Mumsnet users review Sky Kids App

[EllieMumsnet]

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This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who tested out the free Sky Kids app. Testers had to download the app and have a little play with all of its functions and features; the test was open to all UK MNers who had Sky Kids as part of their Sky package and have at least one child aged 2-10.

Here’s is some information on the app and what Sky has to say: The dedicated Sky Kids app: A world of entertainment for them, peace of mind for you. Featuring:
- Over 5000 episodes on demand
- 17 channels
- Parental controls such as bedtime settings, meaning you can stay in control
- Personal profiles with tailored, age-appropriate content
- Masses of fun and educational games and quizzes for all ages (currently only available on tablet, coming soon to mobile)

Testers please answer the following questions:

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?
• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?
• What was your favourite feature on the app?
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

All testers who leave the required feedback will receive a £10 Amazon voucher each.

Thank you and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky kids app?
Very satisfied. We found this very easy to use with excellent content.

Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?
Definitely. After the initial set up I handed it to my 4.5 year old who only needed minimal assistance to navigate around it and with practice I’m sure she’ll quickly get the hang of it.

What was your favourite feature on the app?
Being able to restrict the content to that which is only suitable for under 5’s.

Would you recommend the app to your friends and family?
Definitely and I already have!

Do you think anything could be improved on the app?
Being able to lock the app with a pin to stop my daughter from coming out the app and browsing my phone.

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Extremely satisfied with the app. Extensive content available

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Very easy to use and navigate
• What was your favourite feature on the app? The you can download some content
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Definitely recommend and already have
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? Games or stories could be added to enhance content.

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Fairly satisfied. We enjoyed using the app mainly for the shows.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes, although the buttons are almost too interesting. As they are colourful and big my daughter just wanted to see what they all did a lot and therefore kept pausing shows and scrolling through. Probably wouldn’t be a problem for an older user.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

The variety of shows.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

It would be good if episodes followed on from each other. And to have more episodes available, I.e.whole series. We mainly watched paw patrol (as a fave in this house) and there wasn’t many of the newer episodes available.

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Very satisified. It was very bright and colourful. I liked that it was more than just a demand service and had games to play too.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

My daughter is 5 and she found it very easy to navigate. After a quick show of what you could do she was well away. The parental controls were easy to find, though slightly annoyed i had to sign in as i had forgot my sky password, but easily sorted after that.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

The multiple accounts feature. Ive got a 5yo and a 1yo who are both into different things so having it personalise witg suggestions relevant to them was very good.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Definitely if they have children who i feel would enjoy it.

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

Some of the programs only have the older episodes and not the newer ones they are showing on tv.

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Very satisfied, bright, engaging, I even liked the loading icon, with the little colourful balls rotating round, claiming rather than usual egg timers or other circular icons that can be frustrating.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes very easy to use and scroll through both the home screen suggestions and also the series within the channels. My boys found it very intuitive and we’re soon flicking through the different choice with ease.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

The way that the episodes are set out to scroll through once the boys selected their favourite shows, they have specific favourites they like to re-watch and of course finding the ones they haven’t already seen was easy too.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes, better than sky go in the sense that it’s ‘safe’ no option for the boys to find anything not appropriate to their age.

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

After we’ve watched a few shows the home screen selection didn’t change. Not sure if we needed to watch more or whether the functionality to recognise favourites isn’t there. Would be good to have a more personalised home screen based on what they often view with suggestions for things they may like.

I also couldn’t find the promised settings around viewing time/bedtime. I used it through the mobile app, not sure if that affects things.

Finally the ability to download shows, even if just for a limited period would be invaluable, having just flown short haul with my boys, i’d have definitely used this app more than others if they could have watched content offline, as per skygo app.

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Very satisfied

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

It was very easy to use and find what my daughter wanted.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

The easy to use format, even my 3 year old mindees could find what they wanted quickly and easily.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family

Yes

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

Nope

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?
Very satisfied- my daughter used it while she was away with her grandparents this week and really like it.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes, although a search function would make things a bit easier.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

The videos - my daughter was keen to try out new shows she hadn't seen.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Definitely

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

As others have said, a search feature would be really handy

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Pretty satisfied, it worked well and the children found it easy to navigate with little adult assistance

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes, the children found it easy. We set up two profiles and switching between them wasn't always simple but that's a minor gripe.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

Having lots of tv shows in one place is helpful

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Probably

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

I think the age ranges for limiting channels could be tweaked - DS is 5 but a lot of the citv stuff for example is a bit old for him. However some of the channels he likes weren't available on the under 5 profile - I wasn't able to find a parental control to choose which channels to include and that would be really useful

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

We both found it really easy to use, child friendly interface was great!

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

I liked that it limits the content for the kids, so they aren’t exposed to programmes which are unsuitable, but still able to watch their programmes

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Yes definitely!
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

I think you could do with a ‘ten’ or ‘tween’ option so that older kids feel that they are getting access, without it being a younger kids interface.

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Very happy. It has the shows our kids love

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes except I couldn't find how to restrict times
• What was your favourite feature on the app? Having a user for each child
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Yes
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? A way of restricting usage time and locking the child out of other apps by pressing home key on the phone

I was very satisfied with the app, it is easy for both my daughters and I to use and it has the shows they both like watching.

Yes it was easy to use and navigate.

My girls’ favourite feature was being able to watch their favourite shows.

I would definitely recommend it to family and friends.

I can’t think of anything that could be improved upon.

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?
Very satisifed, appealing design, simple but functional
Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?
Yes - 9 year old no issues, 7 year old needed a bit of help finding favourite programmes
What was your favourite feature on the app?
Being in control as a parent
Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?
If asked yes
Do you think anything could be improved on the app?
Not that I can think of

My son liked all the colours on the app and found it pretty easy to use.

He loved being able to have all his favourite programmes at his fingertips

We are avid sky users and this app just adds to the experience. We will continue to use it

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Very happy. It has the shows our kids love and we could set the age limit for content.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes - both daughters figured it out - even a 2 year old!
• What was your favourite feature on the app? We’ve maxed out our sky go subscription on other devices so it was another way I could let my toddler watch paw patrol on my phone for journeys etc!
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Yes
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? I agree with previous comment about locking the child out of other apps by pressing home key on the phone.

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Very satisfied

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes. My son is 5 and managed to use the app with ease.

• What was your favourite feature on the app?
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Being able to easily find the programmes he wanted to watch. Yes would recommend

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? No, he loved it!

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Very. It's great to have everything in one place that DD can easily access without going to separate channels

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

It was easy to use for both of us. I like the fact that the graphics were really bold and the large pictures made it easy for DD (age 2) to easily find what she wanted to watch

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

That you can customise for more than one child and the fact that it also incorporated cbeebies and milkshake

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

More channels and programmes added

- Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Very satisfied, it was easy to use and great to have all the kids content in one place

- Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes, we both found it easy to work our way around it

- What was your favourite feature on the app? The variety of shows was good although it could do with a few more. The parental control is good.

- Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Yes I would

- Do you think anything could be improved on the app? Being able to set access to a few more shows would be good, my daughter at 10 is watching a few shows that weren't coming up

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? It was OK. A bit clunky and a shame you can't get it on a kindle (which my kids have)

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes

• What was your favourite feature on the app? The parental controls

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? Yes

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? A wider range of shows. Perhaps ones that could be added with parental OK? My daughter is older and watches documentaries etc.

I was very satisfied with the Sky Kids App - it kept my children entertained and gave me peace of mind that they would not be exposed to inappropriate content when streaming their favourite shows.

We both found the app very easy to use. The menu’s bold icons meant my daughter could easily see the shows she likes the best. I found the setup and settings extremely simple to use - it was all very intuitive.

My favourite feature was having the time setting that allows you to control how much screen time your child is getting. I thought this was a brilliant feature, especially if you have older children who may have tablet in their bedroom and may stay up late watching shows.

I would definitely recommend this to friends and family - it has so much to offer parents and kids.

My only suggestion for improvement would be to make the Sky Buddy more customisable with colour options. However this is only a minor point!

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?
Pretty satisfied. It’s a nice user friendly interface.

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes. My kids are pretty tech savvy though!

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

Nice clear icons, colourful, appealing to kids.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes for anyone with Sky

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

The search function on the mobile app didn’t bring up a programme which I knew was on there from looking manually. I haven’t looked on a tablet yet to see if there’s different functionality on there.

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app? Very, easy to download and has everything we could need to give me 5 minutes peace!
• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate? Yes the girls loved that they had all their favourite episodes, they loved the buddies and found it really easy to navigate
• What was your favourite feature on the app? The timer - i loved being able to know that it would switch off at a certain time and come on again in the morning!
• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family? yes most definitely and already have
• Do you think anything could be improved on the app? not really we loved it and the girls did too so job done!

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

I really enjoyed using the Sky Kids app! It is perfect for my little ones aged almost 5 and 3, and it had a great range of shows and games available. I love that it's free too!

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes, very!!

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

I love that the programmes are suitable for my little ones age, as they take age into consideration on their profile. This means I know what they're watching is appropriate and safe.

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes! It is perfect for little ones and I would 100% recommend even if they didn't have Sky.

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

The only negative of the app is that some older programmes only have one series on the app. I would love if they had the whole collections on there, so we didn't have to watch the same episodes on repeat!

Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?
My children love accessing the app, it contains all their favourite channels and in turn the shows and episodes they enjoy.

Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?
Yes, it was great to see that the video content was separate from the games content. With each of the different channels easy to navigate and find episodes to watch.

What was your favourite feature on the app?
As a parent it was the profile settings for each of my children. Letting them have their own area to design a buddy and select the content from the range of channels available.

Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?
Yes, the large age appropriate content database is fantastic. With profiles being able to set up for each child they can continue the episode they were enjoying at the touch of a button.

Do you think anything could be improved on the app?
I'd love to see kids movies added, especially if parents have the sky cinema subscription.

• Overall how satisfied were you with the Sky Kids app?

Very, it seems like a good bonus to having Sky

• Did both you and your child find the app easy to use and navigate?

Yes very easy

• What was your favourite feature on the app?

DS liked being able to watch K.C.Undercover. I liked the fact it means I can delete all the episodes on the planner!!

• Would you recommend the app to your friends and/or family?

Yes definitely

• Do you think anything could be improved on the app?

No

The app is great very easy to navigate. I loved that it kept my kids entertained but also that it had a timer on it so they knew it was time to stop watching. They also loved that they could watch content that was aimed at their age.

I would definitely recommended it to my family and friends it’s a good addition to Sky.

I can’t think of any improvements it’s fab