4.8
Where to Buy

ABC Gurus App Review

App Info

Price: $1.99

Overview

ABC Gurus provides endless creative fun with the letters of the alphabet as kids color, decorate and accessorize each letter. They listen to the letter names and sounds as they play, then can save their creation as a photo on the device. ABC Gurus is a really interesting new alphabet app for preschool kids, which is just as much fun, as it is educational, because kids are allowed to design their very own letter-figures, which then come to life. What else there is to expect of the ABC Gurus app, can be read in our review below.

Features include:

  • Animated key words to help reinforce the letter sounds
  • Easy, intuitive controls
  • Endless color, design and style options
  • Professional narration of letter names, sounds and key words
  • Save photos of each letter to create an ABC book

Quality

ABC Gurus is a high quality app that will provide many happy, creative sessions with letters for young children. The app works well and is very intuitive to use, making it ideal for the very young and for special needs students. The controls are all based on very clear icons; the crayons select colors, and the crown opens a selection of hats and headwear. One seeming oversight on the part of developers, though, is the lack of a way to go back to the home screen where letters are chosen without finishing the letter and taking its picture. It’s fairly easy to choose a different letter than what you intend; my inclination was to rotate the planet with the letter choices by touching the letters, which caused the app to accidentally select when I did not intend it to. It would be nice to have a button on each letter page that allows users to return to the selection page without finishing the activity if they wish.

Funny Alphabet Characters 

ABC Gurus presents the alphabet on a different planet, which is inhabited by the alphabet characters.

Once the app has been started, kids can select a letter, with which they want to play and learn with, or they let the app pick a letter by chance. After that, it’s up to the kids to color and personalize their letters, by also giving them eyes, noses and mouths with the given stickers. The letters will therefore get some really funny animated faces, as the stickers are all animated, which means the eyes and mouths can open and shut etc.

Animated Words

After the kids have created their funny monster-letters with colors and stickers, the letter is also illustrated with an animated word, that matches the initial letter. So for example, when the letter “A” is shown, an “Aligator” appears, with the letter “R” a “Robot” is shown and with the letter “O” a giant “Octopus” appears, whose tentacles are trying to grab the screen. Sounds entertaining – and most certainly is!

Phonetic Letter Sounds

Of course kids are also supposed to learn the words including the correct pronunciation of the letters, whilst having lots of fun, which is why the app developers gave the app a pretty complex audio narration. A very friendly female narrator’s voice names each letter and each word. Also, when the letters are being colored in, the phonetic letter sounds are precisely called out in a memorable way, over and over again, with a different pitch and modulation. If you want to know how entertaining this sounds, you can check out our YouTube video preview!

Education

This app does an outstanding job of merging play with learning. Most preschool children love to color and decorate things, and they can do just that to the letters they choose. While they play, the app feeds them a steady stream of the letter’s name, its sound, and then rewards the completed project with an animated video of the keyword and allows users to snap a photo of the finished letter. The longer that the kids play, the more they hear the letter’s name, sound and keyword, which is wonderful!

Parents and teachers should be aware, however, that this app was designed for the British market, and there are some differences in pronunciation, letter names, and key words. For example, users are told that the “Z” is “zed” instead of the American name of “zee.” The key word for the letter L is a ladybug in America, but the narration calls it a “ladybird.” Developers should consider an option for parents and teachers to select British or American English.

Entertainment

ABC Gurus is highly entertaining for the target age group. What child doesn’t love creating with colors, stickers and stamps? Best of all, the letters can be played again and again. It doesn’t matter if your child chooses a favorite to decorate over and over, or tries to create alphabet books with different themes. Each time he or she works with a letter, the child will get a healthy dose of letter and phonics instruction and probably won’t even notice it.

Value

ABC Gurus is a great value, since it has tons of replay value and staying power. It should appeal to most young children who are learning their letters, and it’s simple enough to use that the youngest preschoolers will be able to create to their hearts’ content. You will have to look a long time to find another app that offers such consistent, low-key learning opportunities.

Child Friendliness

This app is very child-friendly. A well-protected parents’ section houses information about the app, other apps from the developer, a sign up for an email newsletter, social media links and privacy policy. It’s also very nice that parents can choose to hide the parents’ section, the privacy policy and more apps as well as turn off photos going to the gallery or disallow access to the camera all together. Kudos to the developers for giving parents the kind of privacy/usage control that they need!

  • Protected parent area (contains external links, social media, app rating request and email links)
  • NO in-app purchase
  • NO 3rd party ads
  • Ability to turn off parents’ area, more apps, and photos if desired
  • YES “more apps” (protected, but visible)

Pro’s

(+) Capital- and lower case letters
(+) Phonetic letter sounds
(+) Funny animations
(+) Creating your own letter character

ABC Gurus
ABC Gurus
ABC Gurus is a simple, yet fun app that will keep young children thoroughly entertained again and again as they hear the letter names, sounds and key words the entire time that they play.
Quality
Education
Entertainment
Value
Child Friendly
4.8
Where to Buy