Inside Curio’s App-Connected AI Toys: How the Technology Works

What is Curio?

Curio is an AI toy company from Silicon Valley, and we are the first company to introduce a screenless and interactive AI toy experience. Our 2026 lineup is made up of 8 unique AI plushes, each with their own voice and design. Some of our most popular AI toys include Gabbo, Grem, Poppy and Lingo.

When a child asks a question, our toys respond back immediately and naturally, all done without a screen. So how does it actually work? Let's lift up the hood and dive into what makes these toys so special.

What is inside?

Unlike most app-connected toys, Curio does not require a screen or tablet to interact with your child. Found inside every one of Curio's toys is a Curio Voice Box™. Depending on the generation of toy, it will either be a white or black Voice Box.

The Voice Box

This box is equipped with a microphone and speaker which allows communication with the child. It can enter listening mode by either being shaken or the power button being pressed. When in listening mode, it automatically listens then responds to the user when they stop talking. You can exit listening mode in three ways, by saying “shut off”, holding the power button down or leaving the toy inactive for 10 minutes.

The LED Modes

• Solid Green - Shows that the toy is in its “talking mode”. It will stay in talking mode until verbally told to “shut off” like mentioned above, or to hold the power button down for 2 seconds.
• Blinking Blue - This is the Bluetooth pairing mode, used specifically when you pair a new device or when you are trying to get the toy to connect to a new wifi network.
• Solid White - Shown when the toy is just starting up, and trying to connect to the internet.
• Blinking Purple - The device will blink purple when undergoing a firmware update. This can be managed from the app.
• Pulsing Red - Shown when a factory reset has just started.
• Flashing Red - Shown when the factory reset is underway.

How it Connects

The voicebox connects to the phone through bluetooth, and connects to the cloud by wifi. Bluetooth is only used to connect to the toy in certain moments. When you want to enroll with a new device is one example of this. Another would be when you want to connect your device to a new wifi network.

The wifi is the main way the toy can think and respond quickly. The audio taken by the toy is encrypted and sent to Curio’s servers for initial data processing. Once the data is processed and the LLM comes up with a response, it is sent back over wifi to the toy, to speak back to the child with the response. The Wifi is the rails the Curio’s AI toy technology operates on, without them they would just be a regular plush.

The AI “Brain”

Curio’s toys are powered by a LLM(Large Language Model), like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. We actually have our own article about what is an LLM and how it relates to AI toys. In short, an LLM is an AI model that is trained on mass amounts of data to understand, generate and predict human language. Curio’s model is built specifically for its toys with all the guardrails in place to keep children safe. It can also interpret children’s language better than your typical AI chatbot. The AI works by taking audio from the microphone, breaking down exactly what the child said, and running it through the LLM to generate a response for their child. This is done extremely quickly so as to not break the conversational rhythm of normal conversation.

How Curio's App Controls Work

The app is first downloaded onto your phone, either through the Apple store or the Google Play store. Then you must connect your toy via bluetooth, whether it be Gabbo Grem or any other of the Curio’s toys. Once connected the app opens up into three main areas.

Your Voiceboxes

The first page is of what toys you have connected through the app. Here you can see the name of the toys you have connected, and their battery life. In this menu this is where you can manage the toys you have and control them each independently. Each toy will have a “View Toy” option which allows for future control over it.

The Toy Settings Menu

The first thing you can do in this menu is manage its activities. Curio’s toys can sing songs and play games like 21 questions, this is where you can start and end activities. The next three drop downs allow you to connect to wifi, get important information about the toy, and check for updates.

After those come the model and prompt menu, where you can find what model the toy is using and put specific prompts in. For example if you wanted the toy to talk more about dinosaurs, you can put in a prompt to talk more about dinosaurs.

The Transcript Menu

Found at the bottom of the toy settings, here you can view all the transcripts of dialogue between the toy and the child. This is one of the reasons why Curio’s toys are a top pick for parents. The transparency and control with our toys are unrivaled, allowing for deletion of your child’s data at any time. Additionally all transcripts are automatically deleted after 90 days on our servers.

These transcript tools are the core of Curio's AI toy parental controls, giving parents full visibility at all times.

Child Personalization

Curio’s toys have the ability to learn from the conversations with your child. This allows for an elevated learning experience since the toy adjusts its tone depending on the responses from a child. For example if a child is stuck on a certain concept, the toy can simplify its response.

Also in the same way, the toy can tackle harder concepts when it senses that the child is ready. This is all possible because of NLP (Natural Language Processing), which is a core part of how AIs work. Child personalization enhances learning and keeps a smooth experience between the child and the toy.

How the Toy and the App Work Together

The app and the toy have a distinct relationship. The app is only controlled by the parent, and this is their security center and control panel. Meanwhile, the toy's first job is to take audio and send it to the cloud to be processed into transcripts and then deleted.

The second job of the toy is to take the response given to it by the cloud and say it using an AI voice. The parent’s app controls the toy, and it is a one-way connection.

How Curio Protects Your Privacy

One of the biggest concerns with AI toys is privacy. You don’t have control over what your child says and some unwanted conversations may end up being heard by the toy. This is why Curio allows for all transcripts to be read and deleted by parents at any time.

Additionally we automatically delete all transcripts after a 90 day period. Curio develops all software, hardware and cloud infrastructure in-house, which allows us to keep a high level of security throughout the entire building process. We also use multistage encryption, authentication and tokenization to keep user data safe during transfer. For more frequently asked questions feel free to visit our FAQ page.

Conclusion

Every question your child asks deserves a real answer, and every curiosity they have deserves to be fed. Curio was built from the ground up to make exactly that happen, without a screen and without a subscription. Meet the full 2026 Curio lineup and find the character that speaks to your child.