With more than two billion downloads so far, the Talking Friends apps from developer Outfit7 are a huge hit for children. Now it has a new addition: My Talking Angela.
It’s the latest app to star the series’ furry female feline character Angela, and is part virtual pet, part dress-up app and part game, released for Android and iOS devices.
“Adopt Angela as your very own virtual pet and give her a fabulous life! She’s all yours to look after from kitten to cat,” explains its app store listing.
“Dress up Angela in the latest fashions and the cutest costumes and give her the most amazing hairstyles. Make her home beautiful and feed her delicious treats. Just watch – she’ll become your new best friend.”
There are also digital stickers to collect, mini-games to play, and the chance to “talk and sing to her” and have Angela repeat those words right back – a feature that’s familiar from previous Talking Friends games.
My Talking Angela is basically doing the same thing for the Angela character that My Talking Tom did last November for her friend Talking Tom Cat. And like that app, this is a “freemium” game, meaning it’s free to download, but makes its money mainly from in-app purchases.
That involves selling virtual gems, which can be used within the game, including to buy a second virtual currency, coins, to buy items for Angela. The prices for gems start at £1.49 for 50 and rise to an eye-watering £69.99 for 4,000.
If you’re wary of children’s apps that go up that high with their in-app purchases, you’ll want to steer clear – and if you’re not, you’ll at least need to make sure you’ve turned on in-app purchasing restrictions so your kids can’t splash your cash without permission.
My Talking Angela is a free download for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, and a free download for Android from the Google Play store.
Oh, and one more thing: some parents may remember Talking Angela from a widely-spread Facebook hoax earlier this year that claimed her previous app was a front for a paedophile ring (no, really) that would let dodgy strangers text-chat to children inappropriately.
It wasn’t true – here’s an interview with Outfit7 talking about the hoax – so while I’m not exactly happy about the £69.99 in-app purchases in My Talking Angela, that’s the reason for caution: not any fears of stranger danger.