For Owners Of The Original Squeebles Apps

We get asked about this a lot, so rather than typing the same e-mail to everyone, we thought we'd create a page that explained a few things...

The first thing to say is that Squeebles Spelling Connect and Squeebles Times Tables Connect are not the same apps as our old Squeebles Spelling Test and Squeebles Times Tables apps. A lot of people download the new apps, try to log in and wonder why they can't.

The names are similar and they do a lot of the same things. In fact, the new Connect apps have directly replaced their older equivalents. But they are not the exact same apps and owning one does not give you access to the other. No old account will work with the new apps either.

To check if you have one of the newer "Connect" apps, or older apps, look at the icons below for spelling (left) or times tables (right) and see which of the below matches. If you have been using an app with one of the old icons, you won't be able to log into the equivalent Squeebles Connect app until you have downloaded it and signed up for an account and subscription.

If you want to understand why we discontinued the older apps, and how the new apps work compared to the old ones, read on.

The Old Squeebles Apps (Pre 2023)

Our first Squeebles app (Squeebles Times Tables) was released way back in 2011. Squeebles Spelling Test followed in 2012. For over 10 years, those apps were updated regularly to support new devices and include new features. By the time they were both discontinued between 2023 and 2024, they were almost unrecognisable from the early versions. Anyone who purchased those apps at any point during that time was given free updates and would have paid no extra over the years above the small initial cost of the app.

In 2021, we found out that the technology those early apps were built on was being discontinued. This was frustrating, obviously, because it meant we had to completely rebuild all of the affected apps or risk them not being supported by future versions of iOS and Android. Just as importantly, we would have been unable to add new features to those apps, or update them.

We made the decision at that point to rebuild the affected apps from the ground up, using a more robust and widely-used technology and also to use it as an opportunity to fundamentally change the way the apps worked so that some of the limitations of the older apps were addressed.

Squeebles Connect (2023 Onwards)

Our Squeebles Times Tables Connect app was released at the beginning of 2023 and the Squeebles Spelling Connect app followed 18 months later, in September 2024.

The main differences between the old "standalone" Squeebles apps and the new Connect versions are highlighted in the comparison chart at the foot of this page, but the biggest difference is that the new apps store all progress and data to the cloud, rather than on the device itself. This means children, parents and teachers or tutors can access the app and their account / progress on any supported device, anywhere with an internet connection.

This means homework assignments can be set by parents or teachers for children to complete on their own devices, with the results being returned automatically. It also means children can sign in on any device, so sharing devices between children is easy and children who split their time between multiple households can access their Squeebles work from anywhere, without having to take a specific device with them.

It also opens up support for other types of device, like PC and Mac, via a web browser, and allows children whose school purchases a subscription to access their Squeebles app at home, without parents having to pay for a copy themselves.

How do I get the new apps?

Details on downloading, installing and signing up for our Connect apps can be found here and here.
 

Price Difference

One of the differences you might have noticed, is of course the cost. A subscription to the new Squeebles Connect app is going to cost you more over time than an individual purchase of £4.99, which is what our older apps retailed for. We completely understand that some people might feel that's a pretty big price increase. If you're interested in our reasoning, we've laid it out below, but please ask if you have any questions.

• Firstly, as mentioned above, we're offering completely free access at home for any children who are signed up by their school, as part of a school subscription. So if a school has a subscription, for their pupils to use Squeebles Connect at home will cost their families nothing at all. That's a lot of copies of our previous app we were selling that families will not be buying any more and that's something we have to consider when setting a price point.
• Secondly, creating a system that allows you to sign in on any device, share spelling lists automatically, set homework assignments for your children and receive the results back immediately along with all the other new features these apps offer, requires a lot more in the way of development, support and web hosting costs than a standalone app that's installed on one device does. We simply could not have built this system, or continue to support it, if we didn't charge a subscription fee to ongoing users.
• Thirdly, we've combined 3 apps into two, by adding word search functionality into the new Spelling Connect app. This used to be a separate app, but a lot of people asked for them to be combined, so the same spelling lists could be used for both spelling tests and word searches.

Given the above, we feel that the prices we've settled on are very fair. For around the cost of a takeaway coffee and a pastry once a month, up to 4 children can have access to a system that will support them learning / practising their times tables and spellings from reception to year 6. For tutors and schools, the cost is even lower per child.

We think that's pretty decent value, but we also understand that subscriptions can add up and quickly become unaffordable. That's why we're committed to keeping the price for any subscriber locked at the same level for at least 6 months in the event of any future price rises.

But I already own the old apps. Surely I should get the new versions free?

We understand people's frustration here, but we simply couldn't do that. We did offer some free subscriptions to people who had invested in the old apps during the very recent past at the time of the changeover, but it's been a long time now since the new apps were released and we can't continue to do this.

Financially, for all the reasons above, we can't give you these new apps free of charge. It would be impossible for us. The old apps will still continue to work for the foreseeable future, although you can no longer download them onto new devices. So if you want a longer-term solution, we'd recommend subscribing to the new Connect apps.

Comparison Chart

There is also a more in depth page, including an equivalent, but more detailed comparison chart, specific to our Squeebles Spelling Connect app here.

If you have any questions, please e-mail us.