How Jubbo works
A tap in the app, a few seconds of thinking, and then Jubbo talks. Here is what happens in between, and what happens when nothing is running.
The hardware
What is actually in the box
A microphone
Open only inside an activity.
A speaker
Everything it says arrives as sound.
Two round eyes
Expression, not a screen to watch.
One switch
For power. Nothing else is on the box.
Very little, deliberately. Jubbo has a microphone, a speaker, two round displays for the eyes, and one switch, for power. It has no camera, no screen you could watch, and no way to browse anything.
It also has no intelligence of its own. Everything it says is decided on our servers and sent to it as sound — the box is a speaker and a microphone with a good internet connection. That is why it needs Wi-Fi to do anything at all, and it is also why we can change what it does without you ever updating it.
A round, start to finish
What a turn looks like
- 1
You start it from the app
Pick the activity and who is playing. The eyes open wide to show Jubbo is listening, and the microphone opens now and at no other moment.
- 2
Your child speaks
When they stop, the microphone closes. The eyes narrow and a soft tick plays while it thinks, so a child knows it heard them.
- 3
Jubbo answers
Out loud, in the language you chose at home. Then the next question, or the next line of the story.
- 4
A right answer
The eyes smile. Nobody playing alone ever hears a score; a room of children hears who won.
- 5
It ends
Every activity has a last question. Then Jubbo rests with the microphone shut until you start the next one.
Between activities Jubbo does nothing. At most it says one short line every ten minutes to show it is still on. It will not start a conversation, and it cannot.
Start an activity from the app. The eyes change to show Jubbo is listening, and the microphone opens — it is closed at every other moment.
Your child speaks. When they stop, the microphone closes and the eyes show it is thinking; there is a soft tick while it does, because a silent box makes a child wonder whether it heard them. Then it answers, and either asks the next thing or ends the round.
You can end it at any point from the app. There is no wake word, and nothing you say switches it on.
The eyes
The eyes are how Jubbo shows what it is doing — listening, thinking, pleased that an answer was right. They are expression, not personality: there is no character behind them who remembers your child or misses them when the box is off.
What it does when nothing is running
Nothing. Between activities Jubbo rests. The microphone is shut, and at most it will say one short line every ten minutes to show it is still on. It will not start a conversation, and it cannot.