You’ve seen it all over social media — dogs or cats pressing buttons programmed with words spoken aloud by speakers, letting owners know what they want. Now, FluentPet, the company that synthesized the trend into something everyone can buy, has announced its sophomore release — FluentPet Connect.
FluentPet Connect will make it possible for pet parents to expand on the original HexTile system. Instead of just having one unit with buttons that can be used to train pets to associate words with meaning (e.g pressing a button that speaks ‘food’ and expecting food in return), there will be a central base tile with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that can connect to other units, so your dog can learn more than six words!
All of the tiles can be programmed and managed using the new control app. Each press of a button can now be recorded and logged on the app so pet parents can track which word buttons are being pressed most or least often. This can help in the learning process, and can tell you if your pets are more into food or playtime.
Each HexTile offers up to six buttons and come in different colors and interchangeable faceplates. Altogether, the new connected system enables more than a hundred words in six or more categories to be used during training. You can also use the app to customize each button and record audio, in case you want to use different words or play around with trying to get your pet to recognize and use phrases or sentences.
The design has also been made more durable to handle heavier paws and claws, and has a water-resistant build just in case a water bowl gets tipped over on it (don’t forget to program a button that says ‘oops my bad’).
Rather than put an individual, smaller speaker on each button, FluentPet has one larger speaker on each HexTile, which results in clearer, stronger sound that your pet will be more likely to recognize. It’s also rechargeable using a USB Type-C cable and can last about three weeks on a full charge.
Both the FluentPet Connect Base HexTile and the FluentPet Connect Expansion Hextile will begin shipping by spring 2022, and pre-orders are already being taken. The FluentPet Connect Base HexTile is priced at $70 while the expansion tiles are priced at $50.