Amazon has unveiled Rapids, a new app intended to deliver an engaging and playful chat-style reading service for children ages seven to 12. Although Amazon already has its "Kindle for kids" application, the company said that Rapids would introduce a new way of enjoying traditional storybooks for kids.
Amazon said that there are hundreds of stories already available on the Rapids app. These stories vary from adventure, humor, fantasy, science fiction, sports, and mystery genres. Each story is accompanied by a text message dialogue to convey conversations between different characters. Readers can then interact with each dialogue by tapping on the chat bubble to progress through the story.
Aside from providing an engaging storytelling platform, Amazon Rapids can also help young users in pronouncing hard words in case a parent or an adult is not around. Amazon is confident that through this feature, it can help young readers to build up their vocabulary and also make reading attractive.
Some of the chat bubbles on selected stories will ask young readers certain questions. This interaction will encourage them to think about a certain concept and also induce laughter. Amazon believes that humor plays an integral part in growing up and also in encouraging the younger generation to read.
Aside from this interactive type of storytelling, Amazon Rapids also has a feature called "Read to me," which is a text-to-speech tool, according to Wired. As the name implies, the feature allows the app to simply read a story much like the traditional setup of an adult reading a storybook to a child.
The "Read to me" feature is presented with a rather robotic voice. However, Amazon's Michael Robinson claims that his seven-year-old child who uses this feature does not seem bothered by the robotic voice.
In a statement, Robison said, "He's reading, and he's learning at the same time, and all the research says it's great to read to your kids anyway and so it's reading to him, he's reading at the same time, and it's a great experience."
Amazon's Rapids offers unlimited stories for $2.99 per month. The app is available for all Android, iOS, and Fire Tablet devices.