How does Black Horse work?
In short: You answer six quick questions: your child's name, gender, age, favourite topics, story type and story length. Black Horse uses them to write a personalised story in 10–20 seconds, then draws a cover picture for it. You can read the story, listen to it narrated, rate it and edit it. Next time you open the app, it suggests library stories that match these preferences.
1. Tell us about your child
Name, gender (or leave it unspecified), age (2–10), up to five interests (animals, space, dinosaurs, princesses, the sea, robots…), story type (bedtime, adventure, funny, classic fairy tale, learning, feelings, mystery) and length (3, 5 or 10 minutes). You can add a separate profile for each child.
2. Black Horse writes
The story is tuned to your child's age: short sentences and repetition for 2–3-year-olds, dialogue and little surprises for children over 6. You can also add your own idea, such as "a little dragon who is afraid of the dark".
3. Read, listen, edit
The story opens with illustrated pages. During the trial and with Premium you can listen to it in a warm narrator's voice, with the current paragraph highlighted on screen. If there's a sentence you don't like, you can edit the story.
4. New ideas every night
The home screen picks library stories based on your child's interests, age and what you've already read.
Questions
How long does it take to write a story?
Usually 10–20 seconds. The cover picture is added a few seconds later.
Do I need to sign up?
Yes, as the last step. First you tell us about your child, then you start the 3-day free trial and create an account with Apple, Google or email; your stories are kept in that account.