Samsung has launched what it calls Samsung Marshmallow, a parental control app that seems to have taken cues from Android's naming convention.
Before anyone makes more out of it, Samsung Marshmallow is not a major Android update, and not everyone can exactly find it useful. But for parents and their kids, it does some wonders.
Samsung Marshmallow Parental Control App
What Samsung Marshmallow aims to do is to help a child "develop healthy smartphone usage based on self-control," using a point system and some quirky cartoon characters.
The gist of it is that kids can earn Marshmallow points when they follow the rules of proper usage, but when they do something wrong, they lose points. After accumulating enough points, they can claim a gift card that can be used in the gift shop — with their parents' help and permission, of course. On top of that, they can collect Badges and bonus points too for good behavior.
In other words, it's positive reinforcement packaged as a child-friendly app.
Samsung Marshmallow Features
Just like other parental control apps, Samsung Marshmallow lets parents restrict access to certain apps and set a bedtime to make sure their kids won't stay up with their eyes glued to their devices' screens way too long.
Samsung even threw in a Marshmallow mode in there, a setting that limits the children's accessibility to apps to only eight.
Needless to say, the app will also provide comprehensive daily and weekly reports that detail the ins and outs of what their kids have been doing on their devices.
In addition, children can set their own daily usage time themselves, which could teach them some responsibility when it comes to smartphones.
Users who want to take it out for a spin will need a Galaxy smartphone, though. Here's a short list of compatible devices:
• Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus
• Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge
• Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, or Galaxy S6 edge Plus
• Galaxy S5
• Galaxy Note 5
• Galaxy Note 4
• Galaxy A5, Galaxy A7, Galaxy A8, or Galaxy A9
• Galaxy J3, Galaxy J5, or Galaxy J7
In terms of software, it's only going to work with devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later.
For those interested in it, Samsung Marshmallow is already available from the Play Store.
Long Story Short
Samsung is giving parents everywhere a new app that lets them stay on top of their children's smartphone usage, and it used a pretty interesting name to boot.
As an aside, Samsung didn't explain why it went with "Marshmallow," but hey, the name is associated to those spongy sweets that most people — both kids and adults alike — have a soft spot for. Also, it's starting to look like tech companies have a thing for sweets.
With all said and done, will you be letting your children learn the right way of responsibly using a smartphone with Samsung Marshmallow? Feel free to hit us up in the comments section below and let us know whether it's a yes or a no.
