Frequently asked questions

Cheddar is designed for kids ages 3–6 — pre-readers especially. The whole app uses giant, color-coded buttons and no text to read, so little ones can take photos, hear them described, and record stories entirely on their own.

Cheddar is completely free. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no subscriptions or upsells of any kind.

Yes. Cheddar is a walled garden: there's no way to reach the internet, no ads to tap, and nothing to buy. It has no accounts and collects no personal information, and every setting, share, or delete sits behind a grown-up “math gate” that little hands can't solve. Photos stay on your device by default. You can read the specifics on our privacy page.

No. The app contains no advertising, no analytics, and no third-party tracking SDKs, and there are no accounts — no sign-up, no login, no profiles. We don't build a profile of your child or measure their behavior. Full details are on our privacy page.

Long-press the big yellow shutter and simply say “cheese!” Cheddar listens for the word — using your phone's built-in speech recognition — and takes the photo with a friendly spoken countdown. It's hands-free, so it's perfect for wobbly hands and group photos.

Cheddar Says is an optional feature where the app looks at a photo and describes it out loud in a silly character voice — Santa, Robot, Wizard, Pirate and more. The description and the voice are created right on your phone — the photo is never uploaded anywhere. It's completely optional and switched on or off by a grown-up.

Cheddar Says can narrate in ten characters — Cheddar, Santa, Robot, Wizard, Vampire, Pirate, Superhero, Royal, Alien, and Poet — or “Surprise Me” to pick one at random. A grown-up chooses the voice in settings.

Stories let a child record their own voice telling the tale of a photo, up to 20 seconds long. It plays back in a cosy “storytime mode” with a slow cinematic zoom — like a tiny movie in their own words. Story recordings stay on the device.

Photo Hunt is a playful scavenger hunt: Cheddar gives your child a mission — “find three comfy chairs!” — cheers them on, and checks each find. It runs entirely on the phone: nothing is uploaded, and it only recognizes everyday objects (chairs, toys, animals), never people or faces. It's a screen that points kids outward at the real world instead of down at a feed.

Photos are saved locally on your device, in the system gallery (DCIM/Cheddar) — just like photos from any other camera app. They never leave the device unless a grown-up explicitly shares one through the device's share sheet. Everything else — including Cheddar Says descriptions — happens on the phone.

Sharing is always started by a grown-up, from behind the math gate, through your phone's normal share sheet. You can share a photo, or turn a Cheddar Says or a Story into a little video — photo, gentle zoom, and the narration — to send to family.

No. Cheddar works completely offline — it ships with no internet permission at all, so it never connects to anything. Every feature (the camera, Cheddar Says descriptions, the character voices, and Photo Hunt) runs entirely on your device.

All grown-up settings live behind a simple math gate that kids can't solve. From there you can set photo limits per hour, session-break timers, a selfie lock, a gallery lock, delete protection, and switch Cheddar Says on or off.

Yes. You can cap photos per hour (5, 10, 15, or 20 — it resets each hour) and set a session-break timer that gently suggests a break after a set number of minutes. There are deliberately no streaks or notifications nudging kids to keep going.

Yes. A Selfie Lock (behind the math gate) turns off the front camera so Cheddar only uses the back camera. You can also switch on a Gallery Lock to hide saved photos for a pure camera-only mode.

Two things, and nothing else: (1) listening for the word “cheese” during the Say Cheese countdown, handled by your device's built-in speech recognition; and (2) recording Story narrations, which are saved only on the device.

Cheddar is on Android now, and an iOS version for iPhone and iPad is coming soon. Want to know when it lands? Drop us a line on the contact page.

You (or your child) can delete any photo — and its story and description — right inside the app, behind the math gate. Uninstalling Cheddar removes all app data, except photos already saved in your system gallery, which stay under your control like any other photo on your phone.

Email us any time at support@cheddarcam.com or from the contact page. We're a very small team (one parent!), so replies may take a day or two.