hushero

A bedtime ritual, not a story player

Bedtime,
but they want
to go.

One story, a part a night. Your child is the hero. You read it aloud. Each part settles, then names the time it picks up tomorrow.

Tonight's story is for

And a world

Or type your own in the app. Their favourite toy, their football team, next week's holiday.

Written by hand to show the shape of it. Nothing you type leaves this page.

Isla, part 3 of 7 Space Adventure

The quiet side of the moon

Isla had been flying for most of the afternoon, and somewhere past the second ring of stars the engine had gone quiet. Not broken quiet. The other kind, the kind that means you have arrived and nobody has told you yet.

Below the window was the side of the moon nobody photographs, all soft grey hills and long blue shadows, and in the middle of it, a light. One light, small and steady, the way a kitchen looks from the end of a garden.

Somebody down there was expecting company.

Sleep well, Isla. Tomorrow at bedtime, at 7:30, we land and find out who left the light on. Be here on time. Somebody down there has been waiting all day.

Part 4 unlocks at 7:30 tomorrow.

Why it works

Three things change, and none of them are the story.

Why they go

They start asking to go to bed.

Every part settles, then names the time it picks up. Your child goes to sleep with tonight finished and tomorrow already worth turning up for, and tomorrow night they are the one hurrying you.

Why it sticks

Showing up earns something real.

They tap in once they are in bed, and being on time is worth more. Enough nights in a row and it adds up to something you both agreed on beforehand. Pizza night, the park, a film.

Why it is good for them

Your child never looks at a screen.

You hold the phone and read aloud. They lie there and listen, in the dark, the way they would with a book. There is no narrator and no recorded audio anywhere in Hushero, because your voice is the part the research says matters.

7:02 PM

Before

You already know how this goes.

Teeth are brushed. Pyjamas are on. You are so close.

Then it starts.

One more story. Then another. Then a question about whether dinosaurs had eyelids, which cannot wait until morning. Obviously.

Then the water. The third glass. The bathroom trip that is definitely not a stalling tactic. The thing they forgot to tell you, at 7:26 pm.

Three half drunk glasses of water lined up on a bedside table in lamplight.

By eight you are more exhausted than they are. And tomorrow night, the same thing. Different dinosaur fact.

You are not doing anything wrong. You are just out of fresh stories.

7:15 PM

The ritual

Three taps, then the quiet part.

  1. 01

    Check in together.

    Your child taps the orb to say they are in bed. Showing up counts, and showing up on time counts for more.

    From the app

    Isla, 7:28 pm. Five stars for being early. Four nights in a row, two more until pizza night.

  2. 02

    Read tonight's part aloud.

    Five minutes a part, or ten or fifteen on a paid plan, set once. You hold the phone, they do not. Nothing to look at, no narrator, no music.

    From tonight's part

    She put her palm flat against it. It was warm. From the other side, very quietly, somebody knocked back.

  3. 03

    Stop on the hook.

    The part settles and points at tomorrow. Lights out with something to look forward to, which is the whole trick.

    The bedtime line

    Sleep well, Isla. Tomorrow at bedtime, at half past seven, we open the door and find out who is on the other side.

The ritual in full

7:18 PM

More than one

One story, two children.

Siblings can share the same story. They check in together, they are both in it by name, and they both earn the night. Nobody has to go second, and nobody has to sit through somebody else's adventure.

From the app Isla and Rowan checked in at 7:28. Both early. Part 3 of 7, and they are both in it.

Up to four children per household, each with their own bedtime, rewards and badges.

7:20 PM

Where it happens

Eight worlds, or one you invent.

Pick a world and the story lives there. Or type your own, and it is taken literally: a football final stays a football final, a dragon stays a dragon.

The engine had gone quiet, and that was the point.

7:45 PM

The cost

A year of bedtimes, for less than a coffee a week.

  • A coffee a week One flat white, once a week, for a year. You would not think twice about it.
  • $149.99 Hushero for a year. Three hundred and sixty five bedtimes, and not one of them a repeat.

That is $12.50 a month. Or $15.99 month to month, or $5.49 a week, if you would rather not commit. All three unlock exactly the same thing, so pick whichever you will not resent. Prices are in New Zealand dollars and include GST. Cancel any time in your iPhone settings.

Coming soon to the App Store What the free plan includes

LATER

Before you decide

The things parents ask first.

Is this just AI generated stories?

Personalised stories are generated for your child, yes. But the experience isn't an AI app. The AI is invisible. What you experience is a bedtime ritual: check in, read together, drift off. The technology runs quietly underneath.

Why doesn't Hushero have AI narrators or voice cloning?

Because the research consistently shows your child wants your voice, not a cloned one. Voice cloning is technically impressive and emotionally hollow. We chose to use the most powerful audio in the room: yours.

Is my child's data safe?

We store a first name and an age in years, never a birthday, and never a photo, an address or a location. There are no ads, no third party tracking and no analytics of any kind. Your family's data is stored in Australia, and the copy on your phone is encrypted too. To write a story we send the age, pronoun and the world you picked to the services that write it, never your child’s real name: that is swapped for a stand in before the request leaves us. Nothing we send is used to train them. The privacy policy lists every field.

What's actually free? Is there a trial that runs out?

There's no trial. The free tier is the free tier, from day one and forever. You get one full multi night bedtime story and two single part tasters to see if the ritual works for your family. No card needed to start. If it suits you, upgrade through the App Store. If it doesn't, the free tier stays available.

I'm exhausted at bedtime. Will this actually be different for us?

Honestly, only you can answer that, and the only way to find out is to try it for a few nights. The free tier exists so you can read a full multi night story with your child before paying for anything. If it doesn't change your bedtime, you'll have lost nothing.

All the questions

LATER

Notes from quiet research

What we read, while building this.

All notes

Sleep tonight. Adventure tomorrow.

Built for parents who care about how the last thirty minutes of the day feel.

Coming soon to the App Store

Free to start. No card required.