Help & FAQ

How can we help?

Everything you need to know about Ekoko — getting started, using the app, account, privacy, and more.

Getting Started

Setting up Ekoko for your family.

What is Ekoko?

Ekoko is a family connection app for children aged 5 to 12 and their parents. It's designed to bring families closer through gentle daily routines, mood check-ins, kindness, and a personal mascot companion (an "iKid") that your child chooses.

Unlike most kids' apps, Ekoko is deliberately not built to maximise screen time — we use technology to encourage off-screen moments between parents and children.

What age is Ekoko for?

Ekoko is designed for children aged 5 to 12, used together with a parent. Parents create the account and approve everything the child does. The child's experience is age-appropriate, safe, and never includes open-ended chat or external content.

How do I set up Ekoko?

Setting up takes about 5 minutes:

  • Download Ekoko from the App Store and create a parent account.
  • Verify your email (we'll send a confirmation link).
  • Confirm parental consent (a quick double-confirmation email step).
  • Create a profile for your child and choose their iKid companion (Koala, Fox, Tiger or Bear).
  • Pair your child's device using the 6-digit PIN we generate.

That's it — you're ready to start.

Do I need a separate device for my child?

Yes — Ekoko works best across two devices. The parent app and the child app are designed differently, with different features, so they should be on separate devices (your phone or tablet, and your child's tablet or phone).

If you only have one device for now, you can still create a parent account and explore the parent side. But the full Ekoko experience needs both.

What devices does Ekoko work on?

At launch, Ekoko is available on iPhone and iPad (iOS). Android support is coming later as a future update.

Using Ekoko

Daily routines, missions, and how the app works.

What can my child do in Ekoko?

Your child can:

  • Check in with how they're feeling each day
  • Receive warm messages and challenges from their iKid companion
  • Earn tokens for kind acts, completing routines, and learning new skills
  • Grow their Kindness Garden by being kind
  • Send voice notes to you
  • Listen to messages from you, spoken in their mascot's voice
What can I (the parent) do in Ekoko?

You have your own dashboard where you can:

  • Send messages and challenges to your child (delivered in their iKid's voice)
  • Track moods, routines, and progress over time
  • Set rewards and tokens for completed challenges
  • View premium meals (macros, history, trends)
  • Manage your child's profile and settings
How do messages from me reach my child?

When you type or record a message for your child, Ekoko converts it to confirmed text and delivers it through your child's chosen iKid mascot's voice. So your message "Time for bed, sweetheart" arrives as Koala (or Fox, Tiger, Bear) saying it warmly.

This makes everyday parenting moments feel magical for your child — the message comes from a friend they love, but it's really from you.

Can my child send messages to me?

Yes — your child can send short voice notes to you. These come through as normal voice recordings (not mascot voices). It's a sweet way for them to share something with you during the day.

What are tokens and how are they earned?

Tokens are Ekoko's gentle reward system. Your child earns tokens for:

  • Acts of kindness
  • Completing daily routines
  • Learning new skills (with you)
  • Meeting parent-set challenges
  • Gifting tokens back to family members

Tokens grow the Kindness Garden, and your child can also choose to gift them to family members as a small act of love.

Are there ads?

No. Never. Ekoko is completely ad-free. Your child will never see advertising of any kind — not from us, and not from third parties.

Is Ekoko safe for my child to use alone?

Ekoko is designed to be used with a parent — it's built for shared moments. That said, the child app is completely safe for them to open by themselves: there's no open-ended chat, no external links, no advertising, no way to contact strangers, and no addictive engagement loops.

Mascots & Voices

Your iKid companions and how they speak.

Who are the iKid mascots?

At launch, Ekoko has four iKid companions, each with their own personality:

  • Koala — calm, nurturing, safe
  • Fox — curious, clever, playful
  • Tiger — energetic, brave, confident
  • Bear — caring, calm, grounded

Your child chooses one as their iKid companion. More mascots will be added as content drops over time.

Can my child name their iKid?

Yes — your child gives their iKid a personal name when they choose it, just like naming a pet or a favourite stuffed animal. It makes the iKid uniquely theirs.

Can my child change their mascot later?

Yes, your child can change which mascot is their iKid at any time. Their tokens and progress stay with them across changes.

How do the mascot voices work?

Each mascot has its own warm, gentle voice generated through professional voice technology. When you send a message to your child, the mascot speaks it in their own voice — making the moment feel magical.

The voices are carefully chosen to feel age-appropriate, warm, and safe.

The Kindness Garden

How kindness grows a living world.

What is the Kindness Garden?

The Kindness Garden is your child's personal garden inside Ekoko. When they give tokens, the garden grows: plants and trees sprout and mature, fruit appears and falls, and animals visit to eat the fallen fruit.

The message is simple: kindness creates a living world that feeds others.

Do you plant real trees?

No — the Kindness Garden is virtual, by design. We considered real-world tree-planting partnerships but chose a virtual garden because:

  • It's a more magical, visible experience for children
  • It teaches kindness as something that creates beauty, not just a transaction
  • It avoids the complexity and ongoing costs of charity partnerships, which kept our subscription affordable

The Kindness Garden focuses on the feeling of kindness — the ripple effect — which we think is what really teaches generosity.

What animals visit the garden?

As the garden grows and fruit falls, gentle animals appear to enjoy it — rabbits, birds, deer, hedgehogs and more. The more kindness in the garden, the richer and more alive it becomes.

Account & Billing

Subscriptions, payments, and account management.

How much does Ekoko cost?

Ekoko offers a free tier and a Premium subscription. You'll see current pricing in the App Store when you download. We try to keep Ekoko genuinely accessible — most families find Premium works out to less than a coffee a month. A free trial is also available so you can experience Premium before committing.

What's included in Premium?

Premium includes everything Ekoko offers:

  • All four iKid mascots and their voices
  • Parent-to-child mascot voice messages
  • The full Kindness Garden
  • Premium Meals (macros, calendar, trends)
  • All routines, missions, and challenges
  • Full parent dashboard with insights
  • Unlimited history
What's included in the free tier?

Our free tier lets you experience the core of Ekoko: one iKid mascot, basic routines, a starter Kindness Garden, and mood check-ins. It's a real, meaningful experience — and you can upgrade to Premium whenever you're ready.

Can I try Ekoko before subscribing?

Yes. A free trial of Premium is available to new families. You'll only be charged if you choose to continue after the trial period. You can cancel any time during the trial at no cost.

How do I cancel my subscription?

You can cancel anytime through your Apple ID subscription settings:

  • Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad
  • Tap your name at the top, then Subscriptions
  • Find Ekoko in the list
  • Tap Cancel Subscription

You'll keep access until the end of your current billing period.

How do I delete my account?

You can request account deletion from within the parent app (Settings → Delete Account) or by emailing us at hello@ekoko.app.

Once requested, your account and your child's records are permanently deleted within 24 hours. We keep only a minimal consent record as required by law (COPPA audit).

I was charged but can't access Premium

This usually resolves with a quick restore:

  • Open Ekoko
  • Go to Settings → Subscription → Restore Purchases
  • Sign in with the Apple ID used to subscribe

If that doesn't fix it, please email us at hello@ekoko.app with your purchase receipt and we'll sort it for you.

Privacy & Safety

How we protect children and your family's data.

What data does Ekoko collect about my child?

We collect the minimum needed for the app to work: your child's first name (or chosen iKid name), age band, mood check-ins, completed routines, token activity, and short voice notes they send you. No surnames, no photos, no precise location, no phone numbers, no identifying information beyond what's needed for the app to function.

You can read our full Privacy Policy for details.

Is Ekoko COPPA-compliant?

Yes. Ekoko follows the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) carefully, including verifiable parental consent using the "email-plus" double-confirmation method. We also comply with UK GDPR-K and the UK Children's Code.

How is parental consent verified?

When you sign up, we verify you're a parent through a double-confirmation email process: you confirm your email, then receive a first consent email, then after a short waiting period receive a second confirmation email. Only after both confirmations can a child profile be created.

This is the COPPA-approved "email-plus" verifiable parental consent method.

Do you sell or share my child's data?

Never. We do not sell, rent, or share children's data with advertisers, marketers, or third parties for any purpose. We use a small number of trusted technical providers (Firebase, Postmark, etc.) to run the app safely — they're listed in our Privacy Policy.

Where is my data stored?

All Ekoko data is stored in Europe (Google Cloud's EU multi-region for the database, EU-West-1 for storage, and EU-West-2 in London for processing). Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.

Can I see what data Ekoko has about my family?

Yes — under GDPR and other privacy laws, you can request a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Just email hello@ekoko.app with your request and we'll respond within 5 business days.

Does Ekoko use AI? Will my child talk to a chatbot?

We use AI thoughtfully — for warm mascot voices and helpful parent insights — but never as a chatbot for children. Your child will never have an open-ended conversation with an AI in Ekoko.

Our principle is simple: AI for parents = useful. AI talking to children = minimal, controlled, never open-ended. The relationships your child needs most are human ones.

Troubleshooting

Quick fixes for common issues.

The pairing PIN isn't working

Pairing PINs expire after 5 minutes for security. If yours has expired:

  • On the parent device, go to Settings → Pair a Child Device → Generate New PIN
  • Enter the new PIN on the child device within 5 minutes

If pairing still fails, make sure both devices are connected to the internet and try restarting the app.

I'm not receiving the confirmation email

Please check your spam or junk folder first — confirmation emails sometimes land there. If you still can't find it:

  • Make sure you entered your email correctly (a typo is the most common cause)
  • Try requesting a new confirmation email from the sign-up screen
  • Add hello@ekoko.app to your contacts to help future emails arrive in your inbox

Still stuck? Email hello@ekoko.app and we'll help you sort it.

The mascot voice isn't playing

A few things to check:

  • Make sure your child's device is not on silent mode
  • Check the volume is turned up
  • Confirm the device is connected to the internet (voices load from our servers)
  • Try closing and reopening Ekoko
The app is running slowly or crashing

Sorry about that — first, try the basics:

  • Close Ekoko fully and reopen it
  • Restart your device
  • Make sure you're running the latest version (check the App Store for updates)
  • Make sure your device has at least 500 MB of free storage

If it keeps happening, please email us with the device model, iOS version, and what you were doing when it crashed. That helps us fix it quickly.

I forgot my password

On the sign-in screen, tap "Forgot Password" — we'll send a reset link to your email.

How do I switch to a new device?

Just download Ekoko on the new device and sign in with the same Apple ID and Ekoko account. Your child's profile, tokens, Kindness Garden, and history will all sync automatically.

Still need help?

We're a small, indie team and we read every email personally.
We aim to respond within one business day.

Email us at hello@ekoko.app