A new AI-powered app called Splat lets users turn everyday photos, such as a family photo or a snapshot of a beloved pet, into a printable colouring book page designed especially for kids.
The app has been developed by the same tech startup that owns Retro, a photo-sharing app just for close friends and family. Users can also turn kid-friendly, educational content such as images of animals, space, flowers, fairy tales, robots, cars, and more, into colouring book pages.
While Splat offers one generative AI project as a free trial, users can continue to generate new pictures through the app by paying either $4.99 per week or $49.99 per year. While a weekly subscription allows users to generate and print 25 pages every week, the annual plan lets users print 500 pages per year.
The app is available for both iOS and Android users. While the internet is flooded with ready-made images for kids to colour, Splat could offer a personal touch by turning familiar faces, pets, and places into colouring pages. Many websites currently hosting colouring book pages are also cluttered with ads and difficult to navigate.
Retro is not alone in experimenting with how generative AI can be used to stimulate the creativity and imagination of kids. Another app called Stickerbox lets users print AI-generated stickers for colouring. A new robotic pet called Moflin, built by Casio, uses AI to develop its personality over time.
The rise of child-focused, AI-powered apps like Splat comes at a time when parents are weighing whether to let their children have access to mainstream AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The debate was reignited recently when Garry Tan, the CEO of Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator Y Combinator, said he helped his 10-year-old son use Google’s Gemini-powered Nano Banana to complete a crayon-shading page.
Tan has since deleted his post on X after it drew criticism from some users, who argued that such tools could inhibit the development of motor skills and patience in children.Story continues below this ad
How to use Splat?
To get started, users have to take a photo or upload one from their Camera Roll to the app. They have to choose the style of the photo to be turned into a colouring page, such as anime, 3D movie, manga, cartoon, or comic.
The app will then convert the photo using AI into an on-screen or printable page for kids to colour. When signing into the app, users can select the various categories that their child likes. In terms of child safety controls, Splat attempts to block options to purchase or access the settings by requiring authentication, that is, entering the parent’s birth year.
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