Yoto has added a new Green Button to its 4th Gen Yoto Player and Yoto Mini, and it fixes one of the most annoying parts of owning one. Kids can now play their favourite stories and songs without the card. No more turning the house upside down at bedtime because the one story they want is behind the sofa.
The Yoto Player 4th Gen costs £119.99 and the Yoto Mini 4th Gen costs £89.99. Both are on sale now from Yoto.
The lost Yoto Card problem
Any Yoto family will know the scene. It’s bedtime, your child wants one particular story, and the card is nowhere to be found. It might be in the car, under the bed or in a coat pocket at nursery.
Physical cards are a big part of why children love Yoto. They’re simple to use and give kids real control over what they listen to. But the more cards you collect, the more there are to lose, and the longer it takes to find the right one.
How the Yoto Green Button works
The Green Button sits on the side of both new players. Parents use the free Yoto App to add up to 20 favourites to it, and those favourites download onto the player.
Your child then twists the button to scroll through the titles, with each one’s artwork shown on the display. A press plays it, another press pauses it, and pressing and holding takes them back to the clock. No card needed.
You can fill it with almost anything from your Yoto library, including stories, music, podcasts, sleep sounds, timers and your own recordings. That means a bedtime story read by Grandma can be one twist away.
Separate day and night playlists
There are two playlists, one for daytime and one for bedtime, each holding up to 20 titles. Yoto Daily and Yoto Radio sit in the day playlist by default, with Yoto Sleep Radio and the Yoto Dreams bedtime podcast at night. Parents can change all of these in the app.
So the Yoto can be all about podcasts and silly songs at breakfast, then switch to calming stories and sleep sounds once it’s time to wind down.
Downloaded audio plays offline, which is handy in the car or on holiday. Radio stations and podcasts still need an internet connection.
Yoto Player 4th Gen vs Yoto Mini 4th Gen
Both players get the Green Button, a faster processor, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6.1 and 64GB of storage. That’s enough for more than 1,000 hours of audio, double the previous generation. Both have up to 16 hours of battery life and a two-year warranty.
Yoto Player 4th Gen (£119.99)
The full-size Yoto Player is designed for the bedroom. It has a 5W stereo speaker, a new full-panel night light and an okay-to-wake clock. It charges by USB-C or wirelessly.
Yoto Mini 4th Gen (£89.99)
The Mini is the portable option for car journeys and days out. It weighs 185g, is IP67 dust and water resistant and has been drop-tested 30,000 times. A wrist lanyard comes in the box.
What about older Yoto players?
The Green Button is a hardware feature, so you only get it on the new 4th Gen players. On older Yoto Players, a single press of the right-hand button does a similar job, playing one quick-access title, but there’s no playlist to scroll through.
Almost all existing Yoto Cards work on the new players, so your collection isn’t wasted. Interactive cards aren’t compatible yet, though Yoto says this is temporary.
Is it worth upgrading?
The cards aren’t going anywhere. They’re still how families discover new stories and how most people will give Yoto as a gift. The Green Button just means the favourites that get played every single night are always to hand.
Personally, the search for missing cards drives me mad – so I’m a massive fan of this upgrade.
