Tadpoles Parent App Reviews

No audio in video. Cannot download videos. Complained to school. They are helpless too. I agree to someone saying we as a parent don't have a choice. This is a bad buggy app. Don't have a choice but to use it. Worthless even tho it's free.

The app is ok for what it does. I really only care about the daily report and the photos and ability to send a note to the school. Daily report is fine, totally depends on the teacher to update. Photos are great also have the option for videos. I get notifications which I love but almost always when I click on the notification the app won’t show me the photo until I uninstall and reinstall. Sending notes is great but I can only send same day and before my kids check in. Our school has turned off the chat feature but this seems really limiting.

The app won't let me login, says incorrect username/password when the credentials are correct. And sometimes it would log me on but show a blank screen and log me back out. For an app I use 5 days a week, this is an incredibly frustrating experience as I cannot see my child's daily activity at their daycare. Reinstalling didn't help either. Wish I could give it zero stars.

You have to delete and redownload this app every few weeks. It’s the worst daycare app I’ve ever used. Forced to use it due to our daycare but I don’t like it at all.

App is always frozen trying to refresh then u have to fully delete the app and redownload.

You have to constantly delete and re-download. This app needs a lot of work.

I have to delete and redownload the app constantly because it stops showing any reports or activities that happen. I’ve never had an app so frustrating..

Only way to get app to refresh is to force close every single day.

At least once a week the app won’t refresh and I have to delete, redownload, and log back in. Incredibly frustrating.

I keep having to re-download the app

The app is terrible because it hardly works. When I need to notify my child’s school of an absence or make changes to my settings, there’s either an error code or the buttons won’t work to save changes. Worst app there is for parents/kids/teachers. I can’t even submit this review because my “nicknames are taken.” What does that even mean? It’s a nickname for gods sake

Pretty much a useless app. I have to delete and reinstall at least once a week in order for updates from the school to actually populate. Are the developers paying any attention to this thing?

Our Daycare constantly uploads our sons daily activities, however, we get those updates within a huge delay, sometimes over 2 hours even. Completely unacceptable user experience in my opinion.

Terrible application. It never refreshes the daily report and doesn’t show me photos. I get the email updates, so I know the report has updated but it never finishes refreshing in-app. I therefore have to open and download every photo independently from Gmail—> Browser which is tedious and time consuming. Wish I could give it zero stars.

Every time we start a new month it stops updating for me. I get the push notifications but the new memories never show in the app. The only solution I’ve found is to uninstall and reinstall every time this happens.

The user interface is really bad. Hard to navigate, keyboard covers important buttons when you are typing. Sometimes when you’re in Messages, it’s scrolled up to days/weeks ago, and you have to scroll down.

If you have more the. 1 child the basic functions like viewing memories and expanding notes, images etc do not open. I constantly shut down app and re-launch to see details of the one child which you can review.

This app is so basic and lacks functions that every parent wants when they drop their kids off at daycare. I’ve used Procare in the past and they have real time updates on my child’s potty training throughout the day, feeding, naps, etc. With this app, you don’t get any reports until the child is checked out at the end of the day. What a waste

Creators need to get with it. Only app on my phone that I need to consistently delete and reinstall for it to work.

It’s user-friendly, keeps records of my child’s day, and I especially like the layout of the report. There is a place for pottying, snacks, nap, etc. I appreciate how it keeps our photos in a “Memories” tab. I just wish we could communicate with the teachers through it! That’s my only complaint. Our center is usually amazing at updating us through this app which helps a lot. But that aside, the app is pretty cool and very easy to use.

Get updates and pics of my little one. No glitches really

At least I can use it, better than using pen a paper every morning. But ui/ux is weird. Why is the done button on the left and the reset button is on right? Every other app has the proceed on the right.

I don’t mind getting real time updates and instead having everything in one daily report. The problem is that it constantly says the daily report is refreshing even after I’ve gotten the email notification. At this point I don’t even use the app and just read the email. There is literally nothing helpful that the app overall provides. There’s random other things to “try at home” but I don’t understand how those are really that helpful for the purpose of the app.

Our childcare center uses this, so we have to use it, but the number of times I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall it to get it to refresh is frustrating. Improved functionality would go a long way.

This app often fails. I would not recommend this app. A carrier pigeon would serve a greater purpose. The login system doesn’t work. If a business/ daycare uses this it speaks volumes to the level of care they will have with your little one.

I’m registered on the app with a Gmail account but the app will not allow “apple sign in” to log in. If this can be updated and fixed I’ll upgrade the rating

Every month I have to delete the app and reload it just to it updates months to get the updates.

Daily Report never loads the first time I open the app - it won’t advance past Refreshing status. I have to force close the app every day to get the report to load. I’d love to see a bug fix for this I don’t enjoy the Try This content, advice & stock photos. I wish the home page would stick to the updates about my kid from the school

Having two kids in daycare now, the way the new version displays is not intuitive and user friendly.

This app doesn’t work, it constantly have bugs, unable to pull up report. I will have a talk with my childcare provider to explore another app for communication because this is not it.

Junk.

Is there a reason my parent app does not have the chat or the library tab?

Functionality 1. It’s like they don’t realize the app is bad, and needs upgrades

I have received several notifications regarding my children but when I go into the app those updates are NOT THERE.

Constantly have to delete and redownload to use. App stops refreshing and prevents any input. Pretty pathetic user experience, can’t wait for our daycare to change apps.

Seriously, I’d know more about what is going on at my child’s school if I didn’t have an app at all. Constantly have to sign out and back in to get any updates and even then it doesn’t always work. Just terrible.

We have used procare and just recently started using tadpoles. Tadpoles is an awesome app. We love the overall user experience and at home activities. However, there is a big feature missing. Why there is no real time updates? Why do we have to wait until we pick up our son to get the latest updates? For instance, my son had an incident yesterday and it was marked on the app but we found out about it only after picking him up. Please add real time updates so parents can stay up to date through out the day!

My kids teachers keep writing their daily reports and adding pictures but I can never see them anymore. It’s been months. Really upset with this app

The app works well except for one MAJOR flaw, no notifications or alerts when my child’s teacher sends us a message. We get alerts and notifications for every photo, video, snack announcement, school note, etc, etc, but not for the most important aspect - messages from our child’s caretakers. Many times they use it to ask questions or give important information and if you aren’t checking the messages constantly, you will miss it because the App fails to send a notification or alert when they send a message.

I would love to hear my daughters video. They used to work in my pixel.

This app has the potential to be awesome, and it certainly has been in the past. I have been using it since 2019 with my center, but lately it’s so freaking buggy. My newest issue, the past two weeks I can’t open up anything under the “memories” tab. I’ve checked for any updates, none. I’ve deleted and redownloaded the app, still nothing. Please please figure it out.

This app is barely better than not having an app at all and oftentimes so frustrating and difficult to navigate that I wish we didn’t have it. It’s super frustrating that once notes get pushed down from the “Home Screen” because of new notes, they’re impossible to find again unless you favorite it. I get notifications in my iPhone Notification Center about daily reports and notes and when I go into the app, it’s not there and doesn’t show up for an hour or more sometimes. The refresh rate on this app is similar to a 1995 Netscape navigator webpage trying to load. This app is absolute clown shoes and I’m forced to navigate it multiple times daily for two kids.

This is LITERALLY STILL HAPPENING!!!! Fix the app please!!! I have to constantly delete and download the app. I will get notifications then go into the app and nothing is there! It’s maddening. Please fix it!!!!

Go look at brightwheel’s app. That’s a great childcare app with tons of functionality and intuitive menus. This one? Not so much. I just want to send a message to her teacher during the day. The only way to send a note is through “drop off notes” where I get the error “sorry you can’t add or edit entries for your child after check-in”. My kid is at home with me and even the app shows that she’s checked out. How am I supposed to leave a drop off note if I can’t change the date?? I’m starting to think my 3 yr old designed and developed this app.

It’s actually worse than Moment Path

The app stops updating with my child’s info and pictures every week so I have to delete the app and reinstall the app every week to make sure I’m getting up to date info from my child’s school.

I am so disappointed in this app. I am also not surprised that it has not been updated in over a year. A big problem that has emerged for me is that I no longer get notified throughout the day when photos are updated, even though I get notified of other updates, such as “class notes.” Sometimes the photos that are attached to the daily report that is sent home are old photos from a previous day, and teachers have shared that, on their end, there are UX issues where they aren’t able to upload photos to the correct day. When I get notified of a class-specific note, it’s always annoying to see that it’s, in fact, a center-wide announcement for the whole center and not specifically for my child’s class. The notification being labeled as a Class-specific announcement is much more anxiety-provoking, as it leads one to think that something has happened in my kid’s class. I feel that the developers of this app have completely abandoned it given it has not been updated. Also, the random tips about wellness and books to read are aggravating and presumptuous. They sort of insult your intelligence as a parent - if we wanted these tips, we can seek them out. I understand that the daycare center can toggle certain features on and off. However, there are fundamental front-end and back-end issues that make this app barely functional on the parent side of things and the care giver side of things. Also, a big safety issue is the 5 minute lag time when my kid is checked in or out of daycare. What if a child gets checked out by someone who isn’t supposed to be with the child, and the parent gets notified 5 minutes later? This is a basic communication function that needs to be addressed. I feel that the lack of regular performance updates for this app is a huge safety issue for a platform that is used to communicate the well-being of and location of children. I’m surprised my center uses it given all the holes in its functionality.

The functionality of this app is terrible. The most egregious issue is its lack of any ability for basic real-time communication. Developers should take a look at Brightwheel (rated 4.9 for a reason) for some cues for upgrades. If given the option, I would never use this app again.

This is absolutely the worse app possible that is on the market. Customer Service is horrible and I have been calling and emailing for months…simply to be advised it’s a system bug. I have requested a refund and all I have received is promise call backs and nothing. Please save your time and energy

Terrible app! So buggy! I get notifications of messages & photos but can’t see them?? What’s the point of having the app if I can’t use it to communicate with daycare?