An adult understands that learning a habit takes repetition and consistency. But words like “repetition” and “consistency” don’t register well in a child’s vocabulary. For them, they’re grown-up words. But what if you could build a habit in your child without making it feel like a chore? See, things like brushing their teeth, saving money, and following a routine are all things parents want their children to learn, but getting them to actually do them is a whole different ball game. Hueue, a Kerala-based company building products around children’s everyday habits, is trying to change that by turning these routines into interactive experiences.
Making habits more interesting for children
Cyril, one of Hueue’s co-founders, is an industrial designer who has spent years working on physical and electronic products. His experience includes everything from washing machines and mobile phones to headphones and other consumer electronics.
When he started thinking about Hueue, he wanted to solve a persistent problem he had noticed in everyday life. And it started with observing children. Children don’t always understand why they need to build certain habits. Take brushing your teeth. A parent can tell a six-year-old that not brushing properly could lead to cavities, but cavities are not exactly a compelling reason for a child to spend two minutes brushing their teeth.
“For a 6 or 7-year-old, cavities, they don’t care much,” Cyril says.
The same applies to saving money. Putting a rupee into a piggy bank every day may be a sensible thing to do, but it isn’t necessarily as exciting to a child as buying a chocolate. “So, I started thinking how can we make these things more interesting for kids or for anyone,” Cyril says. “How can it be more interesting?”
That question eventually led him to gamification.
“I have always felt that almost all the habits we struggle with as adults, even if it is like saving money or following a routine, everything starts from the lack of following that habit when we were kids,” Cyril says.
Cyril initially started building Hueue largely on his own. But as the idea became more technology-driven, he needed someone who could help with the software and electronics required to make the products smart. That brought his longtime friend Khaleel Gibran into the company.
The two have known each other for more than a decade and have always talked about building something together. Khaleel initially came in to help Cyril with the technology, but soon became interested in the larger idea of building habits creatively. The two eventually decided to build Hueue together.
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Why Hueue wanted to go beyond habit charts
The first solution that came to mind was habit charts or habit trackers. And there are already plenty of habit charts and apps that parents can use to encourage children to follow routines. But Cyril felt that many of them came with the problem that required parents or children to constantly interact with them.
“If it is a habit chart or an app, you have to go and log it in that app. Either you need a parent or a mobile phone,” he explains.
The novelty could wear off quickly. Parents would stop updating the chart, children would stop using the app, and the habit-building system would eventually be forgotten. Hueue wanted to remove that extra step. He wanted to know what if the product itself could become part of the habit.
A child brushes their teeth, the product recognises that they have completed the task, and they immediately get something in return. “So, that could be another motivating reason for the kid to do that habit,” Cyril says. “Our instant reward is something that would motivate them to do the habit.”
That core idea became the larger idea behind Hueue. To build an ecosystem of products around habits children can develop from a young age.
The Hueue smart toothbrush
The first major product to emerge from that idea is a smart toothbrush.
Hueue experimented with an electric toothbrush that sits on a smart dock with a small display. When a child picks up the brush, the display starts a two-minute timer. But instead of simply counting down the seconds, a character on the screen guides the child through the brushing process.
The character tells them to brush the top of their mouth for the first 30 seconds, the bottom for the next 30 seconds, and the front for another 30 seconds. At the end, the child is reminded to clean their tongue.
The idea is to solve a surprisingly common problem where children may brush for two minutes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are brushing their entire mouth properly. “In our initial model, the kids were brushing for two minutes. But they tend to zone out after the first 10-15 seconds,” Cyril says.
After introducing the character and visual guidance, the founders found that children were covering more of their mouth and staying engaged for the full two minutes. And then there is the reward.
Children only receive points if they complete the entire two-minute brushing session. The points appear on the dock, along with mystery rewards and surprises that can later be redeemed through the Hueue app.
What can children do with their points?
The Hueue app has a shop where children can use accumulated points to redeem things.
But one of its more interesting features came directly from talking to children. It is called “Swap.” A child could, for example, collect 30 points and exchange them with their parents for 30 minutes of PlayStation or television time.
This feature came from a conversation with a child who wasn’t interested in buying things with his points. His parents already bought him the things he wanted. What he really wanted was permission to do things that were normally restricted. That conversation helped shape the way Hueue thinks about rewards. Instead of deciding what a child should want, the system allows families to decide what the reward means for them.
Children can also set longer-term goals, such as saving enough points for a Lego set, and work towards them over time.
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A piggy bank that works in a digital world
One of Hueue’s other products is built around another habit parents often want their children to learn how to save money.
The original piggy bank came with a savings book where children could record how much they saved each day. It also included simple lessons about money, including the difference between a need and a want. But when Hueue started selling the piggy bank, children and parents pointed out a problem the founders hadn’t initially considered. Children don’t necessarily receive physical cash anymore.
“So, kids were like, savings is good, but we don’t get any cash,” Cyril says. That led Hueue to explore a digital version.
The smart piggy bank allows children to set a savings goal, such as a bicycle or a game, while parents or others can contribute towards that goal digitally. The money can then go directly into the child’s bank account. It still has space for physical cash, making it a combination of the traditional piggy bank and a digital savings tool. Again, the underlying idea is less about technology for its own sake and more about making a familiar habit easier for children to understand and practise.
Building Hueue with parents and children
The product development process has been just as important as the technology. The founders didn’t want to build a product in isolation, launch it and then wait to see what customers thought.
“We did not want to make a product right away and put it out in the market. We wanted to build it with the parents and kids,” Cyril says.
Several features in the app have come directly from these conversations, including the Swap feature. Cyril says the app will continue to be upgraded based on feedback from parents and children, with larger changes planned as the company develops the final product.
What’s next for Hueue?
The smart toothbrush is currently the company’s main focus. Hueue planned its initial pilot batch for November, followed by pre-orders, with those batches expected to begin shipping later in 2027.
The company is also actively looking for investors, with the larger pilot intended to generate the data needed to demonstrate the potential of its products. But if Hueue works as the founders envision it, the toothbrush will only be the beginning. The bigger ambition is to create a range of products that help children build habits by making those habits interactive and rewarding.
You can check out Hueue here.
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