1
Pick a story
Choose a story from Heare, or use a children's book of your own.
Press
Favourite stories, read aloud by someone your child misses.
Heare is built in the Netherlands and available in Dutch and English. Parents use it to have a story recorded by someone who matters to their child. Grandpa, grandma, a parent or that one aunt reads the story aloud once, in their own voice. After that the child can listen to it at home again and again, even when that person cannot be there.
Every story in Heare is recorded by someone the child knows. No anonymous narrator, no video call — just a familiar voice reading a familiar story.
What is Heare?
Not everyone who matters to a child can sit by the bed every evening. Grandparents may live far away. A parent is away for a few days. Or a loved one simply sees a child less often than anyone would like.
Heare makes it possible to keep the reading-aloud moment anyway.
A parent picks a story and sends someone an invitation link. The reader does not have to install an app and can record the story on their own phone. The recording then shows up in Heare, where the child can hear it.
It is not about perfect audio. It is the small laugh in the middle, grandpa's silly voice, or the way mum always says one particular line — that is what makes it personal.
How it works
2
Invite someone
Send a link to grandpa, grandma, a parent or anyone else. They can record straight away and do not need to install Heare.
3
Listen back
The recording is kept within the family, so the child can hear the story again and again in that familiar voice.
Why Heare?
Families do not always live close to one another, and diaries do not always line up. At the same time, it is precisely the small rituals that matter. Reading aloud at bedtime. Wanting to hear the same story over and over. That one silly voice.
Technology usually answers distance with another screen or another video call. Heare tries to do something else: use technology to keep a human ritual that already exists.
In brief
| Product | App for personal read-aloud recordings |
|---|---|
| Based in | The Netherlands |
| Founder | Thom van Hooijdonk |
| Available since | 2026 |
| Languages | Dutch and English |
| Who it is for | Families with young children, and loved ones who cannot always be there |
| Voices | Someone the child knows — a grandparent, a parent, an aunt or uncle |
| Privacy | Recordings are not public and can only be heard within the family |
| Does the reader need the app | No, recording works through an invitation link |
| Price | First three stories free, then €0.99 per story |
| Subscription | No |
| Availability | Available on iPhone; an Android version is coming (currently in closed testing) |
Founder quote
Children don't really miss another story. They miss the way someone tells it. Grandpa's laugh, mum's silly voice, or exactly the way grandma always reads aloud. That is what I want to keep with Heare.
The story behind Heare
Heare started from a simple thought: what if a child could hear someone they trust reading aloud, even when that person cannot be there at that moment?
Thom van Hooijdonk built Heare from that idea. Not as a replacement for reading together, but for the moments when that is not possible.
The app has been in the App Store since 2026 and is now being brought to a wider audience. An Android version is coming, currently in closed testing.
Press & contact
Press contact
Thom van Hooijdonk
hallo@heare.app
For interviews, background or additional images — feel free to email, including at short notice.
Links
Downloads for press
This material is free to use in editorial coverage of Heare. The names and stories in the screenshots are examples, not real users.
Download the full press kit (ZIP, 4.8 MB)
Logo
The wordmark as SVG, in two versions.
App icon
The icon as it appears in the App Store.
App screenshots
Four screens from the iPhone app, at full resolution.
The Hearo
The reading hero who walks through the app.
