Chick-fil-A is now in the entertainment business. As a brand, they are creating original content in shows, games, music, and podcasts and showcasing it in their new app, Chick-fil-A Play.
The chicken-loving world has some questions: Do we need another gaming/entertainment app? Does Chik-fil-A’s entertainment hold up to the faith-filled and family-driven values the restaurant is known for?
Here are 5 Facts every parent needs to know about the new Chick-fil-A Play app.
#1 Family Time at Your Fingertips
Chick-fil-A released its new entertainment app on November 18, 2024. They proclaim it is your home for fun, family-friendly shows, games, and activities designed to help you spend more time with your favorite people. The app is free to download and play. Before playing, the user must agree to the privacy policy and terms and conditions. No email, age verification, or account creation is required.
Unlike many entertainment apps for children—even those with Bible-based content—Chick-fil-A Play boasts it is “fun for the whole fam.” This overarching goal of their app cannot be missed. They believe that screen time on the Play app with others is better than screen time alone. To that end, every “start” button within the app uses the language of “together” and “we.” Play Together, Read Together, Create Together. What reading level are we at?
It almost appears as though they know that families are on screens rather than in relationship with one another. Their solution is for Chick-fil-A to be a source of screen time, urging families to gather once again and at least engage the screen together.*
*More on this in the Biblical Considerations below.
#2 Watch and Listen
One of the Play app’s offerings is content to WATCH. Their original animated show, Evergreen Hills, is largely promoted, but they also offer some animated shorts of everyone’s favorite cows. According to media outlets, this section of the app is where the executives are spending the most attention. They have spent years developing Evergreen Hills and have more already in the works. At the app’s launch, there were only seven episodes to watch (five of Evergreen Hills and two of the cows).
There is also the option to LISTEN. The audio shows offered are essentially podcasts accessible through the app. At the app’s launch, Hidden Island is the primary draw, telling the story of a typical American family thrust into an extraordinary adventure full of wonder and mystery when they are shipwrecked on a fantastic island. A new episode comes out each week, so very much like regular podcasts. The app also announces an upcoming show, Ice Lions. Another original audio series inspired by the true story of the ice hockey team from Nairobi, Kenya.
#3 Play and Create
Another feature of the app is PLAY. Presently, there are four options within this category:
- Guess & Giggle – a charades-style game where the phone/tablet serves as the “card” that one team reads and then must act out or perform without speaking. A timer counts down on the screen while the other team tries to guess. When time is up, the turn passes along with the phone/tablet for the other team’s turn to perform.
- Conversation Starters – This game (if you can call it that) is a collection of questions to ask one another in order to stimulate conversation. The questions are categorized into various categories, such as Which of These, Favorites, Family, Friends, Kindness, Imagination, and Responsibility.
We reviewed the Chick-fil-A Play app while on a five-hour road trip and found these Conversation Starters quite stimulating. We spent at least 30 to 45 minutes reading, responding, sharing, and laughing in these questions and the conversation they produced.
- Go Go Cow – This is the only PLAY option that actually feels like traditional gaming. The object of the game is for the player to navigate a cow driving a car through obstacles while painting billboards along the way to their nemesis, Circus Burger’s headquarters.
For the record, I played once and did not succeed in getting to Circus Burger headquarters. The game is fairly basic, but note that there is very little “togetherness” available in it. It is a single-player game. - Word of the Day – This is exactly what it sounds like. A fun word (new or nuanced) is provided along with its meaning or definition. The Word of the Day is new every day, thus encouraging users to come back into the app each day. But there could be worse reasons – increasing vocabulary is a pretty solid reason to open the app each day.
There is also the CREATE feature of the app. This section has two main options for hands-on creativity.
- One way is through their recipe videos. These 10-15 minute videos showcase a parent and child using Chik-fil-A food as an ingredient in the featured recipe. The videos were a little YouTube-cheezy but achieved their goal of highlighting family togetherness.
- There are also craft options with thorough lists of supplies and directions for creation. The crafts are given a minimum age suggestion; most are 8+ and inform that “parental supervision is required.’ The options were unique and, again, achieved the goal of promoting family togetherness.
#4 Read
The READ section of the Play app is intriguing. There are about 20 books to choose from, and the user can choose to Follow Along Silently or Listen (while hopefully reading along) as the book is read to them. As the book is read, the beautifully well-done illustrations come to life.
The music playing behind the reading, while slightly obnoxious for the parent, is employed to enhance the story experience with multisensory engagement meant to hold their attention and evoke an emotional connection. This is the same way a Broadway score or movie soundtrack enhances the production.
The Follow Along Silently feature disables this and allows the child to read in a way that requires them to imaginatively create their own soundtrack. This feature helpfully allows the user to set the reading level so the pace of the story follows their reading skill.
However, one must consider whether this is advantageous or of greater value than a parent and child sitting together reading through a physical book and using their own voices and storytelling flair. While the app insists the content is meant to be engaged together with family – the READ feature seems better suited for a child to listen or read along with these stories independently (like when the mom or dad “needs” them to be distracted). Why have the app read when the parent can?
#5 App Rating & Review
Chick-fil-A Play: Made for ages 6-8
App Store: 4+
Google Play: E for Everyone
Brave Parenting: Content is safe for 5+, but it’s not necessary.
Overall, the Chick-fil-A Play app is one of the best apps of its kind that we have reviewed. Although there is no biblical or even Christian content, it is a straightforward app subtly promoting family values and quality time. It is beautifully designed with well-balanced content for both children and parents to engage with.
With that said, there are fundamental concerns we have with the app.
- Parents give their children screens so they don’t have to entertain or engage with them. Chances are, parents will not WATCH the content, READ along with the books, or LISTEN to the stories with their children. Chick-fil-A Play will be a “safe” app parents can hand over without regret or concern.
- All of the ways of engaging together as a family are available without a screen.
- Physical books can be read together.
- Imagination and emotion can be evoked without a soundtrack.
- Charades can be played from imagination or a board game.
- Crafts can be learned from a library book.
- Recipes can be read from a 5×7 index card
- Conversation starters can come from our hearts.
- Convenience rarely produces character. Problem-solving, resilience, and perseverance are all diminished when everything is available all of the time with little to no effort.
Biblical Considerations
Chick-fil-A’s Motivation
In their press release, CFA described their app as one “designed for parents and kids to share and experience together whether they are enjoying a meal at home, in the drive-thru, or anywhere in between.” There is a lot unsaid in this press statement. It’s worth unpacking why a family and faith-values-driven company is now promoting families to gather around a screen during a meal or while in the car.
The table and the car are two of the most common “no screen zones” recommended by organizations like ours. Meal time and car time are precious commodities where family members are seated together without the typical distractions of productivity. They are times of sharing, listening, laughing, and connecting. Or, at least, they should be.
It could be said that the Chick-fil-A Play entertainment app is a corrective response to the success of their original food-ordering (and reward-earning) app. Because everyone now orders their food through the app or drive-thru, fewer families are dining in. To extend CFA’s hospitality (and, in turn, loyalty) outside their (incredibly efficient) drive-thru and curbside services, they believe they can help their customers “feel safe and happy wherever they enjoy their chicken sandwich” (at home or in the car).
Chick-fil-A Brand Strategist Dustin Britt summarized the sad reality they must reckon with: “Content and games sit very adjacent to mealtime…if you watch or play something, you may be doing it during a meal. Sometimes you’re doing it on the way to a meal or sometimes while making a meal.” Basically, he is acknowledging that content consumption has overtaken family meals. Therefore, Chick-fil-A might as well be the brand everyone consumes (both food and entertainment).
The Problem and the Solution
The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church,
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive” (1 Corinthians 10:23).
As Christ followers living in a free market, we have immense freedom and access to every product or service the market can dream up. This is a beautiful gift from God, but one that we are charged with stewarding wisely. Just because we can use the Chick-fil-A app to promote family fun and togetherness does not mean it is the best or the only way to do this. Even though family time has been hijacked by personal screen entertainment, the solution is not screen entertainment together.
The handheld, internet-connected, personal screen has done more to separate families, dissolve marriages, breed hatred among Christians, deconstruct the faith of young believers, and addict children than any other human-made creation. The screen cannot be the problem and the solution.
The prophet Jeremiah saw similar cultural changes during his time and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke God’s message to the people:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16).
The path to holiness and the way toward rest for our souls is not always the newest technological advancement that boasts promises it cannot keep. Look and ask for the ancient paths!
Over the course of human history, what has consistently and faithfully solidified families with god-honoring values and loving relationships? Is it not spending authentic time together, whether waking up, eating, walking along the road, and lying down teaching and discipling children in the fear and admonition of the Lord? Hasn’t the “ancient” tradition of reading to children, whether from Scripture or from fictional literature, been quite effective in producing and advancing intelligence? Has childhood free play not produced imaginative and resilient members of society?
We are easily deceived into believing that this app or that convenience will save us – save us time, work, effort, hardship, pain, or even our children’s souls. The screen and all of its promised-filled apps are a common grace of God, but they can also be a snare of the enemy. Before you download another app, picture yourself at the crossroads described by God. Look for the ancient paths and ask where the good way is before you start walking.
The Chick-fil-A Play app is permissible but is not necessarily beneficial or constructive.
