do on that page and both had the app time out their chance. And because the voice recognition is waiting to hear the correct word, a parent can’t even help. Because if I say, “can you say ____ again?” The app hears it and just moves on. Just overall unusable for 3 different age kids. I absolutely cannot believe the cost of this either. The only upside is that my son is obsessed with the animated fish with a human mouth ♀️
Update: changing from two stars to one because no matter what I do to cancel my membership I keep getting charged and it is infuriating. Such a scam! Don’t even download it!
Why on earth are you charging $9.99 per month for an app like this?!
I was disappointed to see that you have switched to a subscription model. Most schools and state run facilities cannot purchase IAPs or subscriptions due to strict purchasing rules but would be able to pay to purchase an app up front. So if you only offer a subscription based option you will be severely limiting the user base for the new app. Also, how on earth did you come up with the pricing for your new app? $9.99 per month = $119.88 per year. I find it unbelievable that you found any SLPs or parents who said they would be willing to pay that much. If they used your app for two years it would cost as much as many robust AAC apps. In a comment in a post in a SLP Facebook group you indicated that you have plans to release a full paid version of this new app. I hope that you rethink your pricing strategy and offer an app that is affordable and that I can recommend to parents and fellow SLPs. In the meantime, please remove OMazing Kids from the wording in your app description. I would never recommend this new app with the current pricing.
Update: This app developer is luring folks in with the promise of a free short trial and then charging a $9.99 per month subscription fee. They are also misusing the names of several SLP blogs including my own to promote that new app. On their website they include quotes from reviews for the original app and number of users from that app and are trying to pass them off as being related to this new app. It took a social media blitz to get them to remove the OMazing Kids name from the description for Speech Blubs on the App Store but I just saw they are still using my name on their website and linking to a blog post about the first app. I have updated that blog post with a warning to hopefully force them to quit using the OMazing Kids name on their website, any social media or any app stores (Apple, Google Play, Amazon or any others that might appear in the future). They have seriously messed with the wrong speechie…. I am very active and vocal on social media, am in almost every SLP Facebook group that they might try to lure SLPs in and am definitely not afraid to call them out.
Update #2: The app developer finally removed OMazing Kids name from their website but still are misusing names of other SLP blogs in the app description. I have been in contact with all of these SLPs and they have repeatedly requested that this app developer remove them. Just saw this new update which would have been a good opportunity for the app developer to honor their requests. But they did not.
Update #3: Was intrigued by the offer of free access for SLPs so I was willing to download the app again and give it another chance. The loading time for items was way too slow. Deleted the app again. Still hoping the app developer will consider lowering the subscription fee they are charging parents.
The IAP is still too expensive.
Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Founder of OMazing Kids, LLC
This is not speech therapy
I am a speech language pathologist. I was quite interested in this app to use in sessions and for parents to use at home. After looking through it, I wouldn’t recommend it and am surprised other therapists do recommend it. First off, it really does not follow developmental speech milestones. It seems random to me and is not consistent with anything I do with children who are diagnosed with with delays of expressive language, receptive language, apraxia, autism etc. Furthermore, from most of the reviews I read, it seems most parents are using this for their toddlers to develop language and first words. This app does not follow the typical developmental milestones of speech. It should start with early developing sounds to the early developing consonant-vowel combinations mixed with age appropriate play and functional communication words. I am sure that initially, children will say a few new words or sounds just from the novelty of the app (which occurs in speech therapy as well). However, I would like to hear from these parents after a month or so to see if progress continues or if they see some initial progress, wrote a positive review, then progress plateaus and they just cancel the subscription and forget about it. Because here’s the thing, I feel like the majority of what I do with young children who aren’t talking, is teaching parents how to play with their children with real toys, teaching how to securely attach (bond) with your child through play (no screens!), and how to elicit language during play. Children already get too much screen time and need to be interacting with and playing with real people and real toys. We need to be following developmental milestones with real play and interactions to build language and attachment together because communication is purely social so it needs to be done socially- not on their own with an app. This app will lead to mimicry but likely not lead to functional communication. This is my professional opinion. It appears other therapists find some merit in it (were they compensated for their reviews?) but I do not see how this could lead to functional communication and do not feel it should be called a speech therapy app.
Update: This app is ridiculously hard to cancel which is why so many people report that they are charged after canceling. It appears to me that the app developers are banking on people not fully following through with canceling as I’ve never had to cancel an app subscription in the manner I had to with this one. I’d also like to note that when people do complain about the price in reviews, the developers answer by saying its a fraction of the cost of speech therapy (implying it could take the place of therapy) and then when other people complain it doesn’t work as good as speech therapy the developers say it’s just meant to supplement therapy. Which is it? Is it beneficial because it’s cheaper than therapy or is it meant to supplement therapy- which then makes the app an added cost- not a cheaper benefit? This whole app and the answers from the developers are very odd to me. It doesn’t feel trustworthy. There are plenty of great apps out there that I use in therapy when appropriate (not often) that have been developed by actual speech therapists. I’ll stick with those.
Speech Blubs Complaints 17
Horrible update design
My son is 2 and a half and LOVED (past tense)this app. I kid you not he was talking and mimicking sounds in MINUTES. He loved the ease of access and it’s child user friendly interface.
That all changed with this new update. Now he has to do what the update makes him do and he’s not interested. Also, wayyyy too many adult buttons on their practice page. He keeps clicking and getting frustrated when it takes him from the game. The first thing it forces him to practice are words, but he’s more successful with the sounds right now. We were working our way up to that.
Overall, I’m so disappointed with the update that I am being forced to withdraw my subscription. Glad I didn’t sign up for the year yet. Such a bummer because he WAS being so successful with it. Why did they have to mess it all up?!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Concerned Speech Language Pathologist
It seems like the developers worked hard on this app, but I am an SLP and this app doesn't seem to follow any therapy practices that I have seen, used, or studied. The reward system is great and the app would help with imitation, but I'm unsure how this would truly help with a language delay, articulation delay, phonological process errors, etc. The first words do not follow researched based core vocabulary that is functional, there are no way to choose specific sounds for error remediation, and so on. I see reviews where parents are saying that this is cheaper than therapy, but I would use this app on your own with caution. I would consult a licensed SLP first, which the app does say to do. I wouldn't say the practices are harmful, but I'm not sure how helpful they are, especially for the price.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I am a Speech Language Pathologist
I have been a practicing speech language pathologist for 9 years. I provide services to a pediatric population with a strong focus on early intervention and language development. I downloaded this application, secondary to its reoccurrence in my social media, and was curious. I was alarmed by my findings and fail to see how this application can be marketed as a tool to facilitate speech and language development. Language is developed through play, parent and peer interaction, movement, descriptive talk, manipulation of real objects etc. Not by watching other children repeat words, on a screen, with minimal visual or motor input. I would like to see the evidence based research to support this application and truly hope this is not a scheme to take advantage of parents, especially ones seeking support for a child in need.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Is Speech Blubs Legit?
Speech Blubs earns a trustworthiness rating of 100%
Highly recommended, but caution will not hurt.
Speech Blubs resolved 100% of 17 negative reviews, its exceptional achievement and a clear indication of the company's unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. It would suggest that the company has invested heavily in customer service resources, training, and infrastructure, as well as developed an effective complaint resolution process that prioritizes customer concerns.
Speech Blubs has received 4 positive reviews on our site. This is a good sign and indicates a safe and reliable experience for customers who choose to work with the company.
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Liked it BUT…
My son like this app. I liked it for him!
We signed up for the 7 day free trial, and then that evening, as I always do, I canceled the automatic charge that would take place at the end of the week so that I could make an informed decision without accidentally forgetting and having $60 pulled from my account.
The next morning, we went to play on the app and because I canceled the auto charge at the end of the week it would no longer allow me to finish the 7 day free trial I signed up for. I had SIX days left.
That alone is enough to deter me. I have NEVER had an app not allow me to finish my trial. What horrible business. Maybe by the end of the week we would have loved it and purchased it, but now we will never know. Oh well!
I also emailed customer service about this and they never responded. Because they know what they’re doing!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I Really Wanted to Like This App
I started the 7 day free trial for my 2 year old, in hopes of trying something else to help boost her language development. The first two days she seemed to be enjoying the app and found it to be engaging. I do wish when they asked them to say the words, they told them which word to say, (for example, “now say: car!”) as opposed to just saying “now you’re turn!” I need to whisper which word she needs to say, otherwise she doesn’t understand what to do. And half the time it hears me and moves her along even though she hasn’t said it yet.
But on only day three the app keeps crashing and closing automatically and we can’t do anything on it anymore without it closing out or freezing/locking out my whole iPad. So I had to cancel. I’m hoping I don’t still get charged the $59 like I’m seeing others mention in their reviews! Super bummed. I wanted to like this app!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Would be 4 star but…
I am so frustrated! I signed up for this app and paid the yearly subscription fee (not monthly) and after about a month of use the app will not work anymore. It continuously says loading it’s doing it on my phone and on my child’s tablet so I know that it’s not a problem with my device or Wi-Fi because I’ve tried it on others Wi-Fi as well. I reached out to them via email because they have no other way to contact them and they have yet to respond, it’s so frustrating to me that they can take their money right away but they won’t provide you with service right away. I told him that I either want my money back or I want the problem fixed and all the weeks that I’ve missed added to my subscription expiration. I have tried everything. Uninstalling, and reinstalling on both devices updating both of my devices and doing factory resets on them. This is 100% on their side.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Ehh this app is a hit or miss
Tried this app because my toddler isn’t fully talking yet so was curious if this may help. Well in my opinion I feel bad for the children making the mini video clips because it’s obvious they aren’t exactly happy or excited but nervous and on pressure . The video clips are literally 1-3 sec clips rewinded over and over again for a minute. Not worth the money but this is just my opinion. Did the quick analysis in the beginning and boooy are they wrong. They suggested that it may be a possible hearing problem and like any parent was overwhelmed and concerned. I called out my kid a few times and he responded instantly, so relieved that the app was wrong and realized how much of a joke this is. Most kids are very smart and everything comes in time, dont waste time or money on this app just love your kids as is and just do more activities together...literally ALL a child needs :)
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I was hopeful but it was a waste of money
When I saw ads for this app I was hopeful it would help broaden my two years vocabulary and encourage him to speak more. It’s done quite the opposite. After the week trial, we decided to purchase the subscription, it was a waste of money. My son just wants to play and skip over the speaking parts. There’s way too much going on around the app that it’s over stimulating. Having the characters jump, talk, etc when touched while instructions are being given is very distracting. My sons speech actually regressed in the two weeks I allowed him to play, which I was only allowing him to play the allotted time recommended. Also on top of speech regression he was acting out, trying to constantly snatch my phone to play on the app, not listening, throwing tantrums, all of which were out of his normal prior to the app. After me deleting the app from my phone he’s back to himself. It wasn’t for us.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Thieves
These people are thieves. I repeat, these people are thieves. Do not even try to do the free subscription. I tried the free 7days subscription to see if my kid will like but he didn’t. I tried to cancel it and they blocked any chance of that happening. There was no way of canceling it. Before I knew it, they changed me 59$ for 1 year 3 months ago and I have since been trying to cancel it but there’s no option to cancel this stupid subscription anywhere not even in the apple store. I have sent them several emails but they never respond. I will sue this company if they charge me again for the stupid app that I have never used. They put in the app how you can request a refund. I followed that direction but their app was NOT on the list of subscriptions which means I couldn’t request for the refund. Isn’t odd that their app is the only app that can’t be canceled out of all the apps I have on my phone?
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Has potential but not for us
First time I’m reviewing an app because it’s also the first time I’ve paid for an app. I can see how this would help late talkers but it didn’t work out for my preschooler. He needs help with specific sounds (like r, l) but there’s no way to pick out activities that focus on letter sounds. What he has been doing since I got this app is using/repeating words as the kids in the app pronounce it. So instead of saying “sun” (for example), he’ll say “suuuun”. So he’ll point at a picture of the sun and say “suuuun” instead of “sun”. There are also a lot of silly examples and I get the developers try to make it “fun” but of all the examples you could possibly use, poop and pee jokes, really? There have also been times where the app froze in child-lock mode and I couldn’t unlock or quit the app so had to force restart my phone. So much potential but it’s not what I want for my kiddo so I have canceled my subscription.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Not for us
Maybe I am not using it right, but I don’t think this is for us at least. My son is in speech therapy with an articulation disorder. I was hoping this app could be used to reinforce the sounds he is working on. Like if we worked on F sounds this week, between sessions, I could use this to work on F sounds and reinforce what he was learning. But it doesn’t give me any option to work on a particular sound or anything. So I’m not sure how to use it to help us. My son is five and he’s just working on specific sounds “F, G, Sh, S, and a few more I’m probably forgetting.
The app also acted like he was making the correct sounds when he wasn’t. When he was repeating square, he was totally missing the S sound. Which is a sound we are working on. Yet it kept acting like he was getting it right. I also wasn’t sure if he was just supposed to sit and listen and then repeat. Or if he was supposed to speak along with the kids.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO FREE ANYTHING
This app is a scam! Parents if You see this delete the app right away. Don’t even entertain the free subscription because there is no option to opt out if your child shows no interest to what the app has to offer.
If the free trial is an option I usually will sign up then immediately go to my subscription to opt out because I don’t want to forget and be charged if I don’t like it.
But this app’s customer support is horrible and even when you try to go on the app like they explain to cancel it doesn’t even show up.
My card info is being used and I have no way of removing it. Which obviously would be anybody’s worry.
I repeat DO NOT put your card info if you don’t wanna be charged after the free trial is over because you will not even get a response to resolve.
And because the app doesn’t even show up on the list you can’t call Apple support to request a refund either.
If anybody is reading this please comment and tell me how to go about investigating this further because I am livid
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Great App but Major Glich
The content of the app would get 5 stars but the glitch brings it down to two. My son, who was diagnosed with a speech delay, has been using this app for several months and loves it. I see him saying things that he heard on the app later in the day. The app itself is engaging for kids and has a nice variety of topics. Here’s where the problem is...if I don’t 100% monitor my son the entire time that he’s on the app...he’ll exit the app and play with other things on my phone or call people in my address book. I found the child lock option and thought that was a wonderful idea...well not so much. The child lock is supposed to prevent the child from exiting the app. Multiple times my phone froze while in child lock mode. And when I say froze...I mean I could not do anything. 8 hours later it would unlock on its own. Super frustrating and not to mention unsafe! What if I needed to use my phone for an emergency? I contacted Speech Blubs on almost every occasion that this happened and there has been no resolution.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Cute but locks up constantly
Update: emailed the email they told me to. Never got a response. Also now with this update it lags SO much, keeps popping up with a child disable lock, and some of the puzzles don’t lock in the correct place. For example, the pieces of the “A” fall apart to put back together and when my daughter does it, they don’t even align and it tells her she did it but it doesn’t even look like an A. This app isn’t cheap. Things need fixed. Removed a star until it’s fixed.
My toddler loves this app. She is behind in her speech and she has really started responding to things, especially the animal sounds. But there’s a huge problem on her iPad. It constantly locks up. And when it does, there is no other fix but uninstalling and reinstalling and then it doesn’t save her profile so we have to start all over again. We’ve tried closing it completely, hard restarting the iPad, updating the app and nothing works. It stays stuck on the welcome screen with the fish. All the other apps on the iPad work so not sure what’s going on.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Fun for kids, horrible customer service
My son used this app everyday for a year. His speech never improved, there is no way to help with articulation. It simply says the word and has some picture games. When I put him in speech therapy, his therapist agreed the app is good to introduce words and sounds, but doesn’t help with actually learning how to say it correctly. When I decided to cancel my subscription, they send me an email trying to convince me to stay for a cheaper rate, I declined. They are still trying to charge my card for a renewed subscription that I have cancelled, before the end of the current subscription. I can not get a response from their email after over a week of waiting and sending multiple different emails. Only reason I give it 2 stars, is because my son did like playing the games and actually using the app. It has a nice set up with the parental controls and profess tracking while also having the kids be able to navigate their way through the different games. It’s just not working for my family and I’m not getting an response for
Corporate about the issues.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Not worth the money
If this app was less expensive, I’d consider keeping it, but at $10/mo and so many weird issues, I don’t think it’s worth it. I did some research and there are a lot of vague/gray area comments on this app being recommended by therapists but many speech pathologists have spoken out against these claims as this app was not created by or with one. Some of the kids pronunciation is off and the sound is quiet and uneven on several of the recordings compared to the others. Additionally, the fact that they use a computer generated voice for the the videos that give you facts is lazy. The section on feelings lazily uses emojis instead of kids faces for some and aren’t the most accurate. I think this app could use some more fine tuning from a technical stand point as well as implementation of having real backing from legitimate therapists. I realize most of these complaints I listed aren’t a huge deal but for an app you’re spending $10 per month for, I expected more. Apparently they had a prior app that was similar and was $6.99/flat fee. I might have done that.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
The app locked up my phone and took over
I decided to download this app for my daughter and after the trial period I subscribed as a paying customer. It was good until one day everything went south! The app locked up my phone, the little boy kept repeating the word and then he stopped. My new iPhone xR was stuck on the app, there was no way to answer calls, no way to call out, no way to reset my phone. The app had taken my phone hostage and I had to wait 1 day before the app drained my battery to get control of my phone again. Not having access to my phone is also a safety issue especially because the app hijacked my phone. This app is a big no until they correct their programming issues! Reply to change review: NO IT FULLY HIJACKED MY PHONE, NO KEY WOULD RESPOND. I HAVE USED CHILD LOCK IN THE PAST AND ITS GREAT HOWEVER THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. NOTHING WOULD WORK WITHIN THE APP AT ALL AND I WAS LOCKED IN THE APP. IF THE APP WAS WORKING AND DIDN’T HIJACK MY PHONE THEN I COULD OF EXITED OUT. NOT THE CASE. TRY LISTENING INSTEAD OF RESPONDING. 1 STAR FOR HIJACKING MY PHONE and 0 STARS FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Hello
Despite paying for an annual subscription I have been unable to use the speech blubs app for over 6 months.
I have sent multiple emails but sadly all have went unanswered. I cannot get the app to open on any of 3 ipads or 2 iphones so it's obviously and issue with my account.
I really hope you get back to me.
Thanks
About Speech Blubs
The app is based on the latest research in speech therapy and is designed to be used by children of all ages and abilities. It includes a wide range of activities and exercises that are tailored to the individual needs of each child, helping them to develop their speech and language skills at their own pace.
One of the key features of Speech Blubs is its use of video modeling, which has been shown to be an effective way to help children learn new speech and language skills. The app includes a library of over 1,500 videos featuring real-life children and adults, demonstrating a wide range of speech and language skills.
Speech Blubs also includes a range of other features designed to make speech therapy fun and engaging for children. These include interactive games, rewards and incentives, and a range of fun characters and animations.
Overall, Speech Blubs is an innovative and highly effective speech therapy app that is helping children around the world to improve their speech and language skills. Whether your child is struggling with speech and language development or simply needs a little extra support, Speech Blubs is a great tool to help them reach their full potential.
Overview of Speech Blubs complaint handling
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Speech Blubs Contacts
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Speech Blubs emailshi@speechblubs.com99%Confidence score: 99%jaka@speechblubs.com98%Confidence score: 98%
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Speech Blubs social media
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Checked and verified by Janet This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn moreOct 29, 2024
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The app locked up my phone and took overOur Commitment
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