# Caribu by Mattel — user reviews > 299 indexed App Store user reviews of Caribu by Mattel by Mattel, Inc., rated 4.40/5 from 8,828 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/caribu-by-mattel/id763451959/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/caribu-by-mattel/id763451959.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 6,553 · 4★ 973 · 3★ 431 · 2★ 250 · 1★ 621 ## What do users think of Caribu by Mattel? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🤗 Great way to stay connected with family - 👍 Fun and engaging activities for kids - 📚 Wide selection of books and stories - 🎨 Collaborative drawing and coloring - 🕹️ Interactive games like tic-tac-toe - 🤝 Enables quality time between grandparents and grandchildren **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes - 🔌 Connectivity issues and sync problems - 💰 Expensive subscription model - 📱 Compatibility issues with older devices - 🕰️ Slow performance and lagging - 🤯 Disruptive in-app rating prompts **Commonly reported bugs** - Video call functionality not working - Pages not loading or displaying correctly - Inability to sign in or reset password - Unexpected app crashes during use - Drawings and activities not syncing properly - Incompatibility with certain device models **Most requested features** - Add more books and content variety - Improve syncing and page turning between users - Introduce a free tier with limited features - Develop a web-based version for desktop use - Allow users to disable in-app rating prompts - Enhance the drawing/coloring experience ## Newest reviews (13 of 299) ### 4/5 — Question *2026-08-10, version 4.1.6* I use this with my kid when she’s at her Dads and we love it. She loves the barbie and princess stories. Can you guys add a call log? I switched to Caribu after using Kinzoo Together app. The coloring pages, mazes, and sticker scenes are way better. However, Kinzoo allowed you to easily scan in your own books and had a better selection of two player games like: chutes & latters or, guess who… Id def keep my subscription longer if you guys added these things. ### 2/5 — Major errors with certain features *2026-08-04, version 4.1.6* There are some big oversights in how this was made. First of all, the Barbie sticker dress up doesn’t function like it should. Some of the sleeve arms are in the wrong place and don’t match Barbie’s pose. And all bottoms hide her hands. Most of the pants match a different pose, so it doesn’t fit. It’s like you took many assets and assumed it would fit on one paper doll. They don’t. Some are made for other doll images of Barbie. One pair of jeans won’t even get big enough for her to wear! The plus size doll, Harper, cannot fit in the pants as they just put Barbie sized stickers. This dress up is the main thing I was interested in. Also a second complaint is why can’t you write in the workbook? Why is there a Barbie writing the alphabet workbook that you can’t use. It tells you to trace the letters… no pen is available in this mode. I’ll edit with other problems. Okay, new problem. In coloring, you can’t stay in lines but that’s okay especially if your intent is to teach motor skills for kids. But a bad problem is there are no skin tones. There are two browns, but if you use brown hair and brown skin on a character you may be forced to use the hair color for the skin? No peach or tan skin tones. How can you color Barbie then? And no pale pink, blue or green for the monster high characters like Frankie and Draculaura. It’s impossible to color them. And I’d like some monster high books or videos, it’s only coloring pages. But you could also add more characters like Twyla, Cleo, Lagoona, Toralei, etc. But would I reccomend this? Kinda. I didn’t try video chat so I’m reccomending a single player perspective. If your kid likes to read it’d be a great book subscription. It has many Barbie Books, many American Girl ones and all from wellie wishers. Literally all the chapter books. Overall Good if the kid likes Barbie, Polly Pocket, Monster High, He-man, etc. anything from Mattel. Even has the retired enchantimals. But bad for dress up and little artists ### 2/5 — Major errors with certain features *2026-07-30* There are some big oversights in how this was made. First of all, the Barbie sticker dress up doesn’t function like it should. Some of the sleeve arms are in the wrong place and don’t match Barbie’s pose. And all bottoms hide her hands. Most of the pants match a different pose, so it doesn’t fit. It’s like you took many assets and assumed it would fit on one paper doll. They don’t. Some are made for other doll images of Barbie. One pair of jeans won’t even get big enough for her to wear! The plus size doll, Harper, cannot fit in the pants as they just put Barbie sized stickers. This dress up is the main thing I was interested in. Also a second complaint is why can’t you write in the workbook? Why is there a Barbie writing the alphabet workbook that you can’t use. It tells you to trace the letters… no pen is available in this mode. I’ll edit with other problems. Okay, new problem. In coloring, you can’t stay in lines but that’s okay especially if your intent is to teach motor skills for kids. But a bad problem is there are no skin tones. There are two browns, but if you use brown hair and brown skin on a character you may be forced to use the hair color for the skin? No peach or tan skin tones. How can you color Barbie then? And no pale pink, blue or green for the monster high characters like Frankie and Draculaura. It’s impossible to color them. And I’d like some monster high books or videos, it’s only coloring pages. But you could also add more characters like Twyla, Cleo, Lagoona, Toralei, etc. But would I reccomend this? Kinda. I didn’t try video chat so I’m reccomending a single player perspective. If your kid likes to read it’d be a great book subscription. Good if the kid likes Barbie, Polly Pocket, Monster High, He-man, etc. anything from Mattel. Even has the retired enchantimals. ### 3/5 — Good App *2024-09-04* Working now. **Developer response:** Hello Kripanidhi, thanks for the update. We hope you continue enjoying all the games and stories with your grandkids! ### 2/5 — Awesome until… *2024-04-06, version 4.1.1* This app used to be amazing! I loved to use it so I could call my cousins who are to young to use real messages yet. This app was so much fun to use! I went on it today for the first time in a while to call me cousin and guess what… 7 DAY FREE TRIAL THEN A LOT OF MONEY JUST TO MAKE A CALL!!!!!!! 😡. I think this app would be amazing if they didn’t force you to pay! I am also a minor so I can’t afford to pay for the subscription. I guess I will just have to find another way to make ONE CALL to my cousin. ### 3/5 — Video bug *2024-04-05, version 4.1.1* We have the iPad 9 with Center Stage. However Caribu does not utilize it and instead cuts off my daughter’s face so my parents can only see half of her. It’s pretty annoying. ### 2/5 — Great idea, poor execution *2023-11-19, version 3.12.3* Living across the world from grandparents, this is a great concept but it doesn’t work half the time. This makes it frustrating and not worth it to try most times we have together. ### 4/5 — Would be nice to have the option to send this another way other than email. *2023-10-27, version 3.12.3* Email send is not an option with my child, without going into anything deeper. Apps like zoom give you a link or allow you phone message, etc. Children do not normally have access to email, and it’s 2023. This app has a lot of great stuff in it, hopefully that side of tech can catch up. I’ll join if we’ve got choices to connect with them outside of email. ### 3/5 — Good app for little kids *2023-08-06, version 3.12.0* Good app for kids ages 3 to 9 Ps.Send me developer response in 2 days at minimum and 4 at maximum ### 2/5 — Used to be great *2023-06-27, version 3.11.11* I just got back into Caribou and it has changed from before. There are now ads that are forced upon you, which makes me uncomfortable because the ads may have content I don’t want my child seeing. But more importantly, there is a whole pride section now and this no longer makes me comfortable to allow my daughter freedom on the app. I can no longer recommend it to like minded friend’s parents when our kids want to have a virtual playdate, and as far as I know there’s not choice of the parent to disable certain kind of content. I, the parent, want to be in control of what my child sees and now I am trying to be forced to let her explore things that are beyond her age. Please fix this. ### 2/5 — Bug? *2023-05-01, version 3.11.10* I love this app BUT there appears to be a bug where if I expand the photo of her, I am black (not visible). This didn’t used to happen. It would be great to have this fixed. Thanks! ### 4/5 — Would get higher rating if easier to find previously read books *2023-04-25, version 3.11.10* Can’t sort favourites by recency and no history of read books makes picking up where you left off difficult. ### 1/5 — Camera *2023-04-22, version 3.11.10* I was reading to my granddaughter. They called me on Caribu as we always do. They could see me but I could not see them which was disappointing. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — you need to pay for literally everything. not free. *2025-06-02, version 4.1.5* Every single thing I try to do in Caribu needs to be payed for. You guys are greedy. I know you’d say to contact you guys but I’m not allowed to I’m only a kid!! Now make at least some stuff free but please tone down the paid stuff. I hate Caribu. ### 1/5 — Update *2025-02-16, version 4.1.5* I try to use this app but every time I do it says update now but when I go to AppStore it crashes ### 1/5 — Not Grandparent Friendly Sign-up *2024-12-05* The invitation to family prompts that people make an account and pay money. It’s been confusing for all of the grandparents. This email invitation is super dishonest. It could be easier so that Mattel doesn’t “accidentally”get some sign ups from old people. For shame, Mattel. You could do a much better job. The product itself might be fine, but confusing grandparents to make money is so unacceptable. **Developer response:** Sorry for the delay, our reply didn't post. We definitely don't want to cause any confusion or unnecessary subscriptions. If this happened by accident, please email ask.caribu@mattel.com and we'll take care of that right away. We'd also love to hear some more specifics as to what steps caused confusion so we can work on resolving that so it doesn't happen again. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. ### 1/5 — Pay to play only *2024-11-09, version 4.1.5* I wish this app had been more upfront about the fact that you have to pay for a subscription to use any of the games or calling/messaging features. How disappointing it was to discover that. ### 1/5 — App continuously crashes *2024-08-31, version 4.1.3* we can connect with family and browse the books/activities, but when we click the button to “play” or “read” the app crashes. Needless to say, my six year old is very disappointed! ### 1/5 — Changes have been frustrating *2024-03-15, version 4.0.3* We have had this app for nearly 3 years and it’s been wonderful for staying connected with family across the country. Lately, however (seems since acquired by Mattel), we have been having all kinds of problems and bugs. Grandma’s app no longer works because they’re requiring her to update but the OS on her iPad isn’t supported and she is not able to update her OS. So a big reason for having this app has been negated and we’ll be cancelling our subscription if this doesn’t resolve soon. THE DRAWING PAD used to be my child’s FAVORITE activity, but they’ve made all kinds of changes and added a lot of unnecessary stuff. The marker is translucent now which seems like an upgrade but it effectively removed the “large” drawing tool. The eraser has a slider for size now instead of 3 size choices… but doesn’t get large enough any more. Most frustratingly, touch sensitivity is far less responsive so it makes unpredictable marks and we can’t draw small “dots” any more. They added an undo button (which maybe is what’s causing so much bugginess, with the need for higher processing power?), and a zillion stickers — seems nice in theory but without some way to search the stickers, a larger catalog has just made it more cumbersome to find the stickers we want. When we went to “save” a drawing, it overwrote everywhere we used the eraser with a random paint color! My child was heartbroken. I’m SO FRUSTRATED to lose something that was such a boon in our lives. Fix the app, MATTEL! ### 1/5 — Update what *2024-02-24, version 4.0.0* What have you done to the app. The update has stopped it from working. It does not allow calls in or out. Fix it. Please ### 1/5 — Bad company *2023-08-11, version 3.12.0* Caribu deserve 1 star because their founders sold the company to another company then filed for dissolution last year and returned nothing ($0.00) to its early investors. Lost trust. If they ripped off their early investors, then they will do the same for customers and employees one day. Unethical founders manipulated investors! ### 1/5 — Dead app *2023-07-28, version 3.12.0* Used to be great, got steadily worse as they added unnecessary junk. Now the revenue model has killed it. Look elsewhere. ### 1/5 — Waste of money *2023-05-18, version 3.11.11* We had the Amazon Glow and loved it. They discontinued it and we found this. I paid $100 for the year. We have only used it twice. My son is autistic and both times we have used it, it freezes up and he has a meltdown. He won’t go near it now. We emailed the company last week and they never responded. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Amazing!! *2025-12-17, version 4.1.6* Great app ### 5/5 — Amazing *2025-07-22, version 4.1.6* I don’t have this app anymore cause I’m older now but I still wanted to write a review so I got this app when it was COVID and I loved it you can call your freinds and play games and read books! You can also call your freinds while playing games! It’s great for kids ### 5/5 — We play together *2025-03-15, version 4.1.5* My work often takes me away from home and trying to stay connected with my 5 year old is tough. I’m grateful this app allows us to play things together while we video call! Play dates have become a staple of our days. I worry we will exhaust all the content soon! ### 5/5 — What a blessing when the grandkids are 2000 miles away! *2024-09-14, version 4.1.4* Our wonderful daughter connects with us by FaceTime each week -- which includes our 8-yr-old grandson and 3-yr-old granddaughter, all of whom live 2000 miles away from us. While FaceTime is great -- and our granddaughter is almost always quite actively engaged -- our grandson had recently not been as engaged as he had in the past, so I asked our daughter if maybe Caribu would be a way to offer some activities that would spark his interest. Well, we gave it a go last Sunday, and I was AMAZED that, at the end of 90 min., our grandson still wanted to do "just one more" activity!!!! We began by reading the Rapunzel book to our granddaughter, who is right now totally into all things connected with Disney princesses -- it was a hit! She also got a kick out of scribbling on the blank face of "How are you feeling today?" under the Funny Faces options. She was then quite entertained by what her big brother created on a number of the other Funny Faces choices. And I greatly enjoyed discovering that, on my iPhone screen, I could "mess with" / move around the multiple eyes/ noses/ and mouths he had added to the numerous faces he chose! As for our grandson's other choices, he selected -- and we had lots of fun playing together -- a number of the memory games, sequence games, tile puzzle games, a couple of mazes, and a bit of find the hidden objects, tic-tac-toe, and Sudoku. And, our game plan for next weekend definitely includes a number of the Sing-Along books with our granddaughter -- as well as more princess books! -- and "whatever floats his boat" with our grandson! I'm very much looking forward to it! Oh, and yes... we've decided to set a timer for 30 min. each, so that their suppertime won't get delayed again! Many thanks for making active engagement with far-away grandkiddos possible in this wide variety of ways! ### 5/5 — About Caribu *2023-07-24, version 3.12.0* I’m really pleased with this new Caribu app and love the app a lot l am owing you guys a five stars the one who created Caribu must be really popular I love this app ### 5/5 — Incredible *2023-06-26, version 3.11.11* I have been using Caribu for a number of years now to keep in touch with my granddaughter when I am away for long periods. It has provided hours of entertainment and given us a connection which we could easily have lost. The ability to have a monthly subscription makes it an affordable and day to use app. She is using maths and writing sections without realising she’s doing it. I cannot recommend this more highly. ### 5/5 — Grandma’s Best Friend *2023-04-19, version 3.11.10* For a grandparent with my only grandchildren living in another country, Caribu has been a godsend! Twice every week I can see my granddaughters and have fun reading and playing games with them! We all look forward to it. ### 5/5 — Grandkids *2023-02-13, version 3.11.10* I just love playing with them. I live in a 55+community and I’ve told all my friends. Robin Palmer ### 5/5 — Me and my friends *2023-01-05, version 3.11.9* It’s a great app for me and my friends to play. We always have so much fun together and we also always play together on call. It’s not even my family, but he’s my best friend. Her name is Lily and he’s so nice to me and I love playing with her. Thank you for making this app so like. ### 5/5 — Reading *2022-09-03, version 3.11.8* A great way to stay in touch with family. Encourages literacy and screen time that doesn’t ruin your child’s brain. I have had difficulty with this app but the company have been amazing to deal with and resolve issues., --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-09.*