It plays what you already have. No cards.
Your kid runs it. You curate it. No screen. Robi plays the podcasts, audiobooks, music, library books, your own voice and the stories you make up together. Once something is on Robi, it stays on Robi. One price.
You're on the list.
Want to test a working Robi before launch? Apply for the beta. It takes about two minutes.
Built for the back seat
Two hours of highway, no signal, and nobody asked for a phone.
That is the test Robi is built to pass. A four-year-old in the back with the handle in one hand, and a story that keeps going through every dead zone because it was already on the player before you left the driveway. They have the story. You have the road.
How it works
Turn. Press. Skip. That's the whole interface.
A three-year-old can run it. You pick what's on it from your phone, then hand it over and walk away.
Turn
Volume. The knob is the biggest thing on the front, and small hands find it first.
Press
Play and pause. One click, with a sound so they know it heard them.
Skip
Next and back. One button on each end of the shell, big enough for mittens.
Chosen by grown-ups
You choose what goes on.
Run by kids
They choose what plays.
What it plays
Everything you already listen to.
Other players sell you the library one card at a time. Robi is a player, not a tollbooth: its library is the one your family already has, plus the sound of your own voice.
Podcasts
Any show with an RSS feed. Search by name in the app or paste the link. Keep a show updated if you want to; nothing new lands on Robi unless you chose it.
Audiobooks and library books
Free classics from Librivox and any audiobook feed. Borrowing through Libby is in development.
Music
The albums and playlists you already own, loaded from the app as files. A dance mix for the kitchen, a quiet one for the drive home.
Your voice
Record a bedtime story or a good-morning message from the app. It plays on Robi when you can't be there.
Stories you make together
Name the hero, pick a theme, set an age. You read every word before your kid hears it.
Mixes
Line up shows, songs and stories into a bedtime mix or a road-trip mix. One press runs the whole lineup.
One Robi, your colours
Dress it.
White with the red handle out of the box. Silicone sleeves in the colours kids actually pick. Planned for launch; colours not final.
The math, honestly
The player price is not the whole price.
A card player costs less on day one. By the eighth story it costs more, and it keeps going. Robi is paid for once.
$99 player, then $10 to $15 a story. Twenty stories in:
$300+and counting
Plays what you already have. Any number of stories in:
$149once, preliminary
Card and player prices are US list prices as of early 2026. Robi's price is set before preorders open.
Yours to keep
A player you own, not one you rent.
Every design file and every line of code will be published before launch, free to build yourself, and all of it becomes open source automatically within two years. That is written into the license, not a promise. If kid.studio ever winds down, everything opens within 90 days.
Print a new shell. Fix it yourself. Build one from the files. The pairing protocol is documented, so the community could rebuild the app from scratch. For makers
Who makes it
kid.studio, Santa Cruz, California.
A small studio building screen-free things for kids. Robi is the first. Rev A boards are on the bench now; the Kickstarter opens early 2027, and we write the build down as we go.
Latest build note · 27 October 2026
Getting Robi ready for other families. The board is finished and checked, a bench unit goes on the list, and the first parent conversations raise the question of a screen.
Kickstarter, early 2027
Be there when Robi ships.
One email when preorders open. Build notes in between if you want them. Nothing else.
You're on the list.
Want to test a working Robi before launch? Apply for the beta. It takes about two minutes.