My Storytime partnership goes live
Google Nest has teamed up with My Storytime to launch a feature whereby kids can have their parents read them bedtime stories from their Google smart speakers.
Actually, the feature lets anyone listen to stories recorded by people in their household but let’s not get too pedantic.
It’s a simple setup, apparently inspired by a family in the US where the Dad was often away at bedtime due to being in the military.
“Every night at our house, bedtime means storytime with Dad,” explained Jennifer Oliver. “A time when our daughters get to share an experience that’s just between them, get to share storylines and characters with Dad, and I get a few minutes to myself.
“But when my husband deploys, everything changes. And getting recordings of stories from Dad halfway around the world is technically tricky. Listening to him read The Wind in the Willows involved downloading each file from Drive and casting it to a Nest Mini. We knew there had to be a better way.”
And now there is. Families just have to sign up at MyStorytime.com; upload or record a story and link the account to the Google Home account used in their homes. Kids can then just say, “Hey Google, talk to My Storytime” (which is a bit of a clunky command, but there you go) and be read their bedtime story.
Parents can also record phrases like “Which story would you like to hear?”, “Should we keep reading? “or “Read a different story?” that can be used to navigate once the session is underway.
Kids are, of course, able to ask for the stories that they want and they can even request specific chapters.
Everything is stored, securely we’re informed, the cloud and all of the recordings are also directly available on the MyStorytime website.
