Little Stories vs NinniTales
Little Stories and NinniTales both make your child the star of bedtime, in different ways. Little Stories is a beautifully illustrated library of hand-made story books your child reads or listens to on screen, with their own name woven in. NinniTales is audio-only: a fresh, personalised story each night, told in your own recorded voice. Pick Little Stories for illustrated reading together; pick NinniTales for lights-out listening in a voice your child loves.
What Little Stories does well
Little Stories (by Diveo Media) has spent about a decade polishing a library of roughly 90 hand-illustrated story books, with your child's name and gender woven into the text and pictures. Narration is available in English, Spanish, and Russian, with translations into 14 languages, and the team is proud that none of it uses generative AI. As of July 2026 it sits at 5M+ Android downloads with a 4.7-star average.
If what you want is a gorgeous picture book your child stars in, read together before lights out, it's genuinely one of the best in that category.
The voice recording difference
Both apps let your child hear your voice, but the mechanics are very different. In Little Stories, you press record and narrate each book yourself, page by page, a lovely keepsake, but each recording covers only that one book.
In NinniTales, you record your voice once, about a minute of reading, and every story in the library, including the new ones added after tonight, plays in your voice. Grandparents can add their voices too, so your child chooses who tells tonight's story.
Screens on, or lights out
Little Stories is a reading app: the illustrations are the point, so bedtime happens with a screen in hand. That suits the reading-together moment earlier in the routine.
NinniTales is built for the last step of the night: audio only, screen off, lights low, your child listening to your voice as they drift off. Many families use an illustrated book earlier and audio at lights-out; the two apps solve different minutes of bedtime.
Which should you choose?
Choose Little Stories if hand-drawn illustrations and reading together on screen matter most, and you're happy narrating books yourself or using their professional narrators.
Choose NinniTales if you want the screen off at bedtime and your own voice, or a grandparent's, telling a fresh story every night, especially on nights you can't be in the room.
At a glance
| Feature | Little Stories | Our pickNinniTales |
|---|---|---|
| Story format | Illustrated books on screen | Audio only, screen-free |
| Personalised to your child | Yes (name and gender in text) | Yes (name, interests) |
| Your own voice | Record each book yourself | Record once, every story |
| Grandparent voices | No | Yes (whole family) |
| New story every night | No (about 90 books) | Yes (fresh nightly) |
| Best at | Reading together | Lights-out listening |
Frequently asked questions
Is the Little Stories app any good?
Yes. It's a decade-old, well-loved app (4.7 stars on Google Play as of July 2026) with hand-illustrated books that put your child's name in the story. Its focus is illustrated reading on screen rather than screen-free audio.
Can I record my own voice in Little Stories?
Yes, but you narrate each book yourself, and the recording covers only that book. NinniTales works the other way: record your voice once and every story, including new ones, is told in your voice.
What's a Little Stories alternative for screen-free bedtime?
NinniTales is the closest screen-free alternative: audio-only stories in your own voice, so the screen stays off at lights-out. Yoto and Tonies are hardware options if you'd rather have a physical player.