Shimmer

A screen full of drifting light, that bends to your touch.

Press and hold, and the light wheels round your finger. Double-tap and hold, and it is drawn in and follows you as you drag — let go, and it bursts out in a shockwave. Triple-tap and hold, and you take hold of the light itself: move it anywhere, flick, and let go to throw it.

That is the whole of it. There is nothing to win and nothing to finish — just light to play with.

THREE POWERS

• Whirlpool — press and hold. The light wheels round your finger in a ring.

• Nova — double-tap and hold. The light is drawn in; let go and it bursts.

• Comet — triple-tap and hold. The light goes wherever your finger goes, and flies on when you let go.

Every finger makes a power of its own, so two hands can hold two whirlpools at once, or a whirlpool and a nova.

HEAR IT AND FEEL IT

Every touch makes a sound — a hum that rises as a whirlpool grows, a tone that tightens as a nova charges, the rush of a comet, the thump of a burst. They are all in one key, so any touches at once sound as if they belong together. Your finger feels the light it is holding as a run of pulses that quicken as the light moves faster.

NO EDGES

Light that leaves one side of the screen comes back on the other, so nothing is ever out of sight.

MAKE IT YOURS

Tune changes how each power behaves — how hard it pulls, how far it reaches, how it lets go — and how the light drifts when nothing is touching it. Pick its colors from fourteen, or double-tap one to have only it. Slow currents move the light underneath: a whirl and a sway to start with, and eddies, a breeze and lanes to add.

A LIGHT THEME AND A DARK ONE

Not one inverted into the other — two designs, each drawn for the light it is in. On dark the light glows; on light it is laid down like ink. The switch is in the corner.

NO CATCHES

No ads. Nothing to buy. No account, and no sign-in. The app asks for one permission — the one that lets your finger feel the light — and it has no internet access at all, so it works on a plane and nothing you do in it leaves the phone.

Sound and vibration can each be turned off. Your settings are still there when you come back.