Parents worry that giving their children a smartphone too early will contribute to attention problems and possibly expose them to inappropriate content. At the same time, parents also want their kids to stay connected to friends and family for social and security reasons.

Toymail is a company launching out of our Winter 2016 class that offers an elegant solution by allowing kids to use their WIFI-enabled plush toys to communicate with friends and family. Parents can send voice messages through the app throughout the day while the kids simply respond with their toy.

Aaron Souppouris wrote about Toymail recently in a story on Engadget:

“Talkies build on the basic functionality of the original line with a number of new features. As before, you connect the toy to WiFi, download an app, and you can then send messages between the two. But now it’s opened up a bit. You can send messages to multiple contacts through a Talkie, play back the last 10 messages you’ve received, and record messages offline for sending later. Also new is the ability to talk to other kids (provided they’re approved contacts) toy-to-toy, without going through an app.”

Read the full story about Toymail here.