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Is a Yoto worth it for a Muslim family? An honest look

An honest look at what a Yoto does well for a Muslim family and where it falls short, so you can decide if it suits your home.

By Little Ummah Cards

A Yoto is a screen-free audio player. Your child picks a card, slots it in, and it plays. Lots of families love them. For a Muslim family, though, the useful question is whether there will be enough on it that you're happy for your child to hear. We think the honest answer is yes, as long as you're willing to do a little setting up.

What it does well

There's no screen, so there's nothing to scroll and no autoplay deciding what comes next. Children choose by picking up a card, and even quite young children learn which card is which. That makes listening something they reach for themselves, rather than something you put on for them.

The part that matters most for Muslim families is Make Your Own cards. You can put almost any audio on one, whether that's recitation, du'as or a grandparent reading a bedtime story. A card holds up to 100 tracks, and once the audio has downloaded to the player it plays offline, in the car or anywhere else.

Where it falls short

Yoto's own shop has very little for us. Its Muslim-themed cards are mostly stories about Muslim characters from mainstream publishers, and they don't meet our standard. There's no Qur'an or du'a section to browse. So most of what your child listens to will reach the player through Make Your Own cards, and each of those takes a few minutes in the app.

It's also a real cost, and blank cards add to it. If your child already listens happily on something you own, you may not need one.

So is it worth it?

If you'd like your child to listen to Qur'an, du'as and stories on their own, without a screen, and you don't mind setting up a few cards, we think it is. If you were hoping for a ready-made shelf of Islamic cards in Yoto's own shop, you'll be disappointed, because that shelf doesn't exist yet.

That gap is why we started this site. Everything here has been checked against one clear standard, and some of it goes into your Yoto library in one tap. Have a look at what we've checked and see whether there's enough for your child's age.