Quick Answer
Some of the best storytelling apps include Kidlo Bedtime Stories for Kids, Little Stories: Bedtime Books, Bedtime Story Co: Tap to Sleep – all of which are specifically designed for bedtime story telling. There are generic storytelling apps like Moshi Kids, Kidly, and Smart Kidz Club which will inspire the small ones to explore the wonderful world of books and stories.
One of the best ways to impart knowledge to kids is to tell them educational stories. However, today’s kids live in the modern digital world. They have more screens in front of their little eyes than previous generations could ever dream of. Parents, also due to a lack of time or their “me time,” give their children (even newborns) a mobile phone or tablet to lure them into eating or keep them calm. While this is wrong, technology is not all that bad. You can use technology to your advantage and take as much benefit as possible from their exposure to a screen.
There are multiple storytelling apps available for both Android and iOS devices that you can use, not only for entertainment purposes but also for the important purpose of teaching them a thing or two. These apps can be used during holidays, travel, or even during summer or winter breaks. In this guide, we have listed some of the best storytelling apps that range from simple bedtime stories with fun pictures to stories for older kids, taking them to a whole new fantasy world.
Table of Contents
7 Best iOS and Android storytelling apps
Sl no | App Name | Description | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kidlo Bedtime Stories for Kids | Contains over 200 exciting stories from various genres, with interactive features. | Android |
2 | Little Stories: Bedtime Books | Offers over 2500+ pictures and short stories, allowing customization of the main character. | Android, iOS |
3 | Bedtime Story Co: Tap to Sleep | Provides 'Goodnight' interactive stories to help children sleep, with options to save favorites and customize routines. | Android, iOS |
4 | Moshi Kids | Offers bedtime stories, games, and educational activities, with 100% ad-free experience. | Android, iOS |
5 | Epic: Kids' Books & Reading | Boasts over 40,000 digital books and videos, with options for offline reading and rewards for users. | Android, iOS |
6 | Kidly | Offers curated stories in multiple languages, with personalized recommendations and meditation exercises. | Android, iOS |
7 | Smart Kidz Club | Provides ad-free stories and interactive features to enhance vocabulary and critical thinking. | Android, iOS |
Kidlo Bedtime Stories for Kids – Interactive stories for kids
One of the best and most highly rated apps on the Google Play Store for storytelling is the Kidlo Bedtime Stories for Kids app. It contains over 200 exciting stories from various genres, ranging from Cinderella to The Fox and the Grapes and many more. There are a lot of stories with different characters, themes, and worlds for your kids to get immersed in.
According to me, one of the best features of this storytelling app is that it gives you a quiz at the end of a story, where you need to answer some questions related to the story to know how much you have understood from the story. Do note that all stories available in the Bedtime Stories for Kids storytelling app are in English.
The app is pretty easy to use, however, the ads after every story may annoy you, but that’s how these apps earn money, and for the stories on offer, some ads are worth it. The app has animated characters and interactive stories to keep the young ones engaged, helps them learn English by highlighting important words, has an achievement board to keep kids motivated, and more.
- Over 240 interactive stories
- Has an achievement board to keep kids motivated for rewards
- Easy-to-use app interface
- Highlights every word to help young learners read easily
- Only four stories are available to read for free. To read more, you need to purchase a subscription
- Stories are available only in English
- Some users reported touch issues with the app
- Shows ads after every story and asks for feedback all the time
Little Stories: Bedtime Books – Let your child be the main character
Another popular bedtime storytelling app that you can consider for your young champ is Little Stories: Bedtime Books by Diveo Media. This storytelling app is available for both Android and iOS. The app boasts over 2500+ pictures and short stories, including over 60 fairy tales, with more added regularly. All stories are suitable for children above 3 years of age.
One of the best things about this storytelling app is that you can let your child be the main character of the story. All you need to do is enter the name of your children and gender in the settings window, and bam! you can read fairy tales about your children. The app also gives you the option to make your very own audiobooks, where you can voiceover any story. The app supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
The stories have beautifully crafted melodies and pictures meant to leave a positive impact on the children. The user interface is also very easy to use, and it doesn’t have ads. I found that the voice recording feature for audiobooks is hit-and-miss, and you only get a single story for free, while for the rest, you need to purchase a subscription.
- Lets you make your children the main characters of the story
- Beautifully crafted stories with melodies and vibrant pictures
- You can voiceover any story to give that personalized feel
- Don’t botch the experience with ads
- Supports multiple languages
- Only 1 story can be read for free
- Subscription price is on the higher side
Bedtime Story Co: Tap to Sleep – Interactive friends for your little ones
The Bedtime Story Co.: Tap to Sleep offers a collection of bedtime stories that are soothing for your little ones. The app contains a set of ‘Goodnight’ stories that are interactive with just a simple tap, allowing your young ones to interact with their virtual friends. The app offers the option to save favorite stories and customize the bedtime routines to suit their children’s needs.
The app starts with ‘Goodnight Zoo,’ which is available for free and offers an enjoyable way to help your kid learn and go to sleep. This storytelling app isn’t filled with flashy images or over-the-top music but focuses on calmness to help the child have a sound sleep. The stories are also mindful of children with ADHD, autism, and epilepsy.
It offers you two modes, Interactive Play and Autoplay, and the stories with minimal animations create a calming atmosphere for children under 5 years to have a relaxing sleep. There is parental control that helps block unintended purchases and ensures a safe experience. It offers you a 7-day free trial, and the Goodnight Zoo story is free forever.
- Engaging content with simple interactive stories
- Minimal animations and calming melodies for a gentle sleep
- Allows downloading stories
- Parental controls for setting bedtime routines
- Only one free content
- The subscription model can be a bit pricy
- A few users claimed technical issues, especially when paying for a subscription
Moshi Kids – Read stories, play games and more
Moshi Kids offers a great way of imparting knowledge and helping your kids have a sound sleep, not only through stories but with fun little games, sleep sounds, white noise, and other educational activities. The best part is that this app is 100% ad-free. The app boasts over 100 hours of sleep content for kids aged 0–12, which includes bedtime stories, white noise, and more. The app is available for both Android and iOS.
What I liked about this app is the fact that, apart from the standard fun games that it offers, there are 50 guided meditation and breathing exercises designed especially for kids that will help them take on the art of meditation at an early age. Audio-based stories are great for over-excited kids, as it helps them stay calm, attentive, and manage their emotions. The user interface is something your child will like, as it is filled with fun colors, not flashy ones.
With fun activities like coloring, interactive games, puzzles, memory games, matching, and hide-and-seek, your kid will stay engaged and learn in a fun way. The app has everything that you can include in your child’s bedtime routine. The one downside that I found was that the subscription prices are way too high.
- No ads
- Fun games such as coloring, puzzles, hide-n-seek to keep the young ones engaged
- Stories are engaging
- Includes breathing and meditation exercises designed for kids
- Subscription price is high
- Many users have had billing issues
Epic: Kids’ Books & Reading – Over 40,000 digital content for your kids
Epic boasts over 40,000 books, audiobooks, learning videos, and more and is touted to be the world’s largest digital library for kids. I found this app a good tool; however, the user interface has a slight learning curve. One of the good things about this app is that you can pull up a library that is filled with books as per the level of your kids.
This storytelling and learning app lets you download the books to read them offline. If your child isn’t into reading, then you can make use of the read-to-me or audiobooks that have voices from talented actors, fun music, and sound effects that your kid will love. The app gives rewards to the reader for reading and completing quizzes, which will keep your kids motivated.
There are animated books as well that are engaging, and the Epic app is available on both Android and iOS. However, sometimes I found that the book suggestions weren’t appropriate, and often, the downloaded books did not work offline.
- Lots of books and digital content for your kids
- The books are educational and easy to read
- Lets you download books for offline use
- Audiobooks are well-created with great sound effects
- A subscription is required to access all the books
- The app crashes often, especially when accessing downloaded books
- Free books are limited
Kidly – Offers some of the best stories
If we had to rank the above apps, Kidly would surely come among the top picks for the stories it has to offer. The illustrated stories and read-aloud stories are so well curated that even grown-ups would get engaged. Kidly is an Education Alliance Finland (EAF)-certified product that ensures safe and high-quality screen time for your kids.
The stories are available in multiple languages, allowing your children to learn not only their native language but foreign languages as well. I would love to give it a brownie point for the fact that it also offers meditation and relaxing exercises that will help the young mind be attentive, improve their focus, and sleep well.
The Kidly app offers Parental Controls, where parents can keep track of their children’s reading and developmental reports. Your kids will stay engaged as the app offers rewards and badges for completing certain tasks. There are several Kidly originals in the app that I loved reading, as the characters and stories are so well thought out.
- Easy-to-use interface
- A bunch of Kidly originals that are fun to read
- Wide selection of stories
- Meditation and excesses designed for kids
- Personalized recommendations
- Parental Controls
- Subscription prices are on the higher side
- App crashing issue
Smart Kidz Club – No ads, just stories
The Smart Kidz Club storytelling app is another good app that offers engaging stories and various other features. There is a vast selection of books for kids that are knowledge-imparting and inspirational. The app gives you stories to read and helps boost vocabulary, enhancing critical thinking and overall development.
It’s good that the app doesn’t offer you any ads whatsoever. There are many interactive stories that your kids would love to read. Besides, there is progress tracking, which ensures the learning is at the right pace. There are flashcards as well that will help your child learn word recognition.
Apart from readable books, it also offers audiobooks. The app works offline as well and gives badges and rewards for completing certain levels. It works on both Android and iOS devices.
- Works offline
- Stories are engaging and keep you engaged
- Flashcards to learn new words and word recognition
- Also offers audiobooks
- Free content is limited
- The subscription cost is high
Give your kids quality screentime
The above storytelling apps are some of the best, if not the best, apps available for Android and iOS. Not only your kids, but you as a parent also need to have a sound sleep to take on the world the next day. Read our guide, which explains the different kinds of noise colors and helps you decide which noise color is apt for you to get better sleep. If you want more depth and are really into reading books, then we would suggest reading our guide which will help you with searching and downloading e-books for free. We also have a guide that lists down some of the best apps to read Manga on Android and iOS.
