# Rilo: a first phone for young children

> A first phone for children aged about 4 to 10. Encrypted calls and messages, only with the people their parents approve. No strangers, photos, ads or analytics.

URL: https://www.small-victories.co/projects/rilo
Author: Marijn Vandevoorde

- Status: Live on iOS and Android
- Platforms: iOS 17 or later, Android
- Ages: 4 to 10
- Languages: English, Dutch, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Ukrainian, Turkish, Finnish, Arabic
- Price to install (Belgium): free on App Store, free on Google Play
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6805365293
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.smallvictories.rilo
- Publisher: Small Victories BV

Rilo turns an old phone or tablet into a first phone for a child who is too young for one of their own. They can call and message the people their parents have approved: you, their grandparents, a best friend. Nobody else can reach them, because there is nothing in the app to find them by.

## Who it's for

Children of roughly 4 to 10, and the grown-ups who decide who they may talk to. The child's side is a grid of faces: hold one to call. It works for a child who can't read yet. The grown-up's side is an ordinary app behind a lock only they can open.

## Features

- **End-to-end encrypted voice calls**, straight from phone to phone whenever the network allows.
- **Typed messages and fox stickers.** No photos, no video, no links.
- **Only approved contacts.** A new contact starts with an invite from a grown-up, by holding two phones together or sending it to someone far away, and only becomes real once a grown-up on each side has approved it. No search, no usernames, no friend suggestions.
- **Grown-ups stay in charge.** Turn calling or messaging off for any person at any time, or remove them. Every change asks for your face or passcode first.
- **No SIM needed.** An old phone on Wi-Fi is enough.
- **Fifteen languages**, from Dutch and English to Ukrainian and Arabic.

Rilo is free to install, and free for everyone a child calls: grandparents never pay to be called. Setting up a child starts with a free period, after which a grown-up buys a subscription in the app through the App Store or Google Play, from €1 a month. Rilo is available in the European Union.

## Privacy

Calls and messages are end-to-end encrypted, and the keys never leave the phones, so we can't read, hear or see any of it. The server is a matchmaker, not a middleman: it knows a random account id, a public key and the address Apple or Google uses to wake the phone for a call. There is no name column anywhere, no contact list, no history of who called whom and no location. There are no ads, no analytics and no third-party tracking code; crash reports carry no account or name and are deleted after 30 days. The [full list, table by table](https://rilotalk.com/technical/), is on rilotalk.com, next to the [privacy policy](https://rilotalk.com/privacy/), [child safety](https://rilotalk.com/child-safety/) and [deleting an account](https://rilotalk.com/delete-account/).

## Made by

Made in Belgium by Marijn Vandevoorde, as Small Victories BV. More on [rilotalk.com](https://rilotalk.com).

## Legal

- [Privacy policy](https://rilotalk.com/privacy/)
- [Terms of use](https://www.small-victories.co/projects/rilo/terms.md)