A story book your child reads to themselves — in your voice.
Every page is a big picture tile. Your child taps the lit one, hears you read that page, and the next tile opens. No reading needed, no grown-up needed.
- No ads
- No tracking
- No account to make
- Twelve classics included
How it works
Three steps, about ten minutes.
You make it once. They read it a hundred times, and every time it sounds like you.
Tell the story
Tap New story. All at once: read it aloud, or type or paste it, and TapTales cuts it into tiles. Or go tile by tile. Their name, their dog, the trip to the beach last weekend.
Read it in your voice
Read it aloud once and every tile already has you on it. Or tap the microphone on a tile and read that page — the words fill themselves in. TapTales picks a picture for each, or put your own photo on it.
Hand it over
Tap Read and give them the phone. Only the next tile is lit, so there's nothing to get wrong. Tap, listen, tap the next one. Pages they've heard stay open to hear again.
Your story, your voice
Grandma can read it too — from her own phone.
Add up to five people to your family. Each one records the pages in their voice, and your child picks who's reading tonight.
- ✓Everyone records on their own phone. Stories and voices sync through iCloud, so a grandparent across the country is one tap away.
- ✓Ask them to read one. Pick a story and a person, and it waits at the top of their shelf, ready to record.
- ✓You choose what each person sees. Share every story, or only the ones you pick for them.
- ✓Your subscription covers them. With Plus or Pro, everyone you add gets the same on their own phone — photos, unlimited recording, bedtime mode and the rest — without paying for it themselves.
- ✓A storyteller voice when you want one. With Pro, pick from five storytellers and TapTales reads your story aloud for you, in whatever language it's written in.
Made for small hands
They can't wander off into your phone.
A tap on the ✕ does nothing. Leaving a story takes a press and hold, which a three-year-old doesn't stumble into.
- ✓Hold to exit. About a second and a half on the small ✕ in the corner. Add Face ID if you'd like a real lock.
- ✓Guided Access, walked through. TapTales shows you how to keep the phone inside the app.
- ✓Nothing to buy from a story. No ads, no links, no pop-ups. The grown-up parts are behind Settings.
Everything in the box
Small app. Does the one thing well.
No feed, no streaks, no characters selling anything. Stories you made, read the way you read them.
Twelve classics, already narrated
The Three Little Pigs to Stone Soup, read end to end by a storyteller. Ready on day one.
All at once, or tile by tile
Read the whole story aloud, or paste one you already have, and TapTales makes the tiles. Or build it one page at a time.
Pictures they recognise
Every page gets a big, bright picture. Pick from the set or use any emoji — the dog, the cake, the bus.
On every device you own
Stories and recordings sync through your own iCloud. Record on your phone, hand them the iPad.
Slow it down
Set the reading speed for new listeners. It applies to your recordings as well as the narrators.
Private by design
No account, no ads, no analytics. We never receive your stories or your recordings.
On the shelf from the first launch
Twelve stories to start with.
Every page narrated. Free, and they stay free.
- The Three Little Pigs
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- The Tortoise and the Hare
- The Little Red Hen
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff
- Chicken Little
- The Ugly Duckling
- Stone Soup
- The Enormous Turnip
- The Lion and the Mouse
- The Elves and the Shoemaker
- The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
With TapTales Plus
Every story, in your voice.
The free app records three stories. Plus takes the limit off — and adds a few things for the stories you'll want to keep. One subscription covers your whole family, and Pro adds a storyteller on top.
Unlimited recordings
Record every story you make, not just three: the bedtime one, the birthday one, the one about the dog. Everyone in your family records as many as they like too, so Grandma and Daddy can each read every book on the shelf.
An AI storyteller Pro
No time to record? Five stories a month read aloud by one of five storytellers, in the language the story is written in.
Your own photos
Tap a tile's picture, then Add a photo. The dog, the garden or Grandma, right on the tiles.
Bedtime mode
Pick a few stories, a timer and some rain or waves. They play back to back on a dimmed screen, then fade out. Look for the moon at the top left of the shelf once you have Plus.
Keep it forever
Save any story as a video in your voice, or as a picture book to print. Press and hold it on the shelf.
Translate any story
Make a copy in another language, with the same pictures — a classic included. A storyteller reads the copy in its new language.
Reading stats
Which stories were heard this week, how many to the end, for how long, and in whose voice. Counted on your phone and kept there.
A picture for every tile
Rewrote a few pages? One tap picks a fresh picture for each tile from what it says now.
Pricing
Start free. Upgrade if you want more.
The free app never runs out: everything listed there works for as long as you use it. Plus starts with a week free.
TapTales
Nothing to sign up for.
- All twelve narrated classics
- Make as many stories of your own as you like
- Record three of them in your own voice
- Paste a story in and get the tiles made for you
- Any story read by the iPhone voice
- Family sharing and iCloud sync
TapTales Plus
Try it free for a week. Cancel any time in your Apple account.
- Unlimited recordings in your own voice — every story, and everyone in the family
- Covers everyone in your family, on their own phones — everything but reading stats, which stay with you
- Your own photos on the tiles
- Bedtime mode: stories back to back on a dimmed screen, then it stops
- Save a story as a video, or a picture book to print
- Translate any story into another language
- Reading stats: what was read, how often, and by whom
- One tap fills every tile with a picture that matches its words
TapTales Pro
Everything in Plus, and a storyteller.
- Everything in Plus
- Five stories a month narrated by a storyteller, from five voices
Plus and Pro are auto-renewing monthly subscriptions bought inside the app. Plus's free week is for new subscribers; unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends, it becomes a paid month. Payment is charged to your Apple account and renews each month unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Moving from Plus to Pro takes effect straight away. See the Terms of Use.
Guides
Stories only you can tell.
Step-by-step ideas for a first story, each one following the real screens.
Tonight's story, in your voice.
Make the first one in about ten minutes. It'll get read long after you've put the phone down.
Download on the App Store