Retro’s team launches Splat: an AI coloring-page maker that turns your own photos into kid-friendly line art, with anime-to-comic styles and print-ready output

## Splat, Retro, and the rise of AI coloring in Morocco Parents in Morocco know the drill. You search for a free coloring sheet and land on noisy, ad-crammed websites. Splat, a new AI-powered app from the team behind private photo-sharing service Retro, offers a cleaner route that turns your own photos into kid-ready line art. ## Why an AI coloring app like Splat matters TechCrunch describes Splat’s pitch in simple terms. Free coloring pages exist everywhere online, but many sites are messy or partly paywalled. That friction feels ridiculous when you just need a quick, disposable activity for kids stuck indoors. Moroccan parents face the same problem, often on slower connections and smaller data plans. Every extra click, pop-up, or video ad wastes bandwidth and patience. An app like Splat shifts the experience to something faster, more private, and centered on your own family moments. ## How Splat works: photo → coloring page Using Splat follows a familiar camera-app flow. You take a new photo or choose one from your phone’s library. Then you pick a transformation style, tap generate, and receive a clean, printable coloring-page version a few seconds later. The result can be saved for on-screen coloring or sent to any printer nearby. TechCrunch lists visual styles such as anime, 3D movie, manga, cartoon, and comic. Those presets change how sharp the lines look and how much detail remains. For example, an anime or manga style might exaggerate expression lines, while a cartoon style simplifies shapes for younger children. ## Built-in content, not just your own photos In case you do not want to use personal photos, Splat ships with its own image library. TechCrunch mentions themes like animals, space, flowers, fairy tales, robots, and cars, along with other kid-friendly options. That library lets parents in Morocco pull up a quick worksheet for a space-obsessed child or a car fan without extra searching. Personal photos keep kids more engaged, especially when the scenes come from their own lives. A Moroccan parent could snap a picture from a weekend in Chefchaouen, a visit to Hassan II Mosque, or a family couscous lunch. Splat then turns those memories into line art that children can color while talking about culture, language, and family stories. ## Onboarding and the “in a pinch” coloring mode Splat’s onboarding is tuned for busy adults. Instead of forcing a long sign-up form, the app walks you through setup while you create the first coloring page. You choose an app icon, pick content categories your child enjoys, and confirm whether they usually color on paper or on-screen. TechCrunch highlights an on-screen mode designed for those emergency moments. Think of restaurant waits, long car trips, or late-night power cuts when TV is not ideal. Instead of another video, a child can color right on the device, while parents keep control over what appears. ## Pricing, guardrails, and availability After one free AI generation that demonstrates the workflow, Splat switches to a subscription model. TechCrunch reports a weekly plan priced at $4.99, which includes 25 pages each week. The annual plan costs $49.99 and offers 500 pages per year. In-app payments and settings sit behind a gate that asks for the parent’s birth year, reducing the chance of accidental taps by children. According to TechCrunch, Splat is available on both iOS and Android. That makes it easy for parents to generate pages on a smartphone and then print them at home or in a copy shop. Moroccan users should check local app stores for availability and localized pricing in their region. For Moroccan families, subscription pricing always meets a budget question. Some households may share one plan across several children, printing pages in bulk. Others might treat a week’s access like a school-holiday tool, then cancel until the next break. ## Part of a bigger “genAI for kids” wave Splat sits inside a broader movement toward generative AI tools for children. TechCrunch notes similar experiments, including printed AI-generated stickers for coloring and toys that adjust personality over time. Together, these products push AI away from simple chatbots and into hands-on creative play. For Morocco, that shift matters. Children encounter AI not only as text on a screen, but as physical activities with paper, crayons, and scissors. Those experiences can make abstract concepts like algorithms and models feel more understandable later in school. ## Morocco’s growing AI context Morocco is steadily building capacity around AI, especially in education and research. Universities such as Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Benguerir invest in data science, robotics, and machine learning programs. Coding clubs and robotics workshops are appearing in more schools and youth centers, even outside major cities. Tools like Splat fit naturally into this trend because they show children AI as something creative and tangible, not mysterious. On the startup side, Moroccan founders are already experimenting with AI in fintech, logistics, tourism, and agritech. Experiences like Splat point toward another opportunity area: playful creativity apps rooted in local culture and language. A Casablanca or Rabat team could build Arabic and Amazigh coloring experiences, or story-making tools that reflect Moroccan characters, architecture, and folklore. ## Practical uses in Moroccan homes and classrooms In Moroccan homes, families might use Splat-generated pages in several ways. Parents can print weekly bundles featuring grandparents, favorite places, and pets, then use them as conversation starters. Teachers in private or public schools could design simple worksheets from classroom photos, then discuss observation, colors, or storytelling. Community centers and libraries might organize coloring sessions that reuse the same AI-generated templates many times. You could imagine pages based on Moroccan landscapes, traditional dress, or local markets, all created from everyday photos. Children color what they know, while adults add context about geography, history, or customs. The same blank outlines also work for cutouts and craft projects, which TechCrunch notes as another use case. ## Responsible use: privacy, ethics, and culture Any AI tool involving children raises familiar questions around privacy and content safety. Parents in Morocco should think carefully about which personal photos to upload and where they are stored. Keeping very sensitive images away from any cloud service is a good default. Adults also need to supervise results, making sure generated pages stay age-appropriate and respectful of cultural and religious values. Practical constraints still matter. Broadband and 4G coverage are improving across Morocco, yet many families juggle shared devices or limited data. Splat’s fast generation helps here because pages can be created in short sessions, saved offline, and reused without repeated downloads. ## Policy and ecosystem implications for Morocco For policymakers, Splat-type apps show why AI policy cannot focus only on big enterprise deployments. Everyday creativity tools influence how children first understand algorithms, automation, and data. Supporting local content creation, teacher training around digital tools, and open research on Arabic and Amazigh language models will help Morocco build its own versions. Clear guidance on children’s data protection and transparency expectations will also be essential. Parents and developers in Morocco should watch this space closely. Splat will not solve every rainy weekend or inspire every child. Yet it illustrates how generative AI can turn something as ordinary as a family photo into a playful activity, and how similar ideas could seed a new wave of Moroccan-made educational apps. ## Key takeaways - Splat turns personal and library images into printable or on-screen coloring pages using generative AI. - The app’s clean design, quick onboarding, and birth-year gate make it manageable for parents supervising young children. - For Morocco, Splat highlights new opportunities for AI in education, culture, and creative startups built on local content. - Responsible use still requires adult oversight, careful photo choices, and attention to data, screen time, and cultural values.