Why we made Guby

Guby comes from a small team at Plavaga, a software studio in Bengaluru. That's the short version. The longer one is that we're parents, and Guby exists because of something we kept running into in our own homes.

We're parents first

It always started the same way. We'd hand a phone to a small child for a few quiet minutes, glance over, and find the screen pressed almost against their nose. We'd move it back; it would drift in again. Anyone who has handed a toddler a phone knows the dance.

So we went looking for something that would help, gently, without turning screen time into a fight. And we couldn't find it. There were parental-control suites and screen-time timers aplenty, but nothing that simply, kindly kept a young child at a healthy distance from the screen, in a way a two- or three-year-old could actually understand. After a while, we stopped looking and started building.

What we set out to build

A few things mattered to us from the very start.

It had to work for children too young to read. That ruled out text warnings, and led us to a character, an owl, who could ask for a little room without a single word.

It had to respect the family's privacy completely. The distance check runs on the device, nothing from the camera is recorded or sent anywhere, and Guby never learns who your child is. You can see exactly how that works on the how it works page, and in our privacy policy.

And it had to stay gentle. No alarms, no shaming, no daily nagging. An owl that turns up, asks for a little space, and steps aside the moment it's given.

What Guby is not

We're well aware of the irony of an app that helps with screens. So, to be plain: Guby is not here to add screen time, and it isn't a stand-in for the things that matter more, time outdoors, regular eye check-ups, and simply less screen wherever you can manage it.

Guby is for the screen time that happens anyway, in real, busy homes. It makes that time a little kinder on small eyes. That's the whole of it, and we think that's enough.

Still early days

Guby is in early access, and free while we learn what families actually need. We're a small team, we read what people tell us, and the app gets better because of it. If something feels off, or you wish Guby did something it doesn't yet, we genuinely want to hear it.

Say hello

You can reach us any time at . No bots and no ticket queue, just a real person, usually one of the people who built Guby.