Caribu by Mattel

Great when it works. Unfortunately, even with a subscription we find major issues. Often my 5-year-old cannot see his grandparents, just a white square. Games and books get stuck on the loading screen. It's a shame, as when it works it's great. But it's so spotty, I probably won't renew my subscription unless it's on sale again or they fix all the bugs.

It's a great idea, cute stories, and mostly user-friendly. But the amount of dropped calls (sometimes over and over) is having us searching for a better app. When you spend half an hour starting a call and then disconnecting over and over again, every single time you use the app, it makes the experience frustrating. Grandparents, parents, and kids are usually grumpy by the end. Not worth it.

This app is unfortunately riddled with glitches. My spouse and I attempt to use it to read to our children while one of us is away, but it so rarely works. Usually we end up with a disappointed and crying child and frustration at an app that crashes, or won't let you answer the call, or doesn't ring at the other end. Attempted on android, iOS, and a mix, same results. It's good if it ever works, that's just so rare. We've contacted support, they can sometimes help, others not.

Caribu started off as an answer to grandparent connection in a pandemic, and I recommended it a lot. However, recently, it drops calls multiple times in a single 30-minute window -- we're talking every 5 min or so it drops the call, until we give up and switch to zoom. I think it's become too popular and isn't able to keep up with the bandwidth as it has grown and become more publicized. It needs to be acquired by a big SW company that can fix quality issues stat!!!

We love the idea of this app and we tried to make it work multiple times, but it was such a frustrating experience! Our calls kept getting dropped, we weren't able to see the library or activities (just the loading Thomas train), and the search function is super buggy. We made sure internet connections were good on both ends. Very disappointing.

There is good and bad news. The good news is my long distance 3 year old granddaughter loves the app. She asks to read books on line with us all the time. It has really helped us feel connected. The app itself is not great. It doesn't always load. Our voice will go in and out so my granddaughter doesn't hear us. It is a bit tricky to find books and games in her age range. With more refinement this could be excellent. I love it and find it frustrating.

We use it everyday, both kids and grandparents love it. The positive: grandma can just pick up a call, no codes or links or installing an app on the computer needed. I like the selection of books, but few of the games are interactive. It's better on the computer than on the app because text size is larger. Like others said: the app is glitchy and not intuitive. Also, there is no way to turn off auto-renew yourself. Customer service worked with me to fix both issues quickly though.

I signed up for the free trial and tried to sign in on several different occasions, it wouldn't let me or the app would crash. By the time I was finally able to get in , my free trial had expired and it was prompting me to pay. I found the selection of books especially in the 8-12 years old range was very limited as well so I have uninstalled the app. Too bad as it's a good idea if it worked.

Can't say we didn't try. Wish we hadn't told the little one on the other end. So so so disappointed. Such a great idea After all the requesting and accepting and not receiving and adding and not working then doing it again to finally get to the point of making a call and can only see a tiny box of self when answering and the caller thinks you haven't answered! as for them it remains "calling" you have to force stop as it freezes and can never ever connect. Happens both ways. DeLETE! So sad

Have enjoyed the couple times we have been on.The grands loved being able to connect. Wanted to be sure it worked well before paying for the subscription as I didn't realize there are a limited opening per month. Was timed out (didn't realize that either) but it was a a hit so went to purchase for the year but are not able to process it through. Tried 2 different days and 2 different payment types. Hoping to be able get it sorted out before the grands get disappointed and explore the options!

I've tried the paid version of this app for two months. Unfortunately I forgot to cancel the first month. It just doesn't work. I can't call my grandchildren, but the can call me. The games don't synch, so I don't see what the children draw or write and vice versa. This app is s great idea, but it just causes frustration on both sides. I am cancelling and would appreciate a refund since we did not receive what was promised.

Great idea...when it works. More than half the time we can't connect with anyone else. They'll say they don't get a notification that we're calling, or when they do get the notification nothing happens when they try to accept the call. We've tried on both android and iOS devices and the problems persist regardless if we're calling or answering.

I have an older kid (5 yo) and he enjoys getting to connect with his grandparents in a way that he can control somewhat and having something they can do together via video. The book content however is subpar - both the grandparents and the kiddo agree. They tend to read about five books over and over again - which is unusual for my kiddo who usually loves to jump from book to book at home, so he doesn't request the app as much as I thought he would. Seems to be a lot of more independently published books, which I support in general, but the quality, and quantity of books available, especially for the older age range is something that we find lacking. Would love this app if they were able to contract with more publishers/authors and expand their content! Great idea overall.

Calls seem to be working fine, but this app is a massive drain on my battery, and heats up my phone really quickly, to the point where my phone intentionally starts slowing things down do try to cut back on the temperature. My phone is uncomfortably warm after 20 minutes.

This app is great when it works, but it's been super inconsistent. It's very buggy, which makes it a challenge to connect with less techy grandparents. Takes ages to register clicks, lots of bugs when trying to call out. Tried to set up a story time with the grandparents this evening, and the "read together" button wasn't appearing. Feeling some buyer's remorse for getting the subscription.

It a good ideal . I can't call my gson with it unless he already had his app open which he doesn't, he could call me. I have a Samsung 8plus. I had signed up for yr. Subs. After checking several times to fix it. They say my version is 8 versions behind, but its the one I just downloaded and shows no updates. I got a refund. I had found (cancel subscription) but it does not refund what has not been used, It just stops auto renewal? THEY DID TAKE CARE OF ME. Always replied and helpfully.

Seems good in the concept and with your ads, where we see where the money is going. When you say you have content in multiple languages, well, in French it's very limited. Also for the free version, that number max of 'opening' iterations is a bit annoying when we want to check the content before reading it to our little ones. Even if you re-open the same it counts down, which is not really fair. And your cost model is quite pricy as other have suggested too, above all for the content you have which is not yet at the level of Music or videos apps, but still, with a higher cost together. I do hope that you will see that generally people that cannot be connected are working remotely to get more money and cannot afford these prices, which kinda defies your purpose to reconnect people like service people not seeing their children. It doesn't look like a fair deal for us who struggle, and a very juicy deal for your company.

Terrible difficult to use. Phone kept forcibly rotating and would freeze. Book images don't show up with the proper aspect ratio, or they show some parts of the next page weirdly appended below. Can't move the video square to get it out of the way of the book content. I find it difficult to use and I work in IT, no way the grandparents will be able to figure it out.

Connecting issues... I'm unable to connect with family members. When we call each other it doesn't connect and when we do, the app closes. The concept of this app seemed really cool. Even tried uninstalling and installing it on different devices, which was a bit much but wanted to try. Waste of time.

Frustrating at best. This app has so much potential but is so awful to use. No instructions to get started, takes forever to figure out things like how to update the subscription to receive incoming calls. Also can't seem to make outgoing calls. It shouldn't be this hard. How will the grandparents use it if we can't!