A parent's guide to Dinolets

Everything a grown-up needs to know, in the order you'll probably need it. Short on time? Read Play time and Lock the screen. Those two make the biggest difference.

The first time you open it

Dinolets asks you three quick questions, and nothing else. No account, no email, no age.

Who's playing? A first name or nickname, if you like. You can leave it blank.
How much do they know about dinosaurs? Pick Just starting, Knows a few or Dino expert. This is only a starting point. The games adjust from there as your child plays.
Play time before the dinos go to sleep. 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes. 10 is picked for you.

Then tap Let's play. The first egg is already waiting in the nest.

Getting into the parent area

Look for the small lock in the top-left corner. Hold it for two seconds, then answer a sum that's written out in words, like "four plus three", using the number buttons. It's silent on purpose, so a child can't be talked through it, and the words mean a child who knows their numbers still can't match them up.

Inside you'll find each child's profile, play time, the stage setting, progress, volume for the voice, sounds and music, the screen-lock guide, the privacy summary and a reset button.

How the levels work

Every game except Bath time has three levels, shown in the parent area as Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3. Each game keeps its own level, so your child can be a Dig expert and still be starting out on Colours.

Levels move with how your child plays, never with their age. Here's how:

A peek at what's next. After five rounds at a level, a round from the level above mixes in now and then. Getting those right makes them turn up more often, so the harder level blends in gradually.
Moving up. A game steps up once your child keeps getting the harder questions right on the first try. It has to happen across at least two separate play sessions, so one lucky run of guesses isn't enough.
Moving down. If a level is too hard across at least two sessions, the game quietly steps back down. No fuss, no message to your child.
Never mid-game. A new level starts the next time that game is opened.
Hatching follows the Dino Book, though it plays the same at every level above the first: tap the egg, with the taps counted out loud.

You'll see where each game is up to in Progress, along with how close it is to the next stage. For every dinosaur your child has hatched, it shows whether they know its name, its shadow and its special feature: Not yet, Practising or Knows it.

Want to choose for yourself? Under Stage, pick Stage 1, 2 or 3 and every game plays at that level. Levels stop moving until you switch back to Auto.

What happens when your child gets it wrong

Nothing bad. There's no score, no buzzer and no way to lose. A wrong tap gets a cheerful "Let's try again!" and a gentle glow on the right answer. If your child goes quiet, the voice repeats the question after about 4 seconds, gives a hint at about 8, and answers it for them at about 12, then moves on.

Play time and the goodnight routine

Pick 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes in the parent area, under Play time. The default is 10.

Only active play counts. If your child puts the phone down and wanders off, the clock stops about 30 seconds after the last tap, so a forgotten phone doesn't eat into their time.

When time's up, Dinolets winds down instead of just stopping:

Bedtime. The music stops, the sky turns to dusk and the voice says "Time for bed! Tuck the dinos in." Your child taps each dinosaur to tuck it in ("Night night, Triceratops!"). If they're in the middle of a game, it gets about 45 seconds to finish first.
Goodnight. Once every dino is tucked in, or after a minute at most, they all fall asleep: "Goodnight, little dinos. Time to sleep!" The screen dims.
Asleep. Taps do nothing now. The dinos stay asleep until a grown-up opens the parent area and taps Wake up.

It helps to say it out loud before you hand the phone over: "When the dinos go to sleep, it's time to stop." Toddlers take an ending much better when the game is the one saying goodnight.

Lock the screen to Dinolets

The most common problem with any toddler game isn't the game. It's a little thumb hitting the home button and wandering off into your photos. Your phone has a built-in way to stop that. Dinolets can't do it for you, but it takes about two minutes to set up.

Android: app pinning

The menu names differ a little between phone makers. The quickest way is to open Settings and search for "pinning".

Turn on App pinning. Some phones call it Screen pinning, and Samsung calls it Pin windows. On Pixel phones it's usually under Security and privacy, then More security and privacy. On Samsung it's Security and privacy, then More security settings.
Turn on Ask for PIN before unpinning (or Lock device when unpinning), so your child can't undo it.
Open Dinolets, then open your recent apps. With gesture navigation, swipe up from the bottom and hold. With buttons, tap the square Overview button.
Tap the Dinolets icon at the top of its card and choose Pin.

To unpin: with gestures, swipe up and hold. With buttons, touch and hold Back and Overview together. Then enter your PIN.

iPhone and iPad: Guided Access

Open Settings, then Accessibility, then Guided Access, and turn it on.
Tap Passcode Settings, then Set Guided Access Passcode. You can also turn on Face ID or Touch ID here.
Optional: under Time Limits you can have a sound play or a voice speak before the time runs out.
Open Dinolets and triple-click the side button. On a phone or iPad with a Home button, triple-click the Home button. On an iPad without one, use the top button.
Tap Start. Dinolets now stays on screen until you end it.

To finish: triple-click the same button, enter your passcode and tap End.

Also worth doing

Turn on Do Not Disturb while your child plays, so messages don't pop up over the game.
Dinolets never needs the internet, so Airplane mode is fine. Handy on a plane, and it stops any other app from interrupting.

More than one child

Each child can have their own profile with their own name, their own dino picture and their own progress and levels. Add or switch children under Child in the parent area. When you add a child, Dinolets asks the same "how much do they know" question, so a younger sibling can start from the beginning.

Starting over

Reset progress in the parent area clears that child's hatched dinos, levels and progress. It asks twice before it does anything. The profile, its name and the starting point you picked are kept.

Moving to a new phone

Here's the honest version. Your child's progress is saved on the phone, and only on the phone. There's no account and no copy kept by us, so there's nothing we can move across for you.

If you set up your new phone by restoring a backup of your old one (iCloud backup or Quick Start on Apple, a Google backup or a cable transfer on Android), Dinolets' saved progress may come across along with your other apps' data. Whether it does depends on your phone and your backup settings, so we can't promise it.

If it doesn't come across, your child starts again with the first egg, and gets to hatch T. rex all over again.

Uninstalling Dinolets deletes everything it saved on that phone.