When iHeartMedia envisioned an app for families and younger listeners, they recognized both a cultural and strategic opportunity: to lead the industry toward youth-first audio engagement. Partnering with TribalScale, they didn't just build an app—they created an emotional, visual, and interactive experience tailored for kids, setting a precedent in the media streaming space.
Impact Delivered
Challenge
Creating a family app isn’t just a matter of design—it’s also about trust, simplicity, and longevity. iHeartMedia needed a solution that would:
Stand out in a crowded OTT marketplace—especially as the first family-oriented streaming app in the category.
Delight young users through fun animation and guided interaction, without relying solely on audio.
Survive across evolving Fire TV devices—while ensuring seamless longevity.
Solution
TribalScale’s collaboration started with deep empathy and strategic alignment. We conducted executive workshops and user interviews, helping define what success looked like—before a line of code was written. We then used pair programming to execute quickly and feed user feedback continuously. Importantly, our process balanced creativity (to inspire kids) with technical foresight (to future-proof the platform).
Engaging Animations: We created four vibrant, animated backgrounds that brought the listening experience to life—praised by Disney for design flair and playfulness.
User Insight: Interactive discovery sessions with kids and parents shaped the app’s feature set and usability, ensuring emotional resonance.
Technical Innovation: Built as one of the first Fire TV-native apps, with deep-linking and multi-device continuity, ensuring longevity across new OS updates.
Iterative Launch: Post-MVP testing led to enhancements like a user-selectable background, blending interactivity with customization.
Tools and Technologies Used:
Kotlin
Fire TV
Leanback UI
Outcome
The iHeartRadio Family app didn't just launch—it planted a flag. It showcased iHeartMedia’s vision, reinforced TribalScale’s design leadership, and established a trusted cross-border partnership, resulting in 7 subsequent OTT projects together. The success resonated not just with families—but set a new standard for media streaming experiences.
Why It Matters
This collaboration illustrates how listening to a nuanced audience—kids and families—can lead to category-defining digital products. It wasn’t just a new app, but a new way to think about media interaction: safe, vivid, and emotionally resonant. That’s innovation done right.