How much does Tin Can cost each month?

Nothing, if your kid only calls other Tin Cans. The Can 2 Can plan is free and includes 911. The Party Line plan, $9.99 a month with the first month free, adds calls to and from ordinary phone numbers you approve. The phone itself is $100.

Is Tin Can a walkie-talkie or a cell phone?

Neither. It is a corded home phone that makes voice calls over your home Wi-Fi. It has no cellular connection, so it stays in the house, and it does not send voice messages or texts.

Can strangers call a Tin Can?

No. Calls only connect with numbers a parent approves in the Tin Can Companion App, in both directions. For a call between two Tin Cans, both families have to approve each other.

Does Tin Can work with 911?

Yes, on both plans. You register your home address during setup, and dialing 933 reads it back so you can check it. 911 keeps working during quiet hours. It does not work in a power or internet outage.

Does Tin Can have voicemail?

Yes. Your kid presses the big smiley button on the phone to hear messages and record a greeting. Messages play on the phone, not in the parent app.

Tin Can Phone for Kids – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise

Tin Can Phone for Kids

Name: Screenwise
Author: Screenwise

Product2025kid-phone, home-phone

94%

WISE Score

The $100 screen-free home phone that started the kids' landline trend: free calls to other Tin Cans, parent-approved numbers only.

Tin Can Phone for Kids

Product

2025, kid-phone, home-phone

94%

WISE Score

The $100 screen-free home phone that started the kids' landline trend: free calls to other Tin Cans, parent-approved numbers only.

Jump to

Where to Buy

Visit official site

Screenwise parent perks

10% off

Use offer

Screenwise Verdict

Tin Can is the phone that made parents want landlines again, and it earned it. A kid picks up a tin can on a curly cord and calls a friend, a grandparent or you. That is the whole device: no screen, no texts, no apps.

Calls between Tin Cans are free, so the math works best when a few families on the same street or in the same class buy in together, which is how most of them spread. For calls to ordinary phones, the Party Line plan is $9.99 a month.

The complaints are real but small: echo and dropped calls on some home networks, stiff buttons for small fingers, and kids who lose interest if none of their friends have one. It needs power and Wi-Fi, so it is not the house's emergency line.

Age Fit

Tin Can does not publish an age range. Its CEO told Wired most users are 5 to 13, and reviewers put the sweet spot at 7 to 9. Under 6, a kid may need help pressing the buttons firmly enough. By 11 or 12, a kid who walks places alone will want something that leaves the house.

WISE Breakdown

Wholesome

It is the literal antithesis of toxic tech. It focuses entirely on human voice and connection without the noise of algorithms, notifications, or visual clutter.

Imaginative

By stripping away the screen, it forces kids to use their words and imagination to describe their world. The tactile, retro design also lends itself to roleplay.

Safe

A closed loop by design. Only approved contacts can get through, and there is zero access to the internet, apps, or strangers.

Enriching

Communication is a skill. This device teaches phone etiquette, active listening, and the value of a focused conversation—concepts often lost in the era of texting and FaceTime.

Parent Info

✓

Why It Might Be Great

Free calls between Tin Cans on the Can 2 Can plan, plus 911.
Calls in and out only connect with numbers a parent approves, and Tin Can-to-Tin Can calls need both families to agree.
Quiet hours block calls on a schedule you set for each day, and 911 still works during them.
Voicemail and a speakerphone, and call logs in the parent app.
A shape and four colors kids want to carry to their room, which is half the reason it gets used.

⚠

What to Watch For

It only joins 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. A 5 GHz-only network will not work, and routers that switch bands on their own can cause dropped calls.
Like every Wi-Fi phone, it stops in a power or internet outage, 911 included.
It is most fun when friends have one. Without that, the $9.99 Party Line plan is how it reaches anyone.
Reviewers report echo, lag and stiff buttons for small fingers, and some kids lose interest after a few weeks.
The parent app allows one login per account, so two parents share a password.

Conversation Starters

"Which friends should we ask about getting a Tin Can too?"
"Who should be on your list of people you can call?"
"When should the phone go quiet at night?"
"What will you say if a friend calls during dinner?"

Deep Dive

The phone that made parents want a landline again

Tin Can comes from three former colleagues in Seattle: Chet Kittleson, Graeme Davies and Max Blumen. It launched in April 2025 at $100. By February 2026 it had sold more than 100,000 phones, and seven production batches have sold out. Greylock led a $12 million seed round in December 2025.

Two kids sprawled on a gray couch in pajamas, each holding a Tin Can to their ear, one green and one pink, with the curly cords running to their bases From Tin Can's own photos: the handset is the can, and the curly cord is part of the fun.

How it works

The handset is shaped like a tin can, with the keypad on the can and a curly cord to a small base that plugs into the wall. It joins home Wi-Fi on the 2.4 GHz band, with no phone jack. There is no screen, so no caller ID, and there are no texts, apps or camera. It has voicemail, which a kid hears by pressing a big smiley button, and a speakerphone.

A white Tin Can lying on a patchwork quilt, keypad facing up, its blue curly cord running to a small blue Tin Can base The keypad is on the can. Speed dials and the approved list are set in the parent app.

Two plans:

Can 2 Can, free: calls with other approved Tin Cans, plus 911.
Party Line, $9.99 a month (first month free): adds calls to and from ordinary phone numbers you approve.

"Party Line" is only the plan's name. The phone does not do group calls or three-way calling.

What parents control

Everything is set in the Tin Can Companion App:

Approved numbers only, for calls in and out. If your kid dials a number that is not on the list, the call does not go through. For a call between two Tin Cans, both families approve each other.
Quiet hours, scheduled per day, block calls in both directions. Calls go to voicemail, and 911 still works.
Call logs.
911 address. You register it during setup, and dialing 933 reads it back.

A family with more than one Tin Can can put them on one shared line that rings together, or give each phone its own number and plan.

What goes wrong

On Christmas Day 2025, call volume jumped more than 100 times over the start of the month and the service went down, 911 included. Tin Can paused billing until it was reliable again. Since then the complaints are the ordinary kind: echo and dropped calls on some home networks, stiff buttons for small fingers, and kids who lose interest if their friends do not have one. Tin Can offers 45-day returns.

For what the other home phones do differently, from Pinwheel Home to Ooma MyPhone, see the guide to every new kid phone.

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