Device Alternatives

Yoto may be our origin story, but the TOYO community also plays with many other devices. Consider checking these out and if you are interested in buying one, look for a referral link in the Discord channel to help give back to the community in a small but simple way.

Ecosystem Devices

These devices are built as a platform. You buy the device and then can continue to add to your library by purchasing or creating additional content later on.

Yoto

https://www.yotoplay.com NFC card-based audio player designed for children. Cards link to audio content (music, stories, podcasts, personal recordings, etc) that the player device will download and play. Also functions as a simple bluetooth speaker.

Tokidos Playcubes

https://tokidos.com/ Screen-less game console. Its a set of 6 cubes the size of your fist. Each cube has a speaker, a set of buttons, and an LED array on the top. Kid pops a game card into one of the cubes and off they go with an interactive story or game or puzzle. Most games are built for parents to play with their child.

Audio Adventures

https://www.trumantoys.com Choose-your-own adventure gaming device. Each adventure comes on a cartridge and the user interacts with 3 buttons to make decisions that take them through the story.

Birde

https://birde.co/ NFC card-based audio player designed for children. Cards link to audio content (music, stories, podcasts, personal recordings, etc) that the player device will download and play.

DIY Platforms

Love the idea of the ecosystem device but feel like you could make it yourself, or want more control over how it works? Check out these projects that are designed for you to build it yourself.

Phoniebox

https://phoniebox.de/index-en.html This contactless jukebox for Raspberry Pi plays local music and podcasts, audio books, also webradio, live streams, spotify and more. Simply swipe the RFID card, fob or sticker to trigger the audio fun. Quickly assembled from plug'n'play components, this free software solution is fun to build and just as much fun to use.

Self-Contained Kits

Single-purchase kits that include the base device and the whole set of content it is designed to provide.

Giggaboo

https://www.amazon.com/Qiaojoy-Screen-Free-Bluetooth-Compatible-Headphones-Creative/dp/B0CBFTGGT1 A knockoff of the yoto format pretty directly, but this is an entirely self-contained bundle of content-with-device.