First™ | Fun Learning For Kids

Review by eFreeware

Most children's video apps are a catalog with a search box. First | Fun Learning For Kids is closer to a small television network: alongside its episode library it runs the BabyFirst LIVE channel around the clock, so there is always something playing when a child asks for it. The app comes from First Media US, sits in the Education category, and has been drawing an audience for well over a decade.

It is built for families with babies, infants, toddlers and preschoolers, and for the adults who supervise them. The promise is a contained environment: shows like Harry the Bunny, GooGoo and GaaGaa, Color Crew and VocabuLarry, offered with no advertising and nothing the developer deems unsuitable for young children.

The install figures back up that appeal. More than a million installs and a 4.1 average from 8,361 ratings suggest a lot of households have tried it and mostly stuck around. The download is free, there are no ads, and there are in-app purchases, which in practice means a subscription sits behind part of the content.

A channel that never goes dark

The feature the developer puts front and center is the live stream. BabyFirst LIVE runs continuously, so you are not choosing an episode and starting it over; you are joining something already in progress, the way a child might join a television channel. For a parent trying to settle a restless toddler at short notice, that removes a decision from the process.

The on-demand side is substantial too. The library runs to more than a thousand episodes, all of them ad-free according to the developer, which matters if you have ever handed a phone to a child and watched an unrelated commercial appear thirty seconds later. There is no outside advertising to click on.

Access is tied to a single subscription rather than a single handset. The developer says one subscription covers any device, so the same account can follow a child from a tablet at home to a phone on a longer trip. That is the sort of detail that decides whether a family subscription feels reasonable or annoying.

Sleepy Time and the rest of the library

Sleepy Time is the second pillar, and it is aimed at a different moment in the day. Instead of cartoons, it offers bedtime routines built from stories, lullabies, classical music and white noise. Parents who already run a wind-down sequence at a fixed hour will recognize the logic: the same cues, in the same order, until a child associates them with sleep.

Beyond those two, the content spreads across school-readiness ground. In English the app covers letters, spelling, vocabulary, phonetics and prepositions. In math it works on early number ideas, shapes and patterns. Arts content deals with colors, music, instruments and creativity, and there is material on seasons, holidays, simple experiments, professions, motor skills and socio-emotional skills.

The newest addition, iCan, is a collection aimed at children with special learning differences and the adults supporting them. That is a meaningful inclusion for families who usually have to hunt for suitable material elsewhere, though it is one strand of the app rather than its organizing principle.

Subscribers also get First Songs, First Books and My First University activities. Taken together, the catalog is broad rather than deep in any single subject, which suits the way small children move from one interest to the next.

What it asks of you

The download costs nothing and the app carries no advertising, but the paid layer is central, so the free portion functions as a sample rather than a complete product.

The developer recommends trying the free videos before you commit to paying, which is sensible advice and easy to follow. It also notes that a stable broadband connection is required and that picture quality depends on your data connection, so this is a streaming app through and through, and a weak signal will show.

On billing, the terms are the standard store arrangement: payment goes to your Google Account when you confirm the purchase, the subscription renews automatically unless auto-renewal is switched off at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and renewal is charged within the 24 hours before that period closes. You can manage the subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your account settings, and any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription. The app is COPPA compliant, with a privacy policy and terms of use available.

Getting the most out of it

The most useful habit with an app like this is to spend a little time in the free categories before paying anything. That tells you whether the pacing and the characters hold your child's attention, and it gives you a sense of whether the paid library is worth the recurring charge for your household. The developer's own advice points the same way.

Once you are in, the live channel and the on-demand library serve different purposes. Live is for the moment a child needs something immediately and you do not want to negotiate over a choice. On-demand is for when you know what works, whether that is a particular character or a subject you want to reinforce, such as shapes or letters.

Sleepy Time is worth setting up as a routine rather than an occasional extra. Keeping the device charged and near a solid connection before bedtime avoids the frustration of a stream that stalls at the worst possible moment.

It also helps to decide early who uses which device. Since one subscription covers access across devices, you can leave a tablet set up for the child and keep your own phone out of the rotation, which keeps the app's content where you want it.

Where the value sits

Two things stand out. The first is the absence of advertising, which for a parent handing over a device is a real relief. The second is the combination of a live channel and a large on-demand library under one subscription, so the app can cover both a five-minute distraction and a settled afternoon.

The counterweight is that the free portion is limited to the free categories, and everything else depends on a recurring subscription that renews automatically unless you intervene. There is also the connection requirement: this is a streaming service, and the developer is upfront that quality tracks your data connection.

It has been on Google Play since September 2012 and was last updated in September 2026, so the catalog is being kept current rather than left to gather dust.

A subscription worth considering for the under-fives

First | Fun Learning For Kids is best understood as a curated children's channel that happens to live on your phone or tablet. If you want a walled-off library of cartoons for a baby, toddler or preschooler, with a live stream for unpredictable moments and a bedtime mode for the end of the day, this fits that brief closely. iCan does the same for kids with special learning differences.

If you would rather not carry a recurring subscription, the free categories will show you what the app is like but will not give you the bulk of the library. That is the trade-off to weigh before you start a subscription, and the free videos are there to help you make the call.

For families who already accept a monthly video bill, the combination of more than a thousand episodes, round-the-clock live programming and one account across devices makes a reasonable case. Try the free material first, then decide whether the paid tier is worth it for your household.