App recommendations for a flight with a two year old? (Sound-free)

August 7, 2019 4:15 PM

We're taking a long flight soon and I'd like to be prepared with some games or videos to entertain our two year old in case the usual toys/snacks/books aren't enough. We don't normally do any screen time or apps so I'm not sure where to start.

Criteria:
-No sound or can be used without sound (I'd rather not try to figure out toddler headphones right now)
-Available devices are iphone or kindle fire
-Can be used without data or wifi during the flight
-Happy to pay money for a good app! Prefer that to lots of ads or in-app purchases
-Bonus criteria: not too invasive regarding our data privacy
I saw some older relevant questions, but they were out-dated or for younger babies or seemed like apps that depend on sounds. Thanks for recommendations or other advice!

posted by Gravel to Technology (13 answers total)

Best answer: Sago Mini games play well without sound and I think meet all your other criteria. My daughter has been playing some of them since she was about 2 and still enjoys them at 5. Some are free, and I think you can get a free month’s trial of all of them. Favorites have been Forest Flyer, Babies, and Roadtrip.
posted by Kriesa at 4:51 PM on August 7, 2019 [5 favorites]

TocaBoca games are solid across the board.
posted by k8t at 4:57 PM on August 7, 2019 [9 favorites]

Best answer: My kid loves the Toca Boca Hair Salon app, it kept her very engaged on some flights at age 2.
posted by cpatterson at 5:00 PM on August 7, 2019

Toca Boca. There are a lot to choose from that could tailor to their interests.
posted by gryphonlover at 6:04 PM on August 7, 2019

Coming into Nth Toca Boca.
posted by kathrynm at 6:05 PM on August 7, 2019

Yet another vote for Toca Boca games. Some require sound (Toca Band), others do not (Toca Hair Salon).
posted by Joh at 7:45 PM on August 7, 2019

For a slightly younger kid (20 months now), we’ve enjoyed some of the Duck Duck Moose apps, but not all of them have held his attention for long, so might be worth downloading several.
posted by bananacabana at 9:01 PM on August 7, 2019

All the Sago Mini and Toca Boca ones are very good.

The first games that my 2-year-old really liked were "Shake the Tree!" by Fox and Sheep, and "Bubl Gelato"
posted by Phssthpok at 10:26 PM on August 7, 2019

Nth sago mini. The noises are pretty cute... I turned the volume down really low, such that kiddo could hear it and I couldn't thanks to all the airplane white noise. We also had good luck with a cheap pair of headphones worn dropped around his neck sort of like a necklace...that got him some sound, while not covering ears or bothering anyone else. That said, we went on a ten hour flight when he was two and he happily binge watched paw patrol with no sound whatsoever. Who knows.
posted by jrobin276 at 12:04 AM on August 8, 2019

Finger painting apps! They have different colored markers and lots of fun stamps (our son likes the bees?), and it’s easy for you to interact with your kid while they play on them. They’re good for our very distractable son for at least 10 minutes on the plane, which is definitely a victory in our book.
posted by flipmodemedian at 6:32 AM on August 8, 2019

Peppa's Paint Box, a painting/drawing app. It's been a favorite with my child (now 5) for a few years now.
posted by medeine at 12:57 PM on August 8, 2019

Sago Mini (particularly Apartment and Trucks & Diggers) have been favourites of our 2-3yo for quite a while.

(Not an app, but the other things we found really useful for in-flight entertainment when our daughter was 2 were those "magic pen" colouring books — especially the ones where the pen is just filled with water. No risk of mess.)
posted by robcorr at 6:23 PM on August 8, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Nice to see so much consensus. We ended up getting sago mini friends and another app called Busy Shapes that I saw recommended elsewhere. The Sago one was a little over his head but they both kept him calm for a while! We’ll probably try more of these at the holidays when he’s a little older.
posted by Gravel at 8:55 PM on August 12, 2019