JusTalk Kids vs SimpleX Chat
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
JusTalk Kids
This app provides a secure platform for children to connect with family and friends through voice and video calls, and instant messaging. It features parent-approved friend management, smart content monitoring, and interactive communication tools to ensure a safe and engaging experience.
- Parent-approved friend management
- Safe voice and video calling
- Dual Capture and DuoFace video
- Video call effects and filters
- Interactive stories and games
- Smart content monitoring
- Walkie Talkie (Push-to-Talk)
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JusTalk Kids is a kid-friendly voice and video calling and instant messaging app designed to keep children safely connected with family, friends, and classmates. All communications are encrypted to ensure privacy and protection from strangers or inappropriate content. Key Features • Parent-Approved Friend Management Children can only add friends with parental approval. Parents receive instant notifications for all friend requests and can easily approve or reject them — ensuring kids only connect with trusted contacts. • Safe Voice & Video Calling JusTalk Kids supports high-quality 1-on-1 and group voice/video calls with features like call recording, real-time doodling, live effects, and interactive games — making conversations fun and meaningful, even at a distance. Center Stage helps keep kids naturally centered during video calls, making family chats and group calls feel more focused. • Dual Capture & DuoFace Video Calls Kids can show themselves and the world around them at the same time with Dual Capture. Share drawings, toys, activities, and special moments with family and friends to make video calls more fun and engaging. On iPhone Duo, DuoFace lets people around you join your video call on the outer display, so everyone can share the moment without crowding around one screen. • Video Call Effects Make video calls more fun and expressive with creative backgrounds, filters, and playful appearance effects. Kids can blur or transform their surroundings and add face effects such as glasses, hats, animal ears, and more. Save a preferred effect for future video calls. • Stories Stories offers fun picture books with audio narration, making story time more engaging for kids and families. Kids can enjoy standalone stories and serialized book series, build vocabulary, spark imagination, and develop reading habits through educational, family-friendly content. • Sticker Store & Custom Stickers Kids can discover fun sticker packs in the Sticker Store or add custom stickers to make their chats more expressive and personal. • Group Polls When kids, family, or friends need to choose a time, activity, or plan together, polls help everyone share opinions and decide quickly in group chats. • Walkie Talkie (Push-to-Talk) Send quick voice messages instantly by pressing and holding — no call needed. A fun, hands-free way for kids to stay in touch with friends and family. • Smart Content Monitoring Sensitive images or videos are automatically flagged and blocked. Parents are notified and can review the content to decide what’s appropriate, helping children safely navigate online communication. • JusTalk Parent Account Manage your child’s app remotely: approve friends, monitor activity, and customize settings — all from your own JusTalk app. • Creative Messaging & Sharing Kids can send text, photos, voice messages, GIFs, drawings, stickers, files, and more. They can also share life moments by posting creations like art, stories, and music — all within a safe, closed environment. Kids can share their doodles to external apps or save them to Photos as animated videos, bringing their creative drawings to life beyond the chat. • Educational Content on Kidstube Explore a growing library of kid-friendly videos including science experiments, crafts, and learning activities — curated to spark curiosity in a safe, ad-free space. • Full Privacy & Data Protection Every message and call is encrypted. JusTalk Kids never shares your child’s personal data and gives parents full control over app access and content exposure. Terms of Service: https://kids.justalk.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://kids.justalk.com/privacy.html We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at: kids@justalk.com *Data charges may apply. Please check with your mobile provider.
SimpleX Chat
This secure messaging app offers unparalleled privacy by eliminating user identifiers. Enjoy end-to-end encrypted messages, calls, and files with features like disappearing messages and incognito mode. Connect via invitation links without needing phone numbers or emails.
- No user identifiers
- End-to-end encrypted messages
- Disappearing messages
- Incognito mode
- Encrypted file and voice messages
- Secret chat groups
- Encrypted portable chat database
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SimpleX - the first messaging network without user identifiers of any kind (not even random numbers) - 100% private by design! Security assessments by Trail of Bits: 2022: https://simplex.chat/blog/20221108-simplex-chat-v4.2-security-audit-new-website.html 2024: https://simplex.chat/blog/20241014-simplex-network-v6-1-security-review-better-calls-user-experience.html SimpleX Chat features: - quantum resistant end-to-end encrypted messages, with editing, replies and deletion. - disappearing messages with opt-out per contact/group. - message reactions. - delivery receipts, with opt-out per contact or group. - multiple chat profiles, with hidden profiles. - app access and self-destruct passcodes. - incognito mode - unique to SimpleX Chat. - end-to-end encrypted images and files. - voice messages up to 5 minutes – also end-to-end encrypted. - "live" messages – they update for all recipients as you type them, every few seconds - unique to SimpleX Chat. - connect via one-time invitation links or via long-term public addresses. - secret chat groups - only group members know the group exists and who is the member. - end-to-end encrypted audio and video calls. - connection security code verification, for contacts and group members – to protect from man-in-the-middle attacks (e.g. invitation link substitution). - end-to-end encrypted push notifications (they contain only encrypted meta-data, not the actual content). - encrypted portable chat database - you can transfer your chat contacts and history to another device. - all local files and media are encrypted by default. - animated images and "stickers" (e.g., from GIF and PNG files and from 3rd party keyboards). SimpleX Chat advantages: - privacy of your identity, profile, contacts and metadata: unlike any other existing messaging platform, SimpleX uses no phone numbers or any other identifiers assigned to the users - not even random numbers. This protects the privacy of who you are communicating with, hiding it from SimpleX platform servers and from any observers. - complete protection against spam and abuse: as you have no identifier on SimpleX platform, you cannot be contacted unless you share a one-time invitation link or an optional temporary user address. - full ownership, control and security of your data: SimpleX stores all user data on client devices, the messages are only held temporarily on SimpleX relay servers until they are received. - decentralized proxied peer-to-peer network: you can use SimpleX Chat via your own relay servers and still communicate with people using pre-configured or any other SimpleX relay servers. - fully open-source code. You can connect to anybody you know via link or scan QR code (in the video call or in person) and start sending messages instantly - no emails, phone numbers or passwords needed. Your profile and contacts are only stored in the app on your device - relay servers do not have access to this information. All messages are end-to-end encrypted using open-source quantum resistant double-ratchet protocol; the messages are delivered via relay servers using open-source SimpleX Messaging Protocol. Please send us any questions via the app (connect to the team via the app settings!), email chat@simplex.chat or submit issues on GitHub (https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/issues) Ream more about SimpleX Chat at https://simplex.chat Get source code in our GitHub repo: https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat Follow us on X/Twitter (@SimpleXChat), Reddit (r/SimpleXChat/) and Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@simplex) for the latest updates.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SimpleX Chat at none against JusTalk Kids's 10. JusTalk Kids's advantage is review sentiment (86% vs 56%) and ratings volume (18K vs 279). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. JusTalk Kids sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month. SimpleX Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.
JusTalk Kids holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: JusTalk Kids has 18K ratings behind it against 279, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of JusTalk Kids's written reviews are positive against 56% of SimpleX Chat's.
JusTalk Kids ships an update every 2 weeks, SimpleX Chat every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 7, 2026.
| Parameter | JusTalk Kids | SimpleX Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (18K ratings) — better | 4.3 (279 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.3% of reviews — better | 56.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18K — better | 279 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #198 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 272 MB | 207 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Jus | SimpleX Chat |
Customer experience
JusTalk Kids
SimpleX Chat
User reviews
JusTalk Kids
From 18K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Safe for kids
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 💡 Allows communication without phone numbers
- 🎨 Customizable profiles and themes
- 🎮 Fun games during calls
Room to improve
- 🔒 Strict parental controls can be frustrating
- 💰 Many premium features
- 🐛 Occasional glitches and bugs
- 🔋 Battery drain during calls
- 🤔 Difficulty adding friends
SimpleX Chat
From 279 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🔒 End-to-end encryption and quantum-resistant security
- 🔐 No phone number or personal data required
- 👤 Anonymous profiles and multiple identities
- 🚀 Fast message delivery when working properly
- 🎯 Decentralized and open-source architecture
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent app crashes and instability
- 📬 Delayed or missing notifications (20+ minutes common)
- ⌨️ Keyboard issues on iOS (freezing, unresponsive)
- 🔌 Poor connectivity and message delivery failures
- 📱 iPad version not optimized
Bugs and requests
JusTalk Kids
Reported bugs
3 issues- Logging out and losing friend lists
- Inability to see messages sent before being added as a friend
- Call quality issues and dropped connections
Requested features
4 requests- More free games and customization options
- Ability to share screens during calls
- Improved notification system for incoming calls
- Better sync across devices
SimpleX Chat
Reported bugs
19 issues- App crashes on startup (v6.2 update)
- Keyboard unresponsive on iOS 26
- Messages not appearing until app is opened
- Notifications not working despite correct settings
- Chat freezing and lag on iPhone
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- QR code scanning not working on iPad
- Desktop-phone sync connection failures
- Auto-delete messages interrupting voice recordings
- Typing inserts extra characters
- iOS 17 keyboard autofill interferes with typing
- Chat object unresponsive but moveable (delete)
- Backup restoration key confirmation fails if contact offline
- Server switching not reflected in chats
- Cannot change sending server for stuck messages
- Connection errors when creating chat links
- Video upload takes hours
- Call notifications appearing in Russian
- Random photo auto-attachment during typing
- Unable to unsend or delete sent attachments
Requested features
14 requests- Read receipts option
- Typing indicators
- Bot maker feature like Telegram
- Multiple image attachment with descriptions
- Better emoji reaction selection
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- Mac desktop app
- Web app (PWA)
- iPad optimization
- Improved group discovery/search
- Global self-destruct message settings
- Pin photos in group welcome messages
- Chinese input method support
- Ringing tone during calls
- Speakerphone launch option before call pickup
In-app purchases
JusTalk Kids
- To Parent Phone - Monthly$0.491 Month
- Monthly Subscription$2.991 Month
- JusTalk Kids Premium$3.991 Month
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- Monthly Subscription$9.991 Month
- JusTalk Kids Premium$10.991 Month
- 6-Month Subscription$19.996 Months
- Offer: 6-Month Subscription6 Months trial$19.996 Months
- Offer: Yearly Subscription1 Year trial$39.991 Year
- Yearly Subscription$39.991 Year
- JusTalk Kids Premium$39.991 Year
SimpleX Chat
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is JusTalk Kids free?
Is SimpleX Chat free?
Which has better reviews, JusTalk Kids or SimpleX Chat?
Do JusTalk Kids or SimpleX Chat have ads?
Which is updated more often, JusTalk Kids or SimpleX Chat?
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