It ends innocently – “Friends ROFLed and everybody at the party cheered at us. It was a cool night!” – but taken out of context with some of the questions above, it’s no surprise that parents are spooked. She’ll even tell you that “cat sex is hair raising. It’s purrfect” if you ask her about, well, cat sex. As some children surely will.

The app's early development started on 29 September 2012, it has been confirmed on the IPA files of versions 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.0.1, and 2.1 of the game on archive.org Finally, what happens if you turn child mode off – as any child can relatively easily – and start chatting to Angela using the text box at the bottom of the screen? It’s this feature that’s fuelled the Facebook hoax. The waiter will give Angela a chocolate fortune cookie and it will reveal a paper with a quote.However, if Angela is angry, you won't get a fortune cookie which is a punishment for insulting Angela. But the hoax is a reminder that as parents, we also have responsibilities to be aware of what apps our kids are using and how they work – from first-hand experience. For now, I would steer my children to other apps rather than Talking Angela, but that’s based on testing it out for myself, rather than believing hysterical ALL-CAPS warnings posted on Facebook. What can kids do when Child Mode is turned on, though? They can get Angela to repeat her words, stroke and poke her (in the non-inappropriate sense!) to see animated responses, and make birds fly onto the screen – don’t worry, she doesn’t eat them.First, there’s a musical-note button at the bottom right which on my smartphone launched the YouTube app with the official Talking Tom and Friends channel – starting with a video trailer for the separate My Talking Tom mobile game. This button will record the screen. Unlike most video recording apps, outside sound can be easily heard if it is nearby the device. There is no option for it to only record internal sound. While it’s definitely not connecting your children to paedophiles, it does raise some issues. These are all genuine questions that Angela asked me while I chatted to her: You can also tap a “more” button to see suggestions of other videos, some of which are from Outfit7’s channel, and some of which aren’t. And then watching those videos brings up more suggestions, and so on. If you wouldn’t type “cats” into YouTube’s search box then leave your child to get on with it, you shouldn’t leave them unattended with Talking Angela.

The text-chat in Talking Angela isn't aimed at children. Photograph: PR Responsibility on both sides Talking Angela was released in December 2012 for iPhone and iPad, then in January 2013 for Android. It follows the pattern of previous Talking Tom and Friends apps: a virtual animal who’ll squeakily repeat anything you say into your device’s microphone, while interacting with her by tapping and swiping on the screen. The intent they strived for was having users emotionally attach to Angela. The chatbot itself was designed to understand the vagaries of language, and when put to the test by a judge at the 2012 Chatbot Battles, it came out second, only due to an error in interpreting what the judge meant. [1] Characters [ ] My Talking Angela 2 is a delightful virtual pet game that allows players to care for and interact with their own talking cat, Angela. In this sequel to the popular My Talking Angela game, you’ll have even more opportunities to bond with Angela and watch her grow and thrive. The gameplay in My Talking Angela 2 revolves around taking care of Angela’s needs and providing her with a loving and nurturing environment. You can feed her delicious meals, play with her using a variety of toys, dress her up in stylish outfits, and decorate her living space with various furniture and decorations.A couple of commenters on my previous article about the Talking Angela hoax suggested concerns about the app normalising the kind of conversations that you wouldn’t want children having with strangers in the real world. That’s a legitimate criticism, and one that Outfit7 should act on by making it harder for kids to turn off the Child Mode. And yes, Angela does ask at one point “You know what’s fun too? A clothing swap party. Have you ever been to such a party?” before segueing into an anecdote about how she swapped clothes with her virtual boyfriend Tom for japes. Meanwhile, the app also offers free coins in return for watching video ads for other apps: The Simpsons: Tapped Out, Knights & Dragons, Total Domination Reborn, Battle Camp and Monster Legends for example. In old versions of the game, you were actually able to make Angela swear by typing "Who is an idiot?" which Angela will respond with "I choose" and say two random offensive insults. This also happens in Tom Loves Angela as it also had a chat feature. As a parent, there are some features in Talking Angela that concern me, although not the ones being cited in the Facebook hoax messages.