Coloring Games for Kids: Color

Why I Downloaded Coloring Games for Kids: Color

I saw my friend Margaret talking about a coloring app on her iPad last Tuesday at our book club. She said it was for kids, but it looked so peaceful. I’m retired and my hands aren’t as steady as they used to be for real coloring books, so I thought I’d give it a try on my iPhone. I was just curious, really. I wanted something straightforward to pass the time that wouldn’t make me feel stupid. The name said it was for kids, and I figured if a child could use it, then I certainly could too. It was free, so I had nothing to lose by tapping the download button.

Standout Features

What I really like is how simple it is to pick a color and just start. The buttons are big and clear on my iPhone screen, no squinting required. There’s a whole rainbow of colors to choose from, more than any crayon box I ever had. My favorite tool is the “magic” fill one. You just tap an area and it fills with these pretty patterns like stripes or polka dots. It makes a simple picture look fancy without any effort. I also appreciate the undo button. Last week I accidentally colored the sky purple when I meant to do the flowers, and one tap fixed it right up. It saves all my pictures in a little gallery inside the app, which is nice for looking back.

Daily Use Experience

Most evenings after dinner, I’ll sit in my armchair, put my feet up, and color for twenty minutes or so. It’s very calming. The app opens right up to the picture library—no fuss, no complicated menus. I can find a nice landscape or an animal picture easily. It just works. I don’t feel lost or confused. Sometimes the app will show a little fact about the animal you’re coloring, which is a pleasant surprise. I was coloring a panda and it told me what they eat. It’s a small thing, but it adds to the experience. For someone who isn’t technical, this is perfect. It does one thing and does it well without throwing ads in my face every two seconds.

Cost Breakdown

The app didn’t cost me anything to get started, which is great. There’s plenty of free pictures to keep me busy. I’ve seen pop-ups for buying extra packs of pictures, like ones with dinosaurs or fairy tales, but they’re easy enough to ignore. They don’t block your way or pester you constantly. For a free app, you get a lot. I haven’t felt the need to spend any money, and I’ve been perfectly happy with what’s offered. It’s a complete little hobby right in my pocket without opening my wallet.

Support Experience

This is where my experience soured a bit. A couple of weeks ago, the app started crashing every time I tried to save my finished picture to my phone’s photo album. It was frustrating because I wanted to send my latest creation to my granddaughter. I looked all through the app for a “help” button and finally found an email address for support on the app store page. I sent a clear message explaining my problem on my iPhone 14. It took them four days to reply, and when they did, the email was vague. It just said “try restarting the app” which I’d already done a dozen times. I wrote back and never heard another word. I felt completely unsupported. For an app that’s otherwise so user-friendly, the help side of things is really lacking.

Privacy Verdict

I’m always a bit wary about what these free apps are collecting. I read the privacy details on the app store before I downloaded it. It says it doesn’t collect personal information from users. That gave me enough peace of mind to try it. In my month of using it, I haven’t seen anything strange or gotten any weird emails. It seems to just sit on my phone and let me color. That’s all I want it to do. I don’t think it’s tracking me or selling my data, but the slow support response does make me wonder how much they really care about the people using it.