Tap to start
MUTEDtap, or say "Mute off"
Watercolor of a hand dropping a phone into a pumpkin, which then glows as a jack-o'-lantern.

Talking Jack-o'-Lantern

Put a phone inside a pumpkin and it talks to trick-or-treaters. It hears them, answers out loud, and glows as it speaks. No app to install.

  1. Get a free key from Google. About 2 minutes.
  2. Pick a character and a voice.
  3. Tap Start and put the phone in your pumpkin.

1. Your free Google key

The pumpkin's brain is an AI from Google. A "key" is a long code, like a password, that lets your pumpkin use it. Google's is free.

How do I get a key?
  1. Open Google AI Studio and sign in with any Google or Gmail account. Agree to the terms if it asks.
  2. Tap Create API key.
  3. Tap the copy button next to the long code.
  4. Come back here and paste it in the box above.

Have an OpenAI key? You can paste that instead (it starts with sk-). OpenAI isn't free. It costs a few cents per conversation, billed to your OpenAI account.

Your key stays on this phone. It only goes to Google (or OpenAI). Don't share it with people you don't know.

Using an old phone? Get the key on your main phone first. Tap Share my key there, then tap Scan a key on the old phone and point it at the code.

Point this camera at the square code on the other phone.

2. Pick a character

Tap a voice to hear it. The one you tap is the one it uses.

Match the visitor answers in the language people speak to it. If it switches languages by mistake, pick one language.

People can talk over the pumpkin and it stops to listen. If it keeps cutting itself off, turn this off.

Sound

Turn the phone's own volume all the way up first. If it's still too quiet (older phones often are), slide this up. Higher settings make the voice louder but a bit flatter. Tap a voice above to hear the difference.

Light

The screen glows in the lantern color and gets brighter as it talks. The flashlight can flicker too (always white), but only on Android phones in Chrome. iPhones use the screen.

Unlock everything

One payment of $1.99, yours to keep:

  • Any voice for any character. Free characters use their own voice.
  • Write your own character. Make it anyone you like.
  • Lantern colors. Red, green, purple, ghostly white, or any color you pick.
🎃 Unlock for $1.99
How the unlock works
  • It follows your AI key, not the phone. Paste your key in step 1 before you buy. Any phone using that key unlocks by itself, including phones you set up with Share my key.
  • Changing keys is fine. If an unlocked phone switches to a new key (or from Google to OpenAI), the new key unlocks too. One purchase covers up to 6 keys.
  • No account, no sign-in. We never see your key. Only a scrambled fingerprint of it, which can't be turned back into the key, is saved with your payment.
  • Payment is handled by Stripe. Your card details never touch this site.

Privacy

  • When someone talks to the pumpkin, what they say goes to Google (or OpenAI, if you use an OpenAI key) so it can answer.
  • This website doesn't record or keep anything. Your key and settings stay on this phone.
  • With a free Google key, Google may use what it hears to improve its AI.
  • If you buy the unlock, Stripe handles the payment. We keep only a scrambled fingerprint of your AI key with it, so your phones unlock automatically. We can't turn it back into your key.
  • Put a small "talking pumpkin" sign nearby so people know it's listening.

3. Set up the phone

  1. Turn brightness all the way up. Turn off auto-brightness.
  2. Stop the screen from turning off. iPhone: open Settings › Display & Brightness › Auto-Lock › Never. Also turn off Low Power Mode. Android: open Settings › Display › Screen timeout › pick the longest. Also turn off battery saver.
  3. Turn the volume all the way up and plug the phone in to charge.
  4. Optional: put yellow or orange tape over the flashlight for a warmer glow.
  5. Tap Start, allow the microphone when asked, and put the phone in the pumpkin with the screen facing out.

To mute it, tap the screen or say "Mute on" (or "Pumpkin, stop talking"). To unmute, tap again or say "Mute off" (or "Pumpkin, unmute"). Tap Settings in the corner to change things.