Tango Text, Voice & Video
Social networking and lots more; privacy settings important.
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Based on 3 reviews
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Tango Text, Voice & Video
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Tango Text, Voice & Video is a social-networking app that includes many ways to connect and share information, including video calls, group chats, games, phone calls, music, and more. It can be used to make video and regular calls across many platforms, including iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Tango's terms of use indicate people must be 13 or older to sign up. It's free, but there are many opportunities to make in-app purchases, as well as a premium subscription for $9.99/month. Users can communicate with current contacts as well as with people they don't know who also use Tango and may be friends of friends, live close by, or be connected with new people in other ways, such as "popularity." Users can read or add to the news feed on Tango. Video calls are limited to one-to-one, but chats can include up to 300 people at once. Parents need to know that users' profiles default to public; a teen's profile must be changed to private to restrict it to people on his or her contact list.
Community Reviews
NOT FOR KIDS!!! BE WARNED!!!!
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Dishonest
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What’s It About?
Create a TANGO account through your Facebook account or by using your phone number and email. Provide access to your contacts, accept push notifications (a must for calls), and accept or decline location services. To make a call, tap on a contact from your list, and then tap on the video camera icon for video calling or the phone icon for a phone call. Numerous other options include browsing users nearby, playing games, group chatting, and reading or posting to the news feed (categorized by content groups, including sports, news, and music). Tango is a popular social-networking app with many options.
Is It Any Good?
Easy video chatting may be the feature that draws a lot of users to Tango. The developer says the app lets people "Connect, Get Social, and Have Fun." That's a simple way to describe the almost overwhelming multitude of options by which to communicate with people you know (and don't know), find and post images and information, play more than 40 games, listen to and share music, and more.
On the downside, there's a ton of ads on the free version. Its default profile setting is public, so teens should go to their profile settings and toggle "public" off to enhance safety and privacy. Tango likely draws a lot of hyper-social teens who love the barrage of options for more connections, more ways to find and share information, more ways to chat, and more ways to play. It's "Always on, so you don't miss a thing," which can be good or bad, depending on how well your teen regulates his or her screen time and privacy.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about apps like this that use location services to identify new contacts and why it's not always a good idea to connect with someone just because he or she happens to live nearby and use the same social-networking app.
Discuss your family's rules about in-app purchases with your teen, and read Common Sense's blog post 4 Ways to Curb Kids' In-App Purchases.
Group chatting with dozens (or hundreds) of people may seem like fun to super socially minded teens. Remind your teen that it's a small world everywhere, including online, and they should take seriously what they say or how they respond in a large chat as much as they would talking to one person face to face.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Mac, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows app
- Pricing structure: Free (In-app purchases from $.99 to $1.99 for packs, ecards, and more; $9.99/month for premium service.)
- Release date: June 16, 2014
- Category: Social Networking
- Publisher: TangoMe
- Version: 3.7.91338
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 6.0 or later, Android 2.1 or later.
- Last updated: October 21, 2019
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For kids who love to be social
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