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Parents' Guide to

Lobby - Team up & Voice Cha‪t‬

By Ana Beltran, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Voice chat with other gamers; beware of mature content.

Lobby - Team up & Voice Cha‪t‬ Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 17+

Based on 2 parent reviews

age 18+

Good

age 15+

Be very wary

This does app does not really match people up based on age, despite saying it does when you sign up. You can join any random room that may contain 7 six year olds or 5 thirty year olds, you really don't know. With parental monitoring and youth awareness, this can be a fun safe app to use to connect with friends. Without some kind of monitoring, anyone in the world is going to talk to your child about whatever they want to talk to your child about. Chats are unmoderated, everything is unmoderated as far as I can tell.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (4 ):

This is a fun platform for teens to connect and play one of the supported third-party games together, but unmoderated, real-time voice chatting means there will be mature content. Lobby - Hang out & Voice Chat is ideal for teens and adults. The idea of instantly matching with people to play games, watch YouTube videos, and hangout is enticing. It offers a pretty seamless and well laid out process for gamers to connect and play in real time. This aspect of the app includes really explicit step-by-step directions, whereas other features require a bit more trial and error. Kids will also value knowing that their voice matters and that the app's creators want to know which games they'd like to see the app support in the future.

Although the app attempts to match users with other members their own age, there's no real verification. Some team-ups or hangouts are centered around interests or hobbies, like music or signing. In others, hosts share YouTube videos, allowing members to have a shared viewing experience. Since the content on the app is directed by users and there’s a high level of anonymity, tons of concerning content arises. Teens will hear profanity and crude humor; comments that belittle others based on race, ethnicity, skin color, sexual orientation, and gender; explicit conversations about dating and sex; and content that overly objectifies and sexualizes bodies. Users can report inappropriate content, but its frequency compromises the overall experience. So, the safest route is to create a locked space for friends to play and chat, but arm kids with information about the kinds of content they might hear in public spaces.

App Details

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