For parents

Bubble Pop is a simple tapping toy. Soft bubbles float up the screen, and a tap pops one with a little sound and a sparkle. Now and then a bubble carries a friendly animal or a shape, which shows big in the middle of the screen for a moment when it pops. There's nothing to win or lose: no score, no countdown, no levels, and no reading needed.

It's a play toy. We don't claim it teaches anything.

How it plays

Tap anywhere. A tap on a bubble pops it. A tap on empty space blows a new bubble from your child's finger. Every tap does something: at the very least it makes a soft sound.
Every pop is a note. The notes come from a five-note scale, so a run of pops sounds like a little tune. Big bubbles sing low, small ones high.
The pace follows your child. Quick popping brings a few more bubbles, up to a small limit; when your child slows down, so do the bubbles. The screen is never crowded. If every bubble gets popped, a new one floats in within a second or two, and a tap on empty space blows one.
Fast tapping stays calm. A hand slapping one spot over and over brings a new bubble about once a second at the most; the taps in between get a soft sound and, now and then, a small sparkle. A bubble that has only just appeared waits half a second before it can pop. Bubbles keep their distance: a new one is not blown right behind one that is still floating up from the same spot, new bubbles float in where there is room, and a bubble that catches up with another slows down instead of drifting over it. Many fingers at once are held to about 1.6 times the level of a single pop, in Bath time too.
Bath time is the calmer setting: fewer, bigger, slower bubbles, lower and softer sounds, and gentle water at the bottom.
Keyboard. On a computer, a key press works like a tap: it pops a bubble, or blows a new one when there is none to pop. No web page can stop a child closing the tab or window, switching to another app or pressing system keys, so stay close. In Chrome or Edge, Full screen (in the settings) lets the page hold more of the keys.

The grown-up lock

Once play starts, the page fills the screen and ignores scrolling, zooming and long-presses. Links and settings are out of reach.
To open settings, press and hold the round lock near the top right corner for 3 seconds with one finger. Only a finger on the lock itself counts, and a second finger on the screen cancels it, so a palm, a whole hand or a thumb resting on the corner won't open it. With a keyboard, type the word parent.
Settings: volume and mute, Bubbles or Bath time, animals on or off, a wind-down timer, full screen, share, and stop. Stop playing and Share lead out of the toy, so they need the same 3-second hold on their own buttons. The settings close by themselves after 30 seconds without a tap.
A child who holds one finger still on the lock for 3 seconds will open the settings too. That is the limit of any hold lock, and one more reason to stay close.
Where the browser allows it, the page also keeps the Back button inside the toy and asks before the tab closes.
Before play starts, links on this page ask first too: hold the button for 3 seconds, or type parent. Right after you stop play from the settings, the next link you tap within 20 seconds opens straight away; after that, links ask again. On a computer, the keyboard shortcuts and mouse side buttons for going back are switched off on this page, where the browser allows it.

Keep the phone in the browser

A web page can't stop the Home button, app switching or notifications. Your phone's own lock can, with one limit: it keeps the phone in your browser app, not on this page. The browser's own bars (the address bar, tabs, Back and menus) still work, and a child can still tap them. So also switch touch off over the bars (iPhone and iPad) or hide them with Full screen (Android), as the steps below say.

iPhone and iPad: Guided Access

Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Guided Access, and turn it on. Set a passcode under Passcode Settings.
Open this page in your browser and start Bubble Pop.
Triple-click the side button (the Home button if your device has one, or the top button on an iPad without one).
On the Guided Access screen, circle the browser's bars with a finger: touches inside the circled parts then do nothing. Then tap Start.
To finish, triple-click the same button, enter your passcode, and tap End.

iPhone browsers don't let a web page hide their bars (Bubble Pop's settings show no Full screen button there), so circling them is what keeps them out of reach. An iPad does offer Full screen, but Safari may keep a close button of its own on the screen, so circle the bars there too.

Android: app pinning

Open Settings and search for pinning. It's usually under Security, called App pinning, Screen pinning or Pin app depending on the phone. Turn it on, and if there's an option to ask for your PIN before unpinning, turn that on too.
Open this page in your browser and start Bubble Pop.
Open the recent apps screen (swipe up from the bottom and hold, or tap the square button), tap the browser's icon at the top of its card, then tap Pin.
Back in Bubble Pop, hold the lock for 3 seconds and tap Full screen (near the top of the settings, under the volume), which hides the browser's bars.
To unpin, swipe up and hold (or touch and hold Back and the square button together), then enter your PIN.

Pinning holds the phone in the browser app. Without Full screen, the address bar and tabs stay within reach. A swipe in from the screen edge or the Back button can end Full screen, so look over now and then.

Screen time

The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages families to make their own media plan, with screen-time limits that fit each child's age, and to share screen time with their children: to watch and play together. Their parenting site has tips on watching and playing together.

To help you stop on a calm note, the settings have a wind-down timer (off, 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes). Near the end fewer and slower bubbles come; then the bubbles drift away and a sleepy moon says goodnight. Taps still make a soft twinkle, but no new bubbles come until you start again.

Privacy

No accounts, no cookies, no ads and no analytics.
Nothing your child does leaves the device. The toy makes no network requests while it plays, and the only files the page loads are its own, from newellabs.com.
Nothing is stored either: the volume and other settings reset each visit.
Sounds are made live by your browser. There are no recordings and no voices.

See the privacy policy.

Questions

Is it safe for children sensitive to flashing?

We built it to stay calm, and we measured it, but it has not been medically tested. Bubbles move slowly and fade in and out instead of blinking, and so do the pictures. Bubbles keep their distance: a spot that is tapped again and again gets a new bubble about once a second at the most (the taps in between get a soft sound and, now and then, one small sparkle), no bubble is blown right behind another that is still floating up from the same spot, and a bubble that catches up with another slows down instead of drifting over it. In our own test, a script stepped the toy through every frame, 60 a second, and after each one read the brightness of the whole picture in squares of 4 pixels, while scripted fingers slapped one place 4 times a second, patted it every three quarters of a second, slapped in rows and with two hands up to 8 times a second, and mashed keys 30 times a second, on phone, tablet and computer screens up to 2560 by 1440, in light and dark, with the animals on and off. In every run the flickering area stayed under a quarter of the area limit that the web accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.3.1) set for flashing. That is a script, not a doctor's test, and no child who is sensitive to flashing has tried the toy. If your child is sensitive to flashing lights, ask their doctor before using any screen toy. If your device is set to reduce motion, Bubble Pop also turns off the sway and the bouncing, keeps the sparkles in place and slows the bubbles down.

No sound?

Sound starts with the first tap, because browsers only allow sound after one. The volume starts at a gentle level (60 out of 100); you can change it in the settings. On an iPhone, check the silent switch and the volume buttons.

Does it work offline?

Once the page has loaded, yes: it doesn't need the internet to keep playing. It does need a connection to open the page in the first place.

Is it free? Do I need to install anything?

It's free, with nothing to sign up for or install. It runs in the web browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

What age is it for?

We made it for children of about 2 to 4, but there's no lower or upper limit: it's just bubbles.

Bubble Pop a calm bubble game for toddlers