Email for Children – Introducing… Maily

So what’s the next hot email app?

I’m thinking this has a very good chance.

Why?

Maily isn’t for adults: it’s for children. “Your Kids’ First Email,” as its subtitle goes. “Especially designed for kids from 4 years old”. It’s a free iPad app that has just launched on Apple’s App Store.

It might be more accurate to describe it as Gmail meets Draw Something, albeit without the gaming elements. The app gets children to create visual messages using digital pencils, brushes, stickers and backgrounds, as well as photos taken using the iPad’s camera.

Maily offers a secure network. Parents receive their own Maily account with a dashboard to monitor activity. Kids can only send and receive messages from parent-approved contacts, parents can choose to be copied on all sent and received messages, and parents can decide to read messages before they are sent out or delivered to their kids.

For parents, a password-protected registration system lets them connect with Facebook to quickly sign up and add contacts, so kids’ will see photos of their family’s faces instead of just names when sending items via email. Parents will also need to know the contacts’ actual email addresses upon setup, as that information does not come over from Facebook.

Features:

• Pencils and brushes to draw and write in their emails
• Over 30 cool stamps to create stories
• Over 30 personalized email backgrounds
• Photo camera
• Personal inbox to receive emails from friends and family
• Personal contact list
• Parent dashboard to supervise emails and manage contacts
• Kid-friendly replies from Maily contacts

My two year old loves reading/audio children’s books, watching Peppa Pig and Disney clips on YouTube and using drawing apps to create pictures. I can screen shot the pictures, save them, then forward to her grandparents or mum.  She navigates my iPad impressively well for a two year old however i do need help finding videos etc (mainly typing). I can’t speak from personal experience, however i can see older kids using an iPad with great effect and this seems to have potential.

For me i can see the market, i think over the next year it will develop and become a great little app for kids. My issue would be security, whether or not it is REALLY needed and what competitors will come out the woodwork over the next year. Social Media among 8-13 year olds exists in Disney’s Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters.  But is 4-9 really a good target range ?

The email app that has made the most headlines in 2012 is probably Sparrow, which made a splash on iOS and Macs before its developer was acquired by Google to work on its Gmail team.

As a business model then, advertisements will be restricted by this age range and the founders have said adverts will be only on adult accounts. So  will they be here long enough to make this new app great?

The other issue is only one child can be added per account, i imagine 1 per iPad. Currently if you have more that one child someone will be a little disappointed. This is something being addressed.

Here’s Mailys Cooperate video

Would love you to leave your comments, parents especially